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Post by whisperwindkat on Jun 25, 2015 10:57:43 GMT
We developed a leak somewhere in the vicinity of our hallway bathroom in the crawlspace. The plumbers can't get all the way under there to find it. So they have opened up the bathroom floor. It has been wet under there some time and there is a ton of mildew. The mildew smell now permeates the whole house. Last night we sent the children to spend the night with my mom and my husband and I spent the night in my art studio, which is a seperate building. My question is how am I going to get all this mildew out of the house now that they have released all these spores into the air. It is going to go everywhere. I have the a/c running and have already bought a new filter for it. We also closed up that bathroom and opened the window in there. I plan to go get a mildewcide this morning that we can fog under the house when they are through and then clean the walls and floors in the house with in. My oldest has allergy induced asthma and we really need to rid the house of all these spores as quickly as possible so she doesn't wind up in the hospital. Any suggestions in addition to what I am already doing? Thanks, Kat
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Post by shin on Jun 25, 2015 13:50:04 GMT
Mildew is tough to get rid off.. I never succeeded in saving any books with it.
Perhaps a bare bones ozone machine would kill the spores? You'd have to set it up with a box fan on a timer and clear the house for a bit until it vented out.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2015 0:16:55 GMT
The quicker you dry it out under there the better it will be. A fan directed at the problem area or perhaps at a vent in the crawl space wall to circulate and direct it outside the crawl space and into the yard. If there is a way to apply a heater,as well as the fan circulating the air would be great. Maybe fill a garden sprayer with Clorox and water mixture and spray that around under there to kill the mildew. Good luck with this.
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Post by whisperwindkat on Jun 26, 2015 10:05:31 GMT
Thanks everyone. I bought the concrobium mildewcide and will spray under there today and I think as soon as the bathroom floor is closed back up I will put a fan in the scuttlehole to dry everything up under there after I spray under there. Blessings, Kat
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Jun 27, 2015 4:48:53 GMT
Do you have homeowner's insurance? It may well cover mold removal.
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Post by whisperwindkat on Jun 27, 2015 11:55:16 GMT
Really long story short we don't own this home. But yes the landlord has homeowner's insurance with state farm. She won't file a claim, I am barely getting her to fix this problem and even then I have had to do half the work because she hired a completely incompetent handy man instead of a proper plumber. He took two full days of not finding the leak (because he didn't uncover all the pipes) and him telling her there was no leak. I had to dig out the pipes find the leak and actually point it out to him. I could go on and on about this guy. It has been the nightmare from you know where. I told her last night he had better not charge her for lumber because he is using scrap lumber for the floors from other jobs, all of it different kinds of woods and different sizes. There is also a septic issue of which I worked on for 4 hours yesterday because he just shrugs his shoulders and walks away from me when I ask him what he is going to do about it. My basement smells like a septic tank and everytime you flush a toilet now that side of the house smells like whatever you flushed. Grant this is brand new since he started tearing things out, but it is am important problem to address. I can't live in a sewer. My electric bill is going through the room because instead of fixing one bathroom floor before moving onto another one he just tears out all of the floors. So we have two bathrooms with no floors in them since Wednesday. So, I guess the slightly cooler temps yesterday were probably because I am paying to air condition the whole state of Alabama. I could go on and on about the incompetence of this guy and I have tried to talk to the landlord, but she loves him and his crazy ideas...and they are crazy. I have already sprayed some mildewcide and have the air purifier going 24/7. I got distracted with the septic issue yesterday, today my plan is to treat with more mildewcide as much as I can until all this construction debris is cleaned up...house looks like a war zone...nothing has been cleaned up and I mean nothing. Then I need to work on that septic issue or I will have to call a septic guy which means I will have to pay for it. And frankly, this is already costing me money I don't have to spend. Oh, yeah...these guys didn't even have their own tools to work with or their own supplies. They have used ours....shovels, hand shovels, flashlights...pipe cleaner, pipe glue, pipe, fittings, rubber silicone...goes on and on I am having to go look through my supplies to find them something that they should have for the job. Like I said I could go on and on.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2015 14:30:14 GMT
Personally, I would be talking to an attorney. The long term health issues that could be brought on by this negligence is astounding.
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Post by countrymom22 on Jun 27, 2015 18:07:55 GMT
If you are renting and the child has breathing issues, I would move. ASAP. I know that's probably not practical advice but your health is nothing to fool around with. In the meantime, I would put a de-humidifier in the bathrooms to help dry out the air and kill the mold spores.
Hopefully this will all be resolved soon. I would have a hard time living with someone else making decisions like these for me. Obviously your right and the handyman is incompetent.
Good luck! Sue
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Jun 27, 2015 20:46:33 GMT
OMGoodness, Kat, you need to get out of there, ASAP!
And you can file a claim against her homeowner's insurance - did you know that? As a renter being affected by the torn out floor hazards, the mold issues, septic odors - you are not even living in a legal rental. A landlord has an obligation to meet minimal standards, and she is not even meeting those. That means that even if you are on a lease, you have the right to break that lease, move, and can (depending on the state) make her (or her insurance) pay the expenses of the move.
Even if you have to buy a cheap travel trailer to live in while it's all settled, you really, really need to put your child's health first, and get her and the rest of you out of that environment.
