I have lived in my house for 9 years. History on my basement, two floods 4 and 6 years ago, the floods 2 inches or less. When the floods occurred, we got rid of most everything, the dry wall was cut up to where the flood occurred and replaced. ServPro came and "fixed" the issue spray inhibitors and drying it out. The past couple of years I have been fighting mold with inhibitors and painting it. I have a professional dry air and a dehumidifier; but hasn’t been very effective. Last two years there have been areas that consistently get wet near my sump pump, which is brick wall painted with a drylock type paint, looks as though there is several layers. 1 1/2 years I have been using it as a storage for empty boxes. Last year the boxes were all moldy, I cleaned it out and it seemed to be gone. Last week I cleaned it out and it was worse than before. Now the walls are stained and although I am using strong products that have worked well in the past, this just is not getting better. I have thought of my drainage as being an issue as I have never cleaned the gutters because I have gutter guards. I would check them but I don’t have a ladder tall enough to get even close. I am thinking it is time to call some professionals to help with this issue. Servpro seems to be the standard, but they did a half-a$$ job each time after the flood. What makes things worse is we just spent $2k refinishing the basement. What type of contractor should I seek?
You've got too much moisture getting in; this is something that likely needs to be addressed from the outside. Get the gutters checked first - if those are clogged you get water running down the outside walls and that'll find ways to get inside. Get the french drains checked by a pro. I don't know what kind of company would handle that. Our house has underground drains for the gutters and they were all plugged up solid. The gutters were clogged thoroughly when we bought it, too. One guy spent half a day on the gutter and two guys worked on the undergrounds for hours and hours getting them all cleaned out, and our basement was much drier afterwards. I don't think there's anything you can do on the inside to really control that moisture, stuff like drylock are just stop gap bandaids. The water needs to go somewhere, and if it's piling up against the house, at least some of it is going to get in.
Depending on the type of gutter guard you may have to get the gutters cleaned regularly or they may be completely clean now. It's hard to tell from the ground.
Agreed. Use a pro to fix the water ingress. Then you can mitigate any existing mold/mildew by yourself for cheap. Go to a rental place (I know home depot has them) and rent a Mold Fogger and buy a gallon of stuff called Concrobium. It is completely non-toxic. It is a solution of certain salts that not only kills mold/mildew, but when it dries and crystalizes, it does so in a way that crushes the spores so they can't come back. It's great stuff. I'm allergic to mold/mildew and after treating my basement my allergies completely disappeared in the house.
It is so safe that at trade shows, they have shot glasses set out that you can drink some. There is a sign that says, "Concrobium: Tastes like crap, works great."
You fill the fogger with the stuff and turn it on. You aim it at one wall for about 15 minutes and repeat for other walls. You can also just put it in a spray bottle and spray, but it's not as effective. The fogger atomizes it into a super fine mist that creeps into nooks and crannies. When it dries, you will have a very slight haze of salty crust on things which can be wiped off with a wet rag or painted over. I choose to leave it there to prevent future growth.
I assume that there is moisture behind the wall board too , so can you fog the backside too maybe drilling some holes in the wall board ?
And does an ozone generator help ?
It only takes a little bit of water to float a canoe.
I realize this is a canoe, but I wanted to point out that my wife's parents got a cold call from a contractor who managed to get over to there house and do a mold check. That resulted in a mold test and a bid to remodel a rather small 1/2 bath for... $40,000!!! I think the mold mitigation was $10,000 alone.
Toxic mold mitigations can be rather expensive (it can be rather dangerous if breathed in). In checking the mold check they had done, it definitely showed small amounts of various molds... none of which where toxic (common garden mold etc).
In checking the shower (where the mold was), it was pretty common bathroom mold, and a bit had gotten into the baseboard (a bit of dry rot). Total cost for the repair (not remodel) was about $40 and primarily involved spraying down the mold with bleach, cleaning out the old sealer, re-sealing with mold resistant caulk and replacing one base board.
Be very aware.
Not going to do anyone any good after the fact, but builders will put a house almost anywhere the county says they can. If this is in a low-lying area relative to home sites around it, this can cause no end of headaches due to rainwater runoff. When shopping for a home, be aware of whether the home you are considering is higher or lower than your neighbors, and the lot is graded in such a way as to encourage runoff to flow away from the house.
Water can destroy a house, and it doesn't need to be in a flood plain for it to be a problem.
