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Discovered my house is infested with Black Mold.

Creeperpark

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
One has to pull the water back out of the house. If I bring indoors 5 gallons of water a day for my plants, I will need to remove 4 & 1/2 gallons by the end of the day in vapor. If I don't the excess moisture will saturate the indoor environment raising the dew point. A healthy plant drinks every day and it transpires almost as much water out of the stomata back into the environment as I put in daily. The dew point is very important in terms of the housing area for the garden as well as the garden itself. The area moisture should remain low as possible all the time to prevent mold.
What does the dew point tell you?

Both relative humidity and dew point measure how much water vapor is in the atmosphere. Relative humidity, however, is temperature-dependent while Dew point is not. The dew point is simply a measure of how much moisture is in the air at a given time. Google
 

troutman

Seed Whore
Lowering humidity and increased circulation will help.

I have a small tabletop unit called Germ Guardian set in my grow room
to help with invisible air contaminants. Here's what is says on the box.

UV-C light helps reduce airborne bacteria, viruses, mold spores* and works with Titanium Dioxide to reduce volatile organic compounds. *Tested with Staphylococcus Albus, and Escherichia Coli, Aspergillus Niger, and Phi-X174.​

 

Ca++

Well-known member
One has to pull the water back out of the house. If I bring indoors 5 gallons of water a day for my plants, I will need to remove 4 & 1/2 gallons by the end of the day in vapor. If I don't the excess moisture will saturate the indoor environment raising the dew point. A healthy plant drinks every day and it transpires almost as much water out of the stomata back into the environment as I put in daily. The dew point is very important in terms of the housing area for the garden as well as the garden itself. The area moisture should remain low as possible all the time to prevent mold.
What does the dew point tell you?

Both relative humidity and dew point measure how much water vapor is in the atmosphere. Relative humidity, however, is temperature-dependent while Dew point is not. The dew point is simply a measure of how much moisture is in the air at a given time. Google
Dew point is a temperature. Not a volume.
You could call it the condensation point. Your dehumidifier must cool the air to the temperature required to form condensation, or Dew.
The hotter your air, the more water it can carry. As air cools, the water load it can carry is reduced. The RH is increasing. At some point, depending on both the air temp and water volume in it, you will reach 100% RH. Any cooler and the water must come out the air. The dew point is the temperature the vapour starts to come out the air.
The drier your air is, the lower it can be cooled before the Dew Point.
Looking at the dehumidifier again, the higher the RH, the less cooling it has to do, before condensation forms.
The Dew Point, is that temperature it happens.



Mold tends to grow first in corners, where there are outside walls. Areas of lower air movement, that allow the air to cool quite a bit. Two fixes are to increase circulation, or the temperature.
I recently dropped some curtains ceiling to floor. Looked great, but the condensation it caused was starting to pool. I had to pin up the curtain from touching the floor. Then the air circulated enough to keep them dry. There was always a little gap at the top, but only with one below, could the cooling air drop out before reaching Dew Point.
 
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Three Berries

Active member
Any house can get contaminated by black mold, the spores are all around us all the time in nature. But like said black mold needs humidity to grow. A thorough cleaning and adjustments to air flow to control humidity levels in the house will stop it from coming back.

Do you know what the humidity level is in the house? Anything over ~65% all the time will give you mold. But air flow can mitigate mold development at that level of humidity.

Most new houses are way too tight as far as airflow is. Even older house if you are really trying to stop heat and AC losses and have sealed it up.
 

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
There is a way to remove the mold by spraying some kind of remover. Then they spray a fungicide treatment. If you own that house you should call professionals and get estimates to fix it. If you are not exhausting the moisture from your grows outside, fix that too.

If that is a rental, I would look for new digs.
 

buzzmobile

Well-known member
Veteran
Concrobium Mold Control works. The valve for the waterline to our icemaker went bad and developed a slow leak in the wall behind the fridge. It took a while before it made its way under the kitchen floor boards. There was a large patch of mold behind the fridge. I removed and replaced the wet wallboard with new. There were patches of mold on the remaining wallboard. A spray misting of the patches eliminated them overnight without damaging the wallboard.

 
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