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Post by whisperwindkat on Jun 28, 2015 12:33:54 GMT
Moving is in our plans but not as easy as it sounds. Let me explain our house situation a little bit. 15 years ago we agreed to purchase this house from an old family friend. We went to the bank, got the loan approved on the contingency that the house passed inspection. House failed inspection. Needed to be rewired, foundation needed to be fixed, roof need to be done with some beams being replaced, chimney was unsafe, rotten wood and several other small things. They would not finance the house without these things being done. We had already given the family friend 14,000 dollars as a down payment. She acknowledged this on the paperwork that she had to sign for the bank, that she had already received 14,000 down payment. So house didn't pass inspection, bank says no go unless all this is fixed, family friend says she is not fixing it, so she will just do an owner finance. I said fine great, lets draw up the paperwork. Time ticks on and I keep asking about the paperwork and all I ever got in response was "yes, we need to get that done. I will get with the attorney in a couple weeks, or when I get back in town or whatever the excuse of the month was." Meanwhile, we had the re-wiring done, fixed the foundation, put on a new roof, installed new propane heaters, replaced floors, replaced some plumbing, put in all new appliances, built a barn, built an art studio, fenced the entire property, and the list goes on. So then, she gets pancreatic cancer a few years ago. She doesn't tell me until it is obvious that she is very sick. I ask about getting the paperwork done asap and she once again says yes we need to do that and she will get with her attorney to draw it all up, but meanwhile she has it in her will that the estate has to carry our mortgage. Then she dies a few months later. Her sister informs us that we are just renters. We have nothing to prove otherwise except that preliminary sales agreement from 15 years ago for the bank. Meanwhile several years before this we had some hard financial times. We never missed a house payment, but there were lots of other things that didn't get paid so our credit it not nearly as good as it once was. It is getting better, but still not good enough for a bank to loan us money on a place without a 20% down payment. We have tried. In about a year our credit will be better, some things will have fallen off our credit record and we will have more money in the bank. So for right now we are kind of stuck. Rentals in this area are far and few between and usually in worse shape that this house. At least here we know what we are dealing with. We have all our receipts and an attorney so a lien will be filed against this property the day we leave. But we have no rental agreement and no mortgage agreement. This is the first time the sister has been called about anything for this house because we usually handle all repairs, but having done so much work on this house over the years we knew what a nightmare that leak was going to be and how expensive it was going to be to replace those cast iron pipes under that part of the house. I was not willing to spend that money. We have spent more than enough, everything we have had over the years. And we have nothing to show for it. On the good side, the septic issue is taken care of and working like it should now and the floors are back in the house with the new pipes and the bathrooms fixtures installed and in working order. Now, I just have a lot of cleaning to do. I have a fan in the scuttlehole in the front of the house drying out the crawlspace, air purifiers running 24 hours a day. The children have been spending most of their days away and the nights at my mom's house. Another reason that moving is difficult because we need to stay very close to mom, as I am often called to come to her aid even in the middle of the night. I have to be able to get there within minutes. Ambulances out here are often an hour or more away and emt's from the fire department woefully underequipped. People have died out here waiting for an ambulance. So here we are for at least another year or two. I am steadily cleaning and pulling stuff outside to clean, so in a couple more days the house will be cleaned and de-mildewed. Now that the floors are in, I am going to fogged mildewcide under the house. I already did the basement, got the water and mud out of the basement and have a fan down there. It is much dryer now. I am just exhausted. I have been cleaner and done half of the construction. I filled in the holes around the foundation yesterday that they had left open from looking for the leak. I didn't want rainwater running into the crawlspace because of unfilled holes. This has just been a nightmare, a 15 year nightmare that I am so ready to get away from. Anyway, thanks for listening. Kat
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Post by whisperwindkat on Jul 3, 2015 10:28:46 GMT
Just thought I would give everyone an update. I scrubbed the house for days and fogged underneath the house twice. Everything that could be cleaned down with concrobium has been..walls, floors, even furniture. Since one of the floors removed and left open was the floor in my daughter's bathroom in her bedroom all of her clothes went in the laundry. I have never done so much laundry in a week. So the house is now mildew free. The landlord considered July's rent paid because of all the work we had to do to keep her incompetent plumber's working. There are still some finishing up things that we will do because frankly they didn't know to do them or don't know how to do them. They are small and we have some supplies to do them so they won't cost us much. So that money can go into the new house fund. Happy about that. On a good note, while pulling out and cleaning every nook and cranny of this house I found some more stuff to get rid of and now have two more boxes to go to Goodwill. So, some good things have come out of a bad situation and now I am able to mostly return to normal life as it once was. I will just be glad when we can finally get out of this house. Blessings, Kat
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Post by Use Less on Jul 3, 2015 11:10:11 GMT
Glad for you that this nightmare is coming to an end, but anything you can do to step up the timetable to get out of there sounds like a plan. There surely comes a point at which being careful, saving enough money, making do "until", etc., is not prudent?
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Post by whisperwindkat on Jul 4, 2015 10:19:45 GMT
Glad for you that this nightmare is coming to an end, but anything you can do to step up the timetable to get out of there sounds like a plan. There surely comes a point at which being careful, saving enough money, making do "until", etc., is not prudent? We are doing everything we can to get out of this house as quickly as we possibly can. Believe me we are. Blessings, Kat |
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Jul 4, 2015 12:39:36 GMT
Ah, sweetie, I had no idea what all you were going through there. What a nightmare.  Sending you a big ol' cyberhug! |
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Post by whisperwindkat on Jul 5, 2015 10:13:32 GMT
Ah, sweetie, I had no idea what all you were going through there. What a nightmare. Sending you a big ol' cyberhug! Thank you. |
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Sending you a big ol' cyberhug!