Most of us are familiar with using products on our tub surrounds to either keep mold away or get rid of it once it shows up. Mold is one of those creepy crawly things that arrives unannounced and unwelcome. I have a client who got that welcome in a vacant house (I discovered it today). It’s on my mind so I’m blogging about it.
Whether or not you are selling your home, you don’t want mold, right? (We may not all agree on who should be President but I bet we can agree on that!)
Did you know a clothes closet is a common place for mold to start forming? Say you wear a shirt for an hour on a humid Summer day. You decide to hang it back up in the closet because well, you only wore it for an hour it’s not dirty! It probably isn’t dirty, but it is wet/damp. If you put that back in your closet and close the closet door, you can make the closet a welcoming host for mold. I’ve read suggestions that you let your clothes air out on a hook out in the open before you put things back in the closet.
Did you know almost all basement walls are porous, no matter what they are made out of (concrete block, poured concrete, brick, etc). You need to keep air moving in your basement. Not hard if you have air conditioning or heat vents at work down there. If you don’t (like I don’t in the Summer) then you can get a dehumidifier and run it enough to keep the musty smell out. It won’t keep the walls from getting damp, that is a given. But it can keep mold from forming.
You can do a regular wall cleaning with a bleach/water mix. Mold doesn’t like bleach.
You know how some people say coffee is bad for you and some say the opposite? Same with whether or not to waterproof paint your basement walls. Some inspectors say yes, do it. Some say no it doesn’t do any good and the paint will peel. I don’t have a definitive answer on this. Here is an ezine article on what to do to water proof your basement walls. Here is another take on it from Garden Web. Some experts recommend a rubber based paint on your foundation walls (exterior). Some say no. The City of Cleveland was running, on their access cable channel, a ‘how to’ on using rubber tarping (usually used for roofs) to line your foundation walls and then re-landscape up to the top of the tarping to keep ground moisture out.
For sure, if you have dirt on any side of your house, make sure the dirt is sloped away from the house so any water runoff goes away from the house. Here is an article by Handyman Wire, complete with a diagram that might help explain what is needed.
Did you know that carpeting your basement floor may look good, but again, it can help hold moisture on lower level surfaces and help breed that pesky mold. Recommended? Some other flooring (concrete, wood, tile, etc).
My client never had this issue because for years she and her family lived in the home. Then tenants. This is the first Summer with it’s humidity in full glory, when no one is living in the house, therefore no air flow, and no fans or a/c are being utilized. She also has the basement floor carpeted. So now she has to get someone in to take care of the mold before it gets out of hand.
Make sure your gutters are working properly, as well as the drain spouts. If you live in a neighborhood with a lot of trees, a regularly scheduled root clean out of your clean out drain is a good idea. Why wait until the basement floods? Tree roots look for water and where better to find it than a drain? In our Cleveland communities, most of our housing stock is vintage. While we love the architecture, the clean out drains are frequently the original clay tiles which of course can break and are usually 3″ instead of 6″. It’s not a totally inexpensive thing to do, but you can get it replaced before you have an issue. When I lived in Lakewood they had this amazing sewer clean out web cam LOL. It was sci fi and fascinating to see what was breaking up my tiles. I replaced them.
So while this may seem a bit all over the map, moisture in your basement isn’t a one reason/one solution issue. They have those ugly pest commercials where cockroaches come calling at your door with a pizza. I don’t think mold brings you lunch, it just shows up! Just sayin‘. Peace Out – 3C
7 responses so far ↓
1 Bob Carney // Aug 27, 2008 at 6:11 am
Words to live by. Excellent advice! And once you have the problem and clean it up…you have to disclose it when you sell (at least in my state)
Bob Carneys last blog post..2008 Brunswick High School Football Schedule
2 Carole Cohen // Aug 27, 2008 at 8:43 am
Thanks Bob! Yes, that’s why it’s best to be preventive and not have to clean it up, for sure.
Frederick Maryland was in the news last night a little bear cub was stick in a tree in your ‘hood! It was cute
3 Bob Carney // Aug 27, 2008 at 8:49 am
WOW made the Cleveland News, must be a slow day. He wasn’t stuck, he didn’t want to come down. He was behind an Apartment complex. We have some wildlife issues lately. I just saw two Coyotes the other day running through a farm field close to the city.
Bob Carneys last blog post..2008 Brunswick High School Football Schedule
4 Kristal Kraft // Aug 27, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I remember the mold of Ohio and the east coast. In Colorado we don’t generally have to worry about a damp towel in the closet. The air is so dry it dries the moisture before there is a problem. We still have mold issues from other factors.
Kristal Krafts last blog post..Tornadoes Touchdown
5 Buffalo Real Estate News August 28, 2008 | Hunt Real Estate ERA // Sep 11, 2008 at 9:41 am
[...] Carol Cohen – Cleveland, Ohio – Avoiding Mold In Your House [...]
6 Buffalo Real Estate | Mold Inspection Basics for your Buffalo Home // May 16, 2009 at 11:02 pm
[...] Read Also: How to avoid Mold in your home [...]
7 Albert // Dec 27, 2009 at 8:48 am
Really cool blog.Thanks for sharing this, badly needed for cleaning my house in 2010!
Albert´s last undefined ..(Enjoy 10 returned posts for Christmas)
Leave a Comment