Anyone had mold in their bathroom?

What did you do?

We think it's from the bathroom upstairs. I noticed that the wall (in the baseboard) of the bathroom downstairs is totally black. Yes, yuck and really bad especially with a baby.

So I think I need to redo the upstairs bathroom first (when the leak comes from) and do the bathroom downstairs. Not exactly in the budget for the year to redo both but I guess it needs to be done.

Anyone had to deal with this?

Who did you call for the mold?

Do you fix it yourself?

Message edited 4/10/2008 7:43:24 AM.

Re: Anyone had mold in their bathroom?

I've never had to deal with this in a bathroom. I would call a plumber to fix any leaking at the very least so it stops. I'm not sure about cleaning up the mold. DH cleaned up a patch of it in our co-op on a wall, but that wasn't so bad. He used a mask and sprayed the whole thing with water first (so the spores don't fly around as much). Then he sprayed it with bleach and water, let it sit, wiped it down, and used soap and water to finish. If it's a small spot, I'd clean it this way, but it sounds as if you have a lot. I know there are people who remediate this, but I'm not sure who to recommend.

Re: Anyone had mold in their bathroom?

Don't touch it! Call someone.
My dad cleaned up the basement of their old house after a flood- and ended up in the hospital w/ an awful upper respitorary infection within a week (it was a couple of years ago- I forget the # of days)!
I actually had the same type black mold in the trunk of my old car (that sat in front of my house and we had stopped using it and took the plates off and were debating what to do with it)... my dad wouldn't let me near the car b/c I had an IUI done and there was a possibility I could be (very early) pregnant (which I wasn't ) Anyway, he and DH put masks on and sprayed down the inside of my car w/ bleach (didn't matter b/c we were getting rid of it anyway- it was an 89 w/ lots of miles so we weren't giving it to anyone)... and to this day he wouldn't let me go near it...
Cleaning it won't fix the problem- something's leaking- I would call a plumber to come in. HTH! GL!

Re: Anyone had mold in their bathroom?

There are different types of mold, some are more harmful then others, but it is not good to have any mold period.

In my old apartment we had a VERY BAD leak and eventually the ceiling in the bedroom actually fell. We could actually see the mold and we made my Landlord hire a remediation company to come in and test for it. Turned out the air quality inside was 800X the normal quality . Not to scare you, but we had to stay in a Hotel for 2-weeks while the entire apartment was cleaned and bedroom was re-sheet rocked.

Now my case was to the extreme and Do Not get nervous, I am sure the apartment was like that for years before we even moved in.

Mold is common, but it really depends on the amount, how long it has been there and how much it has grown. It's scary because it can be behind the walls and in the air and you would never know it unless you had it tested.

Also in most cases you can just replace the sheetrock in that one area and be done with it.

They sell home kits at places like Home Depot and I would start with that just to see if the spores are in the air. If not, you can have the area cleaned, but I would hire a professional either way.

Good luck.

Re: Anyone had mold in their bathroom?

Our bathroom had mold and we had to completely gut the bathroom including replacing some of the studs and re-do it all.