Mold in Basement/Exercise Area

F

Fembot

Cathlete
Have any of you ever had to deal with cleaning mold out of
their basement? If so, did you clean it yourself, or
have an outside cleaning company come in? I have been
dealing with some REALLY strange health issues for the
last year and never thought it could be mold making me
ill. Sorry to gross you out, but one of my cats threw up
behind our home gym and it went unnoticed for a few days.
It looked like a furry little kitten by the time we found
it. Same thing with the little gifts inside the kitty
litter! The mold is new to the basement and happened due
to an addition we had added over a year ago. A few months
after the start of the mold I came down with some pretty
strange health issues. I've known our basement has smelled
pretty musty for the last year, but not until the kitty
hurl incident this week, did I take it seriously. I
went onto a few websites to learn how to clean it up,
and to my surprise, the major health issuing I'm having
is listed as a cause from mold. The irony is I have been
so dedicated to exercising over an hour EVERY night to
stay healthy, and it looks like I have actually be making
myself sick. I've heard of mold and illness, but thought
it was all hype. After seeing the exact description of
what I have been dealing with on two reputable sites, I
am just floored. My first action has been to rip out
the carpet, throw away all card board boxes and books.
Jeez, this is just mind boggling. Sorry to ramble! If
anyone has advice or has had to deal with this issue, I
would really appreciate any insight. Thanks in advance!

Tina
 
Hi Tina,
Like you, I'm in the process of researching mold and its dangers. With all the rain we've had this summer, my BIL's house was flooded. He had water flood the crawl space and then come up to his carpets in the living room etc. Plus his son leaves wet clothes and towels in the bathroom...He has lots of mold going on right now. The smell is horrid because everything is wet!

While my research isn't conclusive at this point, I picked up a few suggesstions so far. One is a dehumidifier to get all the moisture out. To detoxify the room take 1 cup of Clorox bleach, (not the perfumed ones) and 1 cup of vinegar in a glass container. Leave this mixture in the room (keep the room closed if possible) for 24 hours. Then discard the mixture and let the room air out for 24 hours. MY BIL is even running heaters to try to get the moisture out of his carpets.
I'm afraid he will have to rip them up, but he's not ready to accept that conclusion yet. But as far as illness, just in this short while he came down with walking pnuemonia and is on antibiotics.

I realize that airing the room out will be hard to do in a basement, unless you have windows.
I also have friends that have severe allergies. They say mold is very dangerous. And yes it can be in books, carpeting...well it is mind boggling but it can be life threatening as well.

Please keep in touch at what all you are finding out and I will do the same. Sounds like we both are dealing with the same issues.

I'm very sorry that this is also your exercise space. Nothing like getting all revved up to do Cathe and there's no place to go. x(
 
I would definitely get the mold examined and cleaned up right away. For your personal health it may be worth the money to hire a professional abatement team.

My friend and her husband were trying to purchase a home that had tested positive for mold. They were willing to have it cleaned up but their insurance agent told them that even after clean up they might not be issued home owner's insurance. He even cautioned them that they could be denied reimbursement by their medical insurance if they put in claims that could be related to mold. I only say this because the insurance industry seems to be taking the mold issue very seriously. It would probably be in you and your family's best interest to get this resolved asap.

BTW, please feel better soon!
Sabine

P.S. I hope this is not too alarmist. I only know from my friend's experience that she was really freaked out.
 
Thanks for responding! I will try the bleach and vinegar
solution tonight. I've been washing the floor with a bleach
and water solution and will continue to wash all the exercise
equipment with the same. We're going to buy a dehumildifer
right away. I have an appointment at Dartmouth-Hitchcock
tomorrow and will be very anxious to see what the doctor
thinks of all of this. It seems you can fit alot of health
disorders under mold contamination. I'll let you know tomorrow
what the specialist says. Good luck to your BIL. Tell him he
is not alone in this. I'm off to rip more carpeting up.

;( Tina
 
Tina,

I agree with the others about getting it cleaned up. HOWEVER, contact your homeowner's insurance. It might cover this clean up. I've seen it on the news lately, so I just thought I would share.
 
Bleach will get rid of the mold but not for long. I lived for a year in a flat that had a mold problem in the bathroom and was sick all the time. When we moved, it took the best part of a year before I felt well again and since then, I won't stay for even an hour in a room with damp mold. For the sake of your health especially since you use this room to exercise in, as well as that of your families, please get someone to check your house and make sure that you don't have the beginnings of a damp problem or dry rot. It could just be the result of condensation and a lack of ventilation that can be resolved with a bit of bleach but it's best to make sure that there isn't a structural cause behind it.
Good luck!
ATB,
- Lisa :)
 
Thank you for all the posts. I love this forum, everyone is
so supportive. I said I'd post after I spoke with the doctor,
and he said he doesn't believe my health issues are related
to the mold in the basement. He said it was a possibility,
but he highly doubts it. He is head of the neurology
department at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, so I really respect his
opinion. The good new is I can continue to workout in our
basement, the bad news is I am now on a very hard workout
surface. We are installing vinyl tiles over the cement
floor, so I will have to be very gentle to my joints. I
was hoping someone might have advice on special sneakers
for absorbing some of the impact. I will start a new
thread to see. I don't want to put another carpet or
padding down there, so this seems like the only logical
solution. Thanks again for all of your imput.

:7 Tina
 
Hi Tina,
I'm so glad to hear that your health problems aren't due to damp mold and that you didn't have to give up your workout area :)

I work out on a concrete floor with 2 thick carpets over the top and an underlay (I think that's what you call it!), I wear New Balance trainers and don't have a problem. I would love to get some proper aerobic flooring in but we're saving up to buy our first home so it will have to wait.

