Mold?

Long story short. Nasty smell coming out of one of the bathrooms. I got up under the house and found this.




And this!


No that's not burnt, tub must have leaked sometime in the past. I've been pretty good with caulking but I guess not good enough or soon enough.

Is this something i'm going to have to rip out the bathroom over or is it a DIY?

 

Hard to tell from the pictures, but if the wood is rotted, it obviously needs to be replaced. Surface mold can be taken care of by filling a spray bottle with some bleach, and giving it a good blast. Hope this helps.

 

That sucks to see. Black mold is no good. As a journeyman carpenter, I would say unless your comfortable ripping the bathroom apart by yourself, I would hire it out. Every single Reno I’ve been part of ends up being more work than expected.

That being said, if there aren’t any structural issues, mold is safe unless disturbed into a dust form.

if you do try and hit it yourself. Soak everything with bleach first. PPE PPE PPE!

 

Also if you do this, the Reno area will need to be contained from the rest of the house so nothing else gets mold spores on it. (Including your lungs).

 

Youtube vids!

 

This stuff is much better than bleach

https://www.lowes.com/pd/concrobium...VlP5kCh1ZLAkXEAQYASABEgJkjfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

Bleach won’t kill that. My cousin used to do Mold Abatement work. Use Vinegar on it.

 

My wife will love that, she uses it to clean everything but complains about BBQ having too much vinegar.

I looked up my homeowners policy last night, I got mold damage coverage, actual rider on the policy. I'll be calling insurance guys today and get an appraiser out.

 

Have the mold tested to see what kind it is: THAT will determine the extent of the problem and necessary remedy.

Don't rely upon someone else's OPINION.

Test it.

Usually, it can just be cleaned up and the bad wood replaced, but, given that it is your FAMILY, I'd test.

Some states have worse problems than others with bad kinds of mold: where I live, it's usually not the bad kind.

However, you wouldn't want the bad stuff getting distributed throughout your house via your heating system.

Of course, some kinds of mold spores are in the air all the time.

Since you have insurance, tell them you want to test it. [It's not that expensive, anyway.]