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V92C 08-29-2009 08:45 PM

HELP!!! I have mold
Friday we had a lot of rain and my sump pump died so I ended up with about 1" of water in our finished basement. I do have insurance just for sump pump failure so all is good right? WRONG!, The ins. sent out a crew today to start repairs, they pulled out the carpet and padding, then went to remove the lower 2' of the walls which are paneling over drywall. When the first pc of paneling came down, they found mold, it went 4' up the wall. Then they said that would not be covered under the ins. as it was an exisiting issue and had to be from old water damage. We have been here 7 yrs and this is the 1st time we had water. well then I called the ins. and they approved them to use an airscrubber to keep airborne spores to spread and go to 4' up the walls so they went further. They got to the next wall and started at 2' again to see if there was and mold, the paneling came down and there was no mold on the front of the drywall, a sigh of relief for my wife and I, but then when they pulled the drywall, there was mold on the back side.
So it seems like all the walls have a 4' high issue. They are planning on pulling 4' off all the walls and remove all the paneling but say the studs, base seals, etc. may have mold. If they say the bill comes to s, we will have to do this ourselves as we cant afford to pay for it unless the ins. picks it up.
How do I know it is gone and not going to be a issue again? I would like to replace all the drywall at this point and hope the ins. will pay for it, if not I am in deep crap......

I also have a sectional couch down there, there was a lot of concern abou spores spreading through the air, so they covered all the air ducts and put plastic up to isolate the basement, but if it spread onto the sectional, how do I clean that or is it junk?

Nestor_Kelebay 08-29-2009 09:22 PM

Well, I'm certainly no expert on mold, but can you not simply put on a pair of rubber gloves and clean the exposed wood studs with bleach to kill the mold.

Also, in Europe, borates are a common treatment to prevent wood rot, and are the most popular wood rot preventative amongst log home owners in North America because borates are the only wood preservative that penetrates throughout the entire cross section of the wood. You can Google "Boracol" or "Sasco" or "Sansin" to find the products (like Borocol 20-2BD and 40-2BD, or something like that), and the companies in Canada that market borates. Sasco is in Nova Scotia and Sansin is a subsidiary of theirs in Ontario. Borates are highly effective against wood eating fungii, like the wood rot fungus, but my understanding is that they're also effective against all kinds of mold and fungii, not just wood rot. The people at Sasco could confirm that. Surprisingly, borates are almost harmless against mammals like people and pets. We can just about eat borates and not get an upset stomach. Borates and the Borax you might use to clean your laundry are chemically related. My understanding is that Borax is Boric Acid, whereas the borates used in Borocol and solid Impel and Cobra rods is something called "disodium octoborate", or something like that.
The problem with Borates is that they're soluble in water, so another flood would dissolve and wash away the borates up to the level the water rises to in any future flood, but that's not much of a problem since you'll undoubtedly be removing the drywall and exposing the studs up to that elevation to replace the damaged drywall anyhow.

Also, my understanding is that copper and zinc napthelene are effective at protecting wood from wood eating fungii because both copper and zinc are natural biocides, copper being the more effective of the two. If copper is a natural biocide against wood rot fungii, it seems to me that it might also be effective against other types of mold and fungii as well. So, I'm wondering about using 3 and 10 inch paint roller sleeves to paint the studs and back of the new drywall, respectively, with copper naphthalene end cut preservative, or Borocol, to kill any mold spores before they start to grow.

As I say, I'm no expert on mold, and there are much more knowledgeable people than I in here on that subject, so I'd wait for their opinions on the matter.

funetical 02-12-2010 11:17 AM

I was always told that in the presence of bleach the mold spores close to prevent there destruction so that when you clean it you just spread it around. Now borax I've been told is the trick. I'm just passing along hear say though no real proof.

frozenstar 02-15-2010 08:11 PM


Originally Posted by funetical (Post 40750)

I also agree on this one. But I haven't experience using borax on any mold. But friends told me these kinds of solution. Just like Nestor, I am not expert as well on mod. Just passing some saying as well.