Best of luck with your health. I hope you can find out what made you feel so unwell so you can feel good again :)
ATB,
- Lisa :)
 
Tina,

I would urge you to have an environmental engineering outfit test your home for mold and make recommendations on clean up. This is a potentially very serious issue - affecting your health and your ability to ever sell your home if/when the time comes.

Many allopathic doctors are not trained to identify or treat environmental illness. If your problems continue, you may want to consider seeing a specialist.

We moved into a house with a crawl space that had been flooded prior to our purchase and was always damp underneath. The windows sweated in cold weather and the paint on the windowsills was chipped and moldy. I became very ill while we were living there. We were fortunate to be able to sell it before everyone started learning about the dangers of mold and laws were inacted in our state that require extensive mold testing. Our real estate agent says she still has nightmares about the place and she feels the person who bought it from us will never be able to sell it.

Sorry for the gloom and doom, but I want to spare others what we went through.

Angela
 
Angela,

I am still in the clean up stage. We removed the wall to
wall carpet, discarded all cardboard, disinfected all
cardio equitment and weights. We are installing vinyl
tile, just a few rows a night. My children are so eager
to help, so they have been spending alot of time with us
down there. My sons allergies are getting worse by
the day. I think he must have a severe reaction to mold.
So now I am extremely motivated to clean every inch of the
basement. I am convinced both my husband and son are
being affected by this. I'm a very compulsive person,
so now this clean up has been my only mission for the
last week. The next step is to purchase a dehumidifier
asap.

We live in a development of over 20 houses, and curiously
we all have some very common health issues. The families
with children all get together once a week during the
summer, and we have been joking that there must be
something in the water. I am really starting to wonder
if the type of mold in this area could be an issue as
our water is tested three times a year. I'll get off
my soap box now and lay this to rest (while cleaning my
brains out!) for the time being.

Tina
 
I don't know much about this at all, and did not read the other posts, but I saw a show last night on Court TV called Forensic Files. It dealt with a family who all fell ill as a result of mold that grew in their house after a leak (or several) that went untreated. The water got under their floorboards and the mold was something like "staphycoccus" or something like that. It went on to say that most household molds are harmless, but that this one can be deadly. Anyway, the husband and the little boy got sick...the little boy with respiratory issues and the father developed a sort of Alzheimers where his cognitive function went down by 50%. He couldn't remember his sons name or the car he drove. The wife got sick with respiratory problems but they were minor.

Anyway, once the family FINALLY figured it out (took a long time cuz no one thought it could be bad mold, plus they figured they were not "allergic" which is not a requirement to get sick) they were told they must vacate the house. They had even moved to an apartment upstairs (was a huge house) but the mold had permeated everything!! They moved out and figured their health problems would abate. They never did. The house was deemed comdemned and has to be torn down. I guess the only way to get rid of this type of mold is to cut out the infected parts. You cannot "clean" it off because it just releases all the spores into the air.

They sued their homeowners insurance because they felt they should have known the health risks and treated the water damage immediately. They did not, for some reason. The family sued for 6 million just to cover the costs of their mansion. They won 32 million!!! Which is appropriate I guess since the father has never recovered, had to quit his job, and uses a day planner to remember when to brush his teeth and what kind of car he drives!!

The moral of this story is..... sometimes people don't "think" it can be mold, but if you develop any sickness symptoms at all...RUN to get it checked out. Cuz if it is this mold, you will not recover once you leave the house.

Hope you get resolution!

Janice
Also, the lady developed her own web page I think called homeowners insurance. I am sorry, can't remember what it is called.
 
Fembot,

I happen to have some experience with toxic mold due to my job. Naughtoj gave you some good advice. You have to resolve the source of the water/moisture infiltration, and then remove the structurally damaged portions of your house and replace them properly (usually requires a mold abatement team). Otherwise, the mold will keep growing back with each water/moisture event.

Mold spores get released into the air especially when the moisture begins to dry out and then it becomes more problematic for those susceptible to mold who inhale it.

Not to be gloomy, but the work you are doing sounds like more of a band-aid then getting to the root of the problem.

Good luck.
 
>Also, the lady developed her own web page I think called
>homeowners insurance. I am sorry, can't remember what it is
>called.

The website is http://www.policyholdersofamerica.org/

The other scary part was when they said that the mold couldn't be cleaned up, because if it was, the toxic spores would be released into the air. It was really creepy when they showed how much it spread and opened up the refrigerator door. It was all over the place.

Here's her link to Do It yourself mold testing:

http://www.policyholdersofamerica.org/mold_testing.htm

The type they had was called "Stachybotrys."
 
Thanks Dani for gettin' my back!! Tee-hee!! Could I have been any more off? Homeowners insurance, staphy-coccus?

Hey, I only half pay attention when I watch TV. Hope my info helps and is not just another horror story..

Janice
 
Can you put a mat down while you exercise, then roll it up afterwards? Huggermugger.com sells 3/8" yoga mats that are soft for kneeling. Would they work for the kind of exercise you do?
You can find mats for people that have to stand in one place all day (like dishwashers) at matsmatsmats.com. They come in various sizes. I'm not sure if they would be as easy to roll up as a yoga mat.
juliee
 
Hi,
Can you tell me what are the symptoms of the illnesses caused or made worse my mold?
I have mold here in my house.. it grew it's worse in my laundry cupboard which is situated right behind what was a leaking shower faucet. Now repaired it is still a lingering problem and my kids get headaches and the youngest has developed athsma since we moved here.
My daughter April however has brain cancer and is recovering from her treatments and she still has bad days so I am led to think that the mold is possibly affecting her as well.
Can anyone tell me more about this please as you have definitely peaked my interest.We are hoping to move soon due to the mold issues.
Kelly
 
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