I’d suggest reading up on mold. A book is Break The Mold by Dr. Jill Crista. Mold hasn’t been adequately researched, so all literature should be approached with a lot of critical thinking, not treated as established truths.
Mold repairs are often done poorly. Some issues to watch out for:
Merely cleaning visible mold from an area.
Not removing and replacing enough wet building materials.
The repair area should be thoroughly dried before closing walls/ceilings/floors back up. This can take days with fans. If wood feels dry to the touch, that doesn’t mean it’s dry. It should be measured with a moisture meter (buy one from Amazon for like $30 if the workers don’t have one).
Not finding the full area that water reached, e.g. below where the mold is.
All sources of water intrusion should be found and fixed. There’s usually more than one.
Not taking enough precautions to protect the people in the building. When mold is disturbed, killed or cleaned, it can release a lot of spores and fragments. Opening windows, running air purifiers, wearing masks, dusting and vacuuming are cheap options. With lots of mold, maybe the workers should seal the contaminated area off with plastic before disturbing the mold.
Have you tried magnesium, vitamin D and B vitamins? Those are particularly common deficiencies.
Ok. Funnily enough I was planning to do that soon though not in any intensive manner. I just remember Elliot mentioned a book about mold at some point and I thought it would be a good time to read it. It’s in the article Mold-Finding Dog Training and Induction :
I read an account of training a dog to find hidden mold problems in buildings. (It’s in Mold Controlled by John Banta.)
I guess I’ll read both.
I feel like there was a curi.us post too but I can’t find it. Though I didn’t look too hard.
I can believe that, especially when you mentioned that its not a well researched field (though even if it was it would probably be a toss up if you get a good company anyway). I do remember years ago my dad just hired some people to fix the pipes and fix the walls (probably without addressing the mold) in my moms closet. Though my dad did just hire the cheapest he could find so I don’t know if thats necessarily representative of all companies for that kind of stuff.
Also thanks for the list. I’ll keep an eye out and let my brother and mom know. They’re better at paying attention to things when it comes to workers. Or, more accurately. they’re better at saying something. Idk. I definitely am better at noticing stuff but I get uncomfortable mentioning stuff to workers. I don’t like saying, “Hey thats not right.”
Got a bunch of fans (I think thats what those are) going all day in those areas. Actually just came back to more moldy wood being removed and more fans throughout the house.
They seem to be taking precautions, so thats nice.
Thats her whole room sealed up. Yesterday they had just sealed up the closet. Came back from work today and now her whole room is sealed. So thats nice.
Mhm. I take this multivitamin (it has a high dose of B-vitamins), this for magnesium, and this for vitamin D.
