Fun With Mold NOW with DIY Tips!

[DanStokes]

OK - I'll try this again.

Seems we had more damage than we thought from Hurricane Florence. Water came into the laundry room and ME's studio from the joint between the sill plate and the slab - this space used to be the attached 2 car garage so the part that doesn't connect to the house was never curbed. I have ideas to cure this but for now the damage is done.

So here's some pics:

This is a filler that the carpet guys put in to level the taper where the garage doors used to sit. The wood will get removed and that spot filled with concrete.



Backside of the drywall at one location. You can see the mold on the drywall paper. The replacement will be the mold resistant type of drywall. We're also thinking about getting spray foam insulation which I think is not fond of mold.



Overview of the room. Those who have been here will realize that this is NOT how ME likes her studio to look! The piano is bundled up and padded as there isn't much choice other than to work around it - everything else was removed from the room.



Dan

[silver_bullet]

Hopefully you'll get a break in this nasty weather and have a good opening to get it sorted!

[DanStokes]

Our weather has been pretty good since the hurricane other than being a bit cold (highs in the 60s though we've had a couple of nice days in the 70s and 80s. A rainy day here and there but that's necessary - nothing to cause further damage. It takes 3 days of hurricane-level rains to cause water to enter the studio but I'll make it so even THAT isn't an issue (I have devious plans).

Dan

[DanStokes]

And the DIY tip: Use the right tools! I spent a day trying to use stuff I had to pull up the glued-down vinyl flooring in the entry area of the studio and had only minimal success. I eventually headed over to Home Depot and rented an electric floor scraper designed for such things and it knocked the job out in no time! Right tool for the job!

So what doesn't work:
1) Heat. Evidently latex adhesive doesn't come loose with heat like the old tar-based stuff that we used in the olden days.
2) Small hand tools. My Fein tool with a scraper blade worked a little but I'd have been there 'till The Fourth of July.
3) Square pointed spade. Tried to use that as a long handled scraper but it was beating up my wrists so that was a bad plan and it was only marginally effective.

Dan