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Should I be worried about mold?

 
 
Tue 12 Jan, 2016 08:59 am
It has been raining a ton where I live and the house I rent already holds a LOT of moisture. We notified our landlord of some potential water damage (warping, bubbling, and chipping paint on a few walls/ceiling) and he just attributed it to the home being old because the spots did not feel wet (even though they did feel wet/squishy when I felt them).

Additionally, I pointed out some black spots on the ceiling in my bathroom. I understand that mold/mildew can easily occur in a bathroom, but I've lived in mostly old homes and never seen this. He decided to install a new bathroom fan as the current one did not work at all and I expected the black spots to stay away. However, they quickly came back. What is even stranger is that I left the house for about a week for vacation - when I left, there were no black spots, but when I returned there were new spots. It's even sketchier because you can see where he has definitely painted the ceiling multiple times and there are some spots where the ceiling paint is "pulling/peeling" off in a weird way.

Another red flag is mold on the windows. There was a good bit on the window frame in my bathroom and it was black and looked fuzzy so I showed it to my landlord. Also, that window frame has a lot of cracking. He cleaned it off and applied a mold repellent. There were multiple other windows like this in the bedrooms, not quite as bad but still pretty gross so he did the same for those windows.

Lastly, 2 out of 3 roommates have noticed changes in our health. We feel wheezy, constantly congested, have irritated eyes, etc. I typically have sinuses/allergies so I didn't think too much of this, but the other roommate says she has never had issues like this. I do constantly feel super tired and I frequently have headaches. I realize this could be a coincidence and our health issues could be completely unrelated to anything in our home, but it definitely makes me worry more.

Basically, our landlord does not think that there could be any deeper/more serious mold infestation. He is replacing the roof (literally as we speak), but he never has any kind of professionals look at the spots that could be water damage or potential mold. Yes, he cleaned the visible mold, but am I right to be fearing a deeper issue? I wish I could post photos of what was on the windows and the spots on walls and ceilings that we think could be water damage. It's also important to note that our furnace recently had to be replaced because the crawl space had water in it and it got ruined by that. So clearly water was sitting under the house.

Any advice would help. Thanks!
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Type: Question • Score: 6 • Views: 2,037 • Replies: 5
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TeddyTuesday
 
  1  
Wed 13 Jan, 2016 10:00 am
@pmwalker90,
it's no coincidence that everyone's health is bad at the exact same time with the exact same symptoms(for the most part I assume). if you feel there is a problem, there is a reason you feel that way. In my personal opinion I believe that there seems to be a problem, but your landlord is just trying to cover it up (pun intended). if you think there is a problem and he obviously just keeps brushing it off and doing miner things that aren't really fixing the problem, I would contact a professional my damn self and figure it out for myself, and then show the landlord your evidence and make him pay for everything for trying to just cover up the issue. mold is nothing to play around with it can cause serious health issues and a ton of house issues. him replacing the fan was smart, but if I were you and I thought there was a problem I would leave it on always and leave the bathroom window open, so your bathroom gets air and it kind of slows the growth of the mold (but not at all fix the initial issue). it seems like he is getting the message though if he replaced the roof because that **** isn't cheap. just do some digging hire a professional and present your evidence so he can fix the entire issue. and tell Mr. Landlord all expenses are on him.
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Ragman
 
  1  
Wed 13 Jan, 2016 12:47 pm
@pmwalker90,
If it were me, I'd move - tomorrow! Life's too short to endanger your health, which is pretty well proven that living there is making people ill.
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Miller
 
  1  
Wed 13 Jan, 2016 04:31 pm
@pmwalker90,
Since neither you nor your landlord are Mycologists or even Microbiologists, why have you jumped to so many conclusions about the specimen being a "mold" and moreover, a very dangerous mold.

Molds in general have been on Earth for millions of years and while some are pathogenic, many are not and have been shown to be very beneficial to the health of humanity.

ossobuco
 
  1  
Wed 13 Jan, 2016 04:42 pm
@Miller,
Geez, Miller, I'm agreeing with you twice in one day.
0 Replies
 
chuck1964
 
  1  
Sat 15 Apr, 2017 07:17 am
@pmwalker90,
pmwalker,

I know you posted this over a year ago, but how did things turn out? I am having a serious health problem related to mold.
0 Replies
 
 

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