Learn Me, if You please: Mold Mitigation in the home.

Like the title says, who knows what about how to kill mold, in this case, in the basement. 

To give a little more info, I am not a stranger to this. I have removed drywall, replaced studs, bleached the E36 M3 out of what was left, applied KILZ, and finally recovered with mold resistant drywall. I have also had excellent luck with the spray on mold killer from the hardware store. I suppose, the question is really, what do the professionals do? You know, "Restoration Services" I believe they spray chemicals, apply heat via fans, maybe put lights on it for days. Who knows stuff?

I found a house, and the ad says it has basement mold. That's all I know. The price is right, and I thought some knowledge before I go look might be beneficial. Thank You in advance.

NOT a picture of the actual house!

We use commercially available mold killers and some heavy duty drying fans.  The big thing is killing the source of the mold - ie stop the moisture and/or stop giving the mold stuff to stick to.  We can speculate all we want but until you go look who knows.  I’ll say that way too many basements are finished that shouldn’t be.

In reply to wheelsmithy : in big cases they remove everything to the studs.  Use dry ice to blast the mold,  vacuum,  and then flood with bleach,  finally go with the Kilz  

The bleach isn’t just laundry bleach but a more commercial grade that requires a suit and oxygen. 

It's all just a band-aid until you manage the water issue.  Take a critical look as to how the house is sited.  I've seen plenty of houses that I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole based on its relationship to the land upon which it sits. 

Are you gonna borrow money to purchase this?

Lender is gonna want remediation performed by a licensed certified professional. 

In reply to SVreX :

That's the thing. It is right at the limit of what I could pay cash for. I did a walk around this afternoon. Good roof. It is not too bad. My belief is that it is an unfinished basement. The grand scheme would involve fixing the house up a bit, then borrow money against its value to build a shop. 

The house is currently tagged as "mold problem" 

Svrx says the bank will want pros to assure the bank the house was fixed right. 

You say, I'll pay cash, fix myself, and then borrow money against house once it's done. 

I expect the bank will not lend you anything because the earlier work was not done by pros and therefore the house remains tagged as "mold problem". 

In reply to John Welsh :

Good advice, but I am not above paying the pros to do their thing. Your point regarding being blacklisted as a moldy house is especially poignant. All feedback is greatly appreciated.

In reply to John Welsh :

There’s no “mold database” they would look the house up in. I bought a mold house. Just took the signs down when the appraiser came through. No problems. 

On mold remediation, to save some cash I did the drywall and insulation demo myself. Ended up having to replace some sheathing too. Then I had the pros come in and fog the house for mold - I used Servpro and the product they used was Modec MD400. It did a hell of a job. The house stank of mold before and was uncomfortable to be in; afterwards it smelled like a dentists office for a week or two and then like nothing. No mold smell and no dank. I think the bill was about $800 for a big house and it was 100% worth it. 

Now, I did also do the moisture incursion repairs before all this other stuff. Mainly that  was cleaning and repairing or replacing gutters and downspouts and cleaning out the undergrounds. (Subterranean gutter drains.) everything was plugged up and hadn’t been cleaned in a decade. It’s astonishing how much damage that can do to a house. There were also a few roof leaks and those were dealt with by replacing the roof. There were some minor grading issues that I fixed with a couple of pickup loads of top soil but they probably could have been ignored in the end. I also did some epoxy injection around some pipe entry points that were below grade and were leaking when it rained. I bet that would have gone away with all the other work we did but I felt it was cheap insurance. No more water problems unless I let the gutters get clogged in one particular spot. At least that’s going into unfinished space. But I do have some gutter guards to put up and try out there. 

dculberson said:

In reply to John Welsh :

There’s no “mold database” they would look the house up in. I bought a mold house. Just took the signs down when the appraiser came through. No problems. 

On mold remediation, to save some cash I did the drywall and insulation demo myself. Ended up having to replace some sheathing too. Then I had the pros come in and fog the house for mold - I used Servpro and the product they used was Modec MD400. It did a hell of a job. The house stank of mold before and was uncomfortable to be in; afterwards it smelled like a dentists office for a week or two and then like nothing. No mold smell and no dank. I think the bill was about $800 for a big house and it was 100% worth it. 

Now, I did also do the moisture incursion repairs before all this other stuff. Mainly that  was cleaning and repairing or replacing gutters and downspouts and cleaning out the undergrounds. (Subterranean gutter drains.) everything was plugged up and hadn’t been cleaned in a decade. It’s astonishing how much damage that can do to a house. There were also a few roof leaks and those were dealt with by replacing the roof. There were some minor grading issues that I fixed with a couple of pickup loads of top soil but they probably could have been ignored in the end. I also did some epoxy injection around some pipe entry points that were below grade and were leaking when it rained. I bet that would have gone away with all the other work we did but I felt it was cheap insurance. No more water problems unless I let the gutters get clogged in one particular spot. At least that’s going into unfinished space. But I do have some gutter guards to put up and try out there. 

Exactly,  once you think things through mold is a solvable problem.  Too often the word mold leads to hysteria and it can’t be fixed!  Mentality. 

European  timber frame homes with thatch roofs have been dealing with mold for well over 500 years.   Yet they are still proudly standing and with modern methods last a century or more without anything more than cosmetic updating. 

I have found that a product called Multiquat is fantastic for killing mold.  Industrial, and you have to buy what would be a lifetime supply, but worth it.  I had some mold issues in my shop.  Metal building, too, so no sheetrock to worry about.  I load up a HF spayer with the diluted Multiquat and blast it around.  No more mold problems.

Now, on your house, well, a professional solution would probably be best, especially if you can get it for eight bills.