Siliconchef by Brian Richardson
So the weekend was an adventure in home improvement. As with all home improvements, Suzan and I learned valuable lessons.
Regular readers (all four of you) will remember that my water heater died back in June. One of the side effects of the massive leak was water damage to the floor, which spread out of the water heater compartment into the floor of the master bathroom. The floor started to sag, the vinyl floor started to split open, and the sweet smell of mold started to emerge from the subfloor.
We had put this project off for weeks, mostly due to scheduling problems. We started in Saturday afternoon, ripping out the damp chipboard. We had to wear chemical-grade face masks, trying to keep the blue mold spores out of our lungs (mold allergies suck). It took a while to rip the floor out, since it comes out in moist chunks. Using a sawzall is risky, since the plumbing and electrical system in my house was laid out using principles of chaos theory … in fact, the electrical wiring for my water heater runs on top of the plumbing for the water heater. Cutting through wiring and plumbing is not my idea of fun.
Saturday evening ended with 50% of the new floor installed, a quick drive through dinner and collapsing in front of the television. Sunday morning was spent on an excursion to Commerce, where we met with Suzan’s dad and stopped by the Lodge Cast Iron outlet to pick up some new cookware. Sunday afternoon saw the resumption of hostilities against the bathroom floor.
Sunday evening concluded the installation of the new fllor surface, albeit a bit shorter than the original floor due to a difference in materials. We still have to install new vinyl flloring, put the toilet back, caulk and install new trim (pictures will follow soon). But I did learn one important lesson this weekend …
… never burp into your face mask.
Black mold (the kind that was growing on the floor) is not an allergen. It’s a poison. Symptoms of excessive exposure include neurological problems, memory loss, congnitive disruption and respiratory distress. Fortunately, it’s not particularly strong when it’s actively growing (like on our floor) but when it starts forming spores it can be deadly. I will be sealing the cracks in the floor with Great Stuff and a 10% bleach solution (one of the few things that will kill black mold) prior to installing the linoleum.
THAT is why I insisted on the bathroom floor being done this weekend.
Hmmm. Death by remodeling, not tops on my list. Glad to hear y’all won’t be taking any quick trips to ground level, though.
You need to take this very seriously.
I have added a link to
http://www.geocities.com/torontotenants/blacktoxicmold.html
which has lots of great info on this subject.
It was predominantly Aspirgillus and was mostly in the growing phase so there weren’t TOO many spores. We did use biological-grade face masks, rubber gloves and disposed of all the affected material. Everything that stayed got a good dose of bleach solution before the new floor was installed.
Thanks for the link. It one of the better sites that I’ve seen on the subject.
Being a biologist with the Environmental Health Dept. does have a few advantages.