We got this email from one of our readers…..
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Sir or Madame:
My asthmatic husband, 5 year old granddaughter and I were advised to vacate a rental house by a health inspector. We had been experiencing health problems – my husband was having serious respiratory problems, and my granddaughter had recurring body rashes. By the time we moved I also had to seek medical attention for cough and throat problems.
We subsequently found out that the house had been re-rented by the landlord without a follow-up inspection (after he did clean-up) after the previous tenants had been experiencing health problems and advised to move out by the same inspector. We sent mold samples from the basement to a lab. An engineer, a clean-up business and the health inspector all advised we remove our possessions from the house asap and put them in storage. Suddenly we found ourselves without a house and without furniture or belongings to move to another property while our retirement home was being built.
It has been several weeks since the upheaval and we just now have verbal results from the lab. The written report is in the mail. We are informed that there was a 15,000 count (whatever that means) and that Aspergillus and Penicillium were found. Can you please provide any information about what this means for clean-up of furniture, clothing, books, photo albums, etc. We are not willing to move anything into another house if it means contaminating another home. Any information and advice will be appreciated. We have just retired for health reasons!
Thank you.
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Dear Madam:
I can understand the situation you are in. Personally, I try not to create panic. Your dilemma is whether to throw away your furniture, clothing, books, photo albums, etc. I have no idea how contaminated these items are and so it would be hard for me to tell you to throw them away or not. However, in most cases, it is not necessary to throw away such items especially if they were not water-damaged. Do they appear like they have mould or damaged? Probably what you need is to have them HEPA vacuumed and those which can be cleaned (such as clothes), cleaned and dried before moving them to your new home.
Hope this helps,
Jackson.
Do you have a mould problem or do you want samples tested for mould? Call (905)290-9101 now.
Different categories of moulds have different water requirements. Some moulds such as Stachybotrys, Ulocladium, Acremonium, Fusarium, Trichoderma and Chaetomium thrive well on very wet building materials. Some of these moulds have come to be associated with water damaged buildings and their presence in a building is an indication of a moisture problem.