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Mold on Basement Ceiling

M

MissCroft

Sweetie Pie
Feb 23, 2004
7,179
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Toronto
I flooded my bathroom on the main floor about a week and a half ago (don't ask...I did something stupid). Anyway, I didn't notice right away but a few hours later when I went into the basement, I realized that some of that water had leaked through the ceiling around the flourescent light fixture in the laundry room. :-( I tried to dry the area as best I could but there is obvious water damage and now there is mold growing...

I don't know much about this sort of thing and there is pretty conflicting info (as usual) on the web. It's a fairly small area - approx. a foot and a half lengthwise and at the widest spot about 5 inches widthwise. Can I clean it or should I probably get that piece ripped out? I'm buying a dehumidifer tomorrow (I know I should've done that long ago).

Chloe
 
It's a very small area of sheet-rock. To be sure I would cut it out, inspect the joists and upper lid and treat them with bleach if you want to be absolutely safe. Mold is nothing to mess around with, but your problem seems fairly minor.
 
Asterix said:
It's a very small area of sheet-rock. To be sure I would cut it out, inspect the joists and upper lid and treat them with bleach if you want to be absolutely safe. Mold is nothing to mess around with, but your problem seems fairly minor.
Click to expand...

Geeze, just clean it with detergent. Let it dry and paint over it. They don't recommend bleach anymore but use it if you like, it is a small area you are talking about.
 
Whatever you do make sure it looks good enough to go unnoticed if you ever want to sell the place. The disclosures on mold and water damage are deal-killers to a real estate sale.
 
You might have awakened dormant mold. Best to replace the ceiling. I've never messed with it. You can neutralize the exposed sporeswith bleach but it can spread like a cancer. The spores can go airborne and landon other surfaces.
 
Having allergies to mold myself I would take a hammer to it and knock out all the concrete that is effected, refill it and re-paint it. Especially if it is your own place give it the utmost care to avoid future problems of things spreading/rotting.
 
Mould needs water/damp to grow, and basements tend to provide it. They're cool, and have cooler walls where humidity can condense. Improving ventilation gets the dampness down and discourages growth but the spores (think of seeds) will still be there waiting for conditions to 'improve'. That's why you remove the mould, and/or kill it with bleach or try to imprison it under paint. Any basement 'finishing' that encloses inaccessable spaces w/o sealing them from moisture (humidity or leaks) is problematic.

The high end fix is to remove and replace absorbant materials like drywall that may now have active spores, and to treat the structures you must leave in place with poison/bleach. Low end is clean and cover only what shows.

And for future: Meticulously caulking and sealing any gaps in the finished surfaces and painting them thoroughly will slow humidity's migration to the cooler concrete and the mould spores movement to your side. Or rip it all out and put in a constant fan if the thought of what's behiund the walls keeps you awake at nights. Frequent checking and correcting for overflows, leaks and such, and promptly mopping up, and drying out you already know about.

They all work to a degree; only you can decide what degree you think is acceptable for you. But mould is everywhere, we all live with some of it all the time and obsessing about it is counter-productive.
 
If mold has appeared so quickly, it is because you had mold in the walls and ceiling already. I would cut holes into the ceiling and place a ceiling ventilation fand to pull out the moisture. It will take a month or two before you can be sure all the moisture is gone. After that I would leave the holed open and cover it up with vent covers to allow air circulation. I suspect that you toulet or a water pipe is leaking in your walls or ceiling, you wall have to find the leak and repair it.
 
If it's come through the drywall, rip that section out, water and bleach on everything underneath to kill any spores and or active mold, and replace. Small area, not really that expensive, and usually a do-it-yourself project, or something for a local handy man.

Do not cover it, as it sounds like it has come through. Easy way to tell is to scratch it, and if the paint underneath is undamaged by mold, than just clean and re-paint.
 
Mold won't usually grow on a ceiling with one occurance. A ceiling usually can dry out on it's own. You cannot fully clean mold from organic materials such as the paper on the drywall. I would recommend cutting out the drywall and inspecting the ceiling cavity for further damages. If everything is good you can do a drywall repair and paint the ceiling.
 
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