MOLD is taking over my closet! Please help!

[RemSaverem]

Seriously does anyone know what I can do to win the horrifying battle against mold taking place in my closet? I've been scrubbing all day with white vinegar. Believe me I would MUCH rather have been at the meeting. But 6 loads of laundry later there are already some spots of mold that just won't come off the walls. Some green, some brown. Has this happened to anyone else? Is this just part of living in Oregon?? I never saw this in Chicago. Not even in when my dad's basement flooded!

[dakiro]

its what happens a place gets really cold and damp/humid for a long time i think. one of places i lived in had the washer and dryer in a add on room that wasn't heated and we had really bad mold along one of the outer walls =\

[jaybug]

Are you trying to feed the mold? Vinegar won't kill mold. Use bleach straight out of the bottle. Also, put a heater in the closet. And if you have one, a UV sunlamp. UV is about the only thing to kill mold. Also, find out where the moisture is coming from. Mold has a harder time growing in dry places. If there is water running down the inside of the outer wall, you need to fix the roof and wall or something like that.

Also, don't stuff the closet full of stuff. Keep air circulating in and out of the closet. Mold likes calm air, especially if it is moist.

Good luck. Make sure your dryer is drying things well. Or your clothes will contaminate everything. And you will make your mold allergic friends have problems. Because you are a mold carrier.

I just remembered, if you have a sheetrock type of wall, the mold is growing on the paper lining of the sheetrock. The only way to remove this kind of mold, is to remove and replace the sheetrock. Any attempts at treatment, will only moisten the paper, furthering mold growth.

[RemSaverem]

Wow. Thank you both for writing. At first I thought well maybe this is happening because I hung my coat up in the closet after walking home from work in the rain. Then I thought no, it was happening before I started even wearing my winter coat. One possibility is that it's happening because when they put the wood floor in
(after I personally tore out the carpet because it flooded)
they neglected to put wood floor in the closet, it is just exposed concrete, which we have covered with blankets.
How would I know if sheetrock is what I have?
Vinegar feeds mold?? Really??? Wierd.
Undiluted bleach? I would think that would be dangerous to touch or breathe?
How can I tell if the mold I have is the "bad" kind?
How can I tell if its spores are still in clothes--or the air?
We do not have a space heater, the heater in the bedroom does not work. I do not have UV lighting, nor know where to get it. Is it the same as a "blacklight" like you'd find for looking at psychedelic posters at head shops??
(for the record I'm not a stoner)
Was the mold related to the laundry room ever abated?

[melchizedek]

Is it the same closet with the dryer?  Make sure that that every time you do laundry the closet doesn't get all steamy, if that is the case the dryer might not be connected well and instead just steaming up your house

[dakiro]

mel: your confusing my post with hers >.>

rem: i dont remember if we ever solved that mold problem =\

[RemSaverem]

I'm in an apartment complex. The washer & dryer are across the hall.
I ran a second rinse on all close and dried all for 70 minutes--except for fragile items that I had to hand wash and drip dry. Do those need to be dry cleaned?

[Wuntvor]

Mold is never a good thing.  Here is a link that will help you.

http://www.doityourself.com/scat/moldmildewc

The How to treat & clean mildew damage is pretty informative.  Here is the best part...

If mold or mildew is present on painted surfaces, they can also be scrubbed with a solution of 1 quart chlorine bleach, 1 tablespoon of liquid dishwashing detergent, and 9 quarts of water.  Do not add ammonia to this solution.  Use a sponge to treat the affected area, and always rinse with plenty of water.  Dry the area thoroughly when all traces of mold have been removed.  Always work in a well ventilated area, and be aware of the fumes, which can be very powerful.

If wallpaper is damp and shows signs of mildew and mold, heat or air condition the room to dry the wallpaper.  Sponge the affected areas with a cloth and a liquid dish soap, and rinse with clear water.  If the stain persists, use the bleach solution mentioned earlier, and be sure to test in an unseen area.  Be careful not to over saturate the wallpaper so that it doesn't bubble or lift.  Dry thoroughly with terry cloth towels when finished and all traces of mold are gone.

Mold cleanup specialists advise that you should not attempt to clean up large areas of mold.  If you think the job will be much trouble for you, or are concerned about using cleaning solutions, leave the removal of mold to the professionals.  They can also do an assessment of your home to help you identify areas that are affected by mold, and draw up a plan for you to repair suspected areas.  Large patches of mold always indicates some type of water leakage in the home, and should be taken care of as quickly as possible to prevent further damage.

This help any?

If the area is constantly dark and damp, you may consider painting with a mold & mildew resistant paint like KILZ.  You can find it at most hardware stores, like Jerry's or Home Depot, and at major convenience stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Bi-Mart, and Fred Meyer.

Good luck!

[superjaz]

yeah i hope you are using a mask or somthing for you health
since you live in a apartment i would contact the management as it could be harmful or in the walls, your neighbors could have it too

 mold is no joke really call them

my friend's brother was in training in the army and just was acepted into the airforce and his barracks had mold growing in the walls so badly that you could see both inside and out side, and he had a reaction from it and went to the hospital with resptory problems and he died 3 days later, she feels like the army killed her brother thru neglect

[jaybug]

I think they didn't do a proper job of abatement after the flooding problem. They didn't ensure that everything was dry. But then after flooding you should replace sheetrock, not hope for the best.

Checking for sheetrock. Most apartment complexes have it. Either that or they are using a concrete block wall. If you rap it with your knuckles, and it goes knock knock knock, and you don't hurt yourself, it's probably sheetrock. Also, if you can drive a nail into it.

Can you put your finger through the wall? Even if it's sheetrock, it shouldn't allow you to do that. If it even feels soft have it replaced.

