Mattphi Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 For those who may have seen my Facebook statuses in the last week...here's what they're all about. So we've been in a rental house for a little over a month now and we've found that we have a huge mold problem. We noticed that the house has had a moisture / humidity problem since the start but just recently we've started noticing mold growing around the house and we've gotten really sick. The landlord kept assuring us that there was "natural humidity" in the house and that us calling in an air quality specialist was not needed. We had mentioned that the AC seemed to not be working properly AND that there was some grout work that needed to be done in the shower, since a lot of it was cracked and water was getting behind it. They put off the maintenance requests for 2-3 weeks because they "couldn't make it over" and all these other BS excuses. Finally, I noticed some small mold spots growing in random places and called. She sent out a "specialist" and they assured us that nothing was wrong, and that the house was fine. A few days later I noticed mold on a wooden chest in the living room and investigated the rest of the house and this is what I found (see photos). They narrowed down some big leaks to the shower and have since started ripping it out. In this time, the spores have traveled across the house, to my office, and have completely covered my couch in there. Along with that, we've found mold on kitchen cabinets / closet items / living room pieces / etc. We've removed the animals from the home and have since been staying in a hotel until we can find another house to rent (we have a couple applications in on new places already). They're working with us to get the deposits back and have said they will "take care of the cleaning and moving" of everything to the new place, but I'm worried about permanent damage to our health and possessions. Has anyone been through this before or have any experience with this type of thing? Here's some of the damage: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikS Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Yuck! If you want to save the couch and furniture, you'll need to vacuum and then spray the entire thing down with rubbing alcohol, then let it dry in the sun. I would just toss it and have the landlord pay the damages though. Do you have renters insurance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobT5M Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Ew. id make them buy you a new couch. Everything else looks cleanable. Bad luck man, seems like the landlord didnt care, last 2 weve had if anything was wrong they were over same day, or if it was bad enough they had someone there within the hour to fix it, or just applied it to the rent if we went ahead with it. Sucks in FL its pretty hard to find renters insurance :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmsgltr Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 who is "we"? damn. that is CRAZY mold. I would be miserable in their with my allergies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunktified Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 oh man,, that sucks.. !! I would move .. or have them put you up in a hotel while professionals deal with everything .. .. speaking of professionals dealing with this, did they seal off the shower area before tearing it apart? If not the spores are going to get everywhere, although it looks like that's the case already .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorse Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 Holy shit. That bathroom is fucking nasty. That blows man, sorry to see this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt b Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 My sister in law has had similar issues, in the same climate. She did not have any long term effects, no issues in getting her money back and some compensation from the apartment management company for the issues. But she's cool and won't jump down anyone's throat to get things resolved. She's more the quiet but persistent type. I'm with Erik: see if they'll spring the $800-$1,000 to buy a new couch. Chairs and other wooden items won't have any long term issues but I suspect the couch will always have stains. I hope it works out, they were idiots for letting the shower get like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEU Posted October 8, 2012 Report Share Posted October 8, 2012 In my old condo that I rehabbed. I noticed mold in the shower and had some tiles coming loose, so I pulled everything down to discover the same thing in your pictures. I was able to contain it to just the bathroom and only worked in there with respirator mask. Yours must be so much worse with your climate too, I think I did mine in winter so it didn't spread outside of the bath. I'd toss couch, everything else you could salvage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Dastardly Posted October 9, 2012 Report Share Posted October 9, 2012 make sure they go through the WHOLE apt.Check carpeting and closets. You will find clothing (especially shoes and belts) and anything that your body touches will grow mold. It can be a pain to get rid of. Once it gets cleaned up make sure the AC is working properly and I would for sure get a dehumidifier.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fudge_Brownie Posted October 9, 2012 Report Share Posted October 9, 2012 I think I've rattled this off before, so it might sound familiar : Before purchasing my place, I had mold concerns raised by the inspector, and the basement had flooded with a few inches of water while it was unoccupied. Mold inspection was $75. We did not do an air sample test, and I think that costs quite a bit more. The inspector had moved up here from the south (Louisiana? That area) after my area had some flooding problems a couple years ago and spiked the demand for the job. The companies he'd worked for in the past specialized in "remediation" of molded homes. I'm sure the same goes for personal possessions but is much easier. I remember several words of advice that stuck out. Mold can't grow without moisture. If you can dry out the material, you can get rid of the mold. The specialist's job is to tell you if it is likely that it can be dried, how hard it will be based on the material (and therefore how much it will cost). They use meters that will "prong" in to things like sheetrock, or simply sniff the air. There's a cut off of "ok, dry enough that nothing can grow". So if you have the couch's wood tested, and it's fine, but only the material is the damp stuff, that will likely dry out quickly in a dry environment. Oh, and he said there's typically three colors that represent the many kinds of mold. White, green, and black. And true black (non-mildew) mold was the only kind that really scared him. The gist here is a PDA for anyone that an independent inspector is probably cheap and popular in your humid climate. The inspectors can also usually write up quotes to fix. Depending on how much stuff you have, you might want to try and pick your own mold company to talk with and see if they can tell you what can be saved and what shouldn't. Not sure what your situation is with your landlord, but mention this is not an insurance deal, and that you don't care about fixing a home, only a truck full of stuff. Full on home "saves" are thousands, so they might scare you at first with some of the numbers initially thrown out, especially if they think an insurance company will be picking up the tab. Where's chuck at? He loves a moldy home. He keeps them nearest and dearest in his heart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mesoam Posted October 9, 2012 Report Share Posted October 9, 2012 Had this happen at my last place, needed to run a large dehumidifier basically 24x7...Eventually I got out of my lease Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leo850T5 Posted October 10, 2012 Report Share Posted October 10, 2012 That black mold in your bathroom is awful... Definitely NOT normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bum2kev Posted October 10, 2012 Report Share Posted October 10, 2012 looks like the tile is right up against the sheetrock, complete fail. When I bought my apartment complex first thing i did was rip out all the showers and did a proper job. One of the units someone decided that particleboard with some wood glue was a good enough backer. Good luck with getting everything all straightened out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmartinlsmith Posted October 10, 2012 Report Share Posted October 10, 2012 RUN TO Z HILLS! Matt that is a total bummer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattphi Posted October 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2012 Basically they used regular drywall in the shower, rather than "green board" or whatever. It's all good though, since we put a deposit down on a new place yesterday. Super nice spot with TONS of space and everything has been updated. We're really looking forward to it. I feel really bad for whoever moves in there next because they basically covered up spots that needed to be covered and short changed everything, and they're wanting to "move someone else in ASAP". I will let everyone know what happens with the whole fiasco but we're going to be moving next weekend. Here are a few shots of the new place, but they don't really do it justice. It's amazing in person. Full IKEA storage in the closet, completely renovated everything, lots of natural light, a hot tub, fire pit, etc. We love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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