Sheetrock acts as a wick when the floor is flooded. And then as a sponge after the water has drained. Paint only hampers the drying process.

I had a problem similar, but it was on the front wall of the living room, not in a closet. The gutter upstairs wasn't draining properly, wasn't installed properly, so water would run down the wall. Eventually it soaked the inside wall, and I could put a finger through the wall. So they replaced the gutter system, and then re-sheetrocked the inside of my living room wall. Re-painted with Kilz primer, then interior latex housepaint. Eventually we got the carpet replaced.

Chlorine bleach has been used in household laundry for a century or so. The only problem is as Wuntvor stated, mixing it with ammonia, which releases deadly chlorine gas. So don't go spilling any in the cat box!

If you have mold, you have spores. The only good molds, are the ones you eat.

It isn't so much that vinegar feeds mold, it just isn't very effective at killing it, and if it doesn't kill you it only makes you stronger, is how mold acts. It is a decomposer or organic material, and vinegar is organic. Chlorine isn't so much organic. Although you need some to digest your food. But that is what table salt is for.

Also, have them fix the bedroom heater. In fact report all problems to be fixed. A broken heater may be the cause of a fire later on you know. It may not be so much broken, as a wire is loose, which causes the fire.

Keeping the room dry and to a normal warm temperature will do a lot for making mold more tolerable.

[Prinz Eugen]

You can mix the following two liquids and two powders into a VERY POWERFUL mold killer.
We fought off odors in our basement carpets during the last big floods a few years back.
And its CHEAP to make. Items a, b, & c you can get at a typical supermarket or retail pharmacy chain. (d) is tricky but I'll give you some tips.

a) 12 oz Hydrogen Peroxide (usually 3% strength)

b) 12 oz 90% rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol

c) a heaping tablespoon of baking soda

d) a heaping tablespoon of tri-sodium phosphate, or TSP.

A few years back the greenie-weenies took TSP off the shelves in Oregon because it works great.
(See also malathion and chlordane insecticides, and calcium hypochlorite for pools... they ban all the GOOD stuff!)

You can order real TSP online from other states and have it shipped in, or you can get the real stuff at paint supply stores. Most hardware stores will try to steer you to buy counterfiet TSP under the brand name "TSP-90" which is actually 90% sodium bicarbonate and we already have that in item (c) above.

TSP is handy around the house anyways, You can use it to add back in the phosphate cleaning power of real laundry detergents our grandparents used and which was also taken away by the enviro-whackies. Cost is about 8 cents a load. Also good for cleaning stains on concrete, like if you park your car in a garage and you leak a few drops of oil.

The a-d mixture is colorless and clear. Pour it into an old spray bottle, and schpritz wherever you smell an odor. Try not to get electronics with it as the mix may create a corrosive scale on copper contacts. Do not spray it into electric outlets, or finished metal surfaces you find pretty, because it may corrode some metals.

As long as you don't mind the initial alcohol smell, this mix is very astringent and unfriendly to mold and bacteria. Try a little bit outside if you are unusually allergic or sensitive. Contains no chlorine or ammonia. Also, unlike bleach it won't attack dyed fabric colors.

[jaybug]

If you can find some 20% H2O2, use it as rocket fuel! Or to bleach your paper white. Also, bleach your own hair as you use it! It's that powerful, and it's only 20%.

So how has the battle been going anyway? Any luck with the landlord?

[Prinz Eugen]

If you can find some 20% H2O2, use it as rocket fuel!

According to a friend of mine who is an ATFE licensed mfr of high explosives (he uses the license to modify imported fireworks, btw)  he says that you used to be able to get 20% - 30% H202 but that was quietly taken off the shelves for exactly the reason you cite - it's a hell of an oxidizer for improvised, home-made anti-social concoctions.

I have a book from 1965 explaining liquid fuels for home/hobby rocketry. This was back in the bad old days before Estes and Century made reasonably safe model rockets and solid propellant motors you can still buy in hobby stores today. In the bad old days, kids (just like the two unsupervised kids at Columbine who made a bunch of pipe bombs) would blow their fingers, hands and eyes away doing things like cramming tons of cut-off match heads (the strike-anywhere type) into stupid containers like glass jars.

These sorts of mixes would be excellent at removing mold - mostly by moving bits and pieces of your building (that happend to have mold on them) a very long ways away and in lots of teeny pieces:

The BASF factory accident of 1921, which set off about 3000 TONS of ammonium nitrate they happened to have piled up 'out back behind the factory.'
Damn!

But you can (nb: 'can' = 'possible,' but not necessarily 'legal,') make rocket propellants using H2O2 as oxidizer plus fuel. Biggest bang for your weight seemed to be HYDRAZINE, though nitromethane comes close. The key term here is 'specific impulse.'

If you want to see how hard it is to control the combustion of a two-liquid mixture, watch all those old stock footage clips of the accidents the US had while developing the Mercury-Redstone rockets.

Good luck with the mold, don't do anything illegal or dangerous, don't mix hypergolic compounds in confined spaces, don't use a cutting torch in the roof of an ammonium perchlorate factory,** and don't blow things up - it's usually a felony.


** The PEPCON blast  in Henderson Nevada 1988; magnitude 3.5 on the Richter scale. Another great place NOT to be right there at the time...

[jaybug]

Phosphate, I think some grocery stores still carry it in the laundry aisle. It'll be right next to the borax.

TSP, I got some at a hardware store last year, it was not TSP substitute. Aren't matches phosphorus based? Soak them in your cleaning solution?

Maybe some things you just have to get out of the major metropolitan areas.

Hydrazine, used in some boiler dry lay-ups, when your boiler is not going to be lit for longer than 30 days.

I still like the idea of UV lamps in  the closet. Closet tanning booths, for the Goth/Emos who don't want their friends to know. lol