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We had a mold problem in our loft in Texas. We made a bleach solution and just sprayed it on the area. It pretty much killed the mold instantly and it didn't come back. Of course that was easy because it was just painted cinder block. I'm not sure you'd necessarily want to be spraying bleach water on your walls depending.

You'll have to have the paint scraped off, air it out and have new, anti-mold paint applied. Once the leak is secured.

So said a super once when I had this on a kitchen wall that was an exterior wall of the building.

And washing the wall down with bleach took care of the immediate problem for me.

We've had the same problem and I worry about spraying my walls with bleach since I have cats. I found out that vinegar kills mold just as effectively and is non-toxic. And I swear, it only smells like vinegar for a little bit!

If the leak is from your neighbor's apartment, the building and/or your neighbor may potentially be responsible for the repairs. I personally would opt for replacing the drywall, etc. (not sure about ceilings, but people tear out parts of drywall and patch/replace it all the time, it's not as bad as you think) given the health concerns around mold.

You could also see if your apartment insurance will provide any funds for the repairs, although mold exclusions are pretty common now maybe you could claim "water damage."

mold is a serious problem and you really need to hound your super about finding and fixing the leak. we recently bought a loft, encountered an ENORMOUS flood when we saw our first large rainfall there, and realized that this had been happening for some time. tearing out a baseboard confirmed that our walls were FULL of mold - yes, you can see some of it, but when the walls were fully torn out, there was much much more growing on the insides of the drywall and then in the insulation. we had to have the entire bottom two feet of all our walls torn out and replaced ... luckily, our place was still under warranty so none of the expense was ours, but man, it was a burden. please do more than just spraying this down with bleach, because it could be far more serious and the mold could just continue to grow in your walls. AND, probably shouldn't put in any new materials until the leak is truly fixed.

We bought a new condo last year and have been dealing with what first was a small moisture problem and 9 months later has turned into a huge mold problem. We feel our builder is responsible as it is still covered under the 2 year warranty. We want him to buy back the place as we've had to fight for 9 months for him to fix the problem and all he's done so far are temporary fixes. Kimberly - did you get any monetary reimbursement from the builder? Are you concerned at all with health and resale value? I'm in DC so I'm assuming disclosure laws are the same pretty much anywhere.

brian - i really truly feel your pain! our loft had been a rental for 7 years before it was sold off as a condo - i'm not entirely sure how long the problem went on for, but i know plenty of people saw it and didn't address it. our unit is right next to a large storage room that also has some very important drainage pipes running though it - there was/is a leak somewhere in those pipes, so every time it rained, water was gushing into that room and then naturally flooding into ours eventually, since we are technically the lowest area of the building and sit about 2 feet under street level. after everything was fixed, we saw 2 tiny trickles of water coming in, but the building manager and the contractors assigned to work on the building have been pretty helpful, immediately setting up industrial dehumidifiers and fans. the contractors actually used to fix up hurricane damaged homes, so they are very knowledgeable about mold - and i'm trusting that they mean that.
i truly don't think our issue is a builder issue - it was a building problem that got very much out of hand. one thing working for us is that the owning group (soho lofts in kansas city) has a TON of places up for sale right now - all rentals turned condos. i think they know if this news got out, their name could be tarnished. we received a small monetary compensation for the few items that were ruined (luckily, we were not completely moved in yet) and the time we took off of work to deal with the problem.
yes - we are concerned about the disclosure laws - and about the health issues. the manager did pay to have our hvac system cleaned after they re-did the walls, and we had a mold test done which showed a not un-healthy amount of mold spores in the air. so technically we have nothing to worry about at this moment.
i can tell you that another leak issue will send us through the roof!

I'm in LA and my downstairs neighbor found mold growing in her closet. She hounded the landlord and he took samples--turned out it was the bad kind of mold. Once they started tearing out the walls it turned out my bathroom window was the cause--never sealed properly and slowly leaked moisture for 10 years. They had to completely rip out the inner and outer wall down to the studs, rip out the floor, replace the bathrub, rebuild the closet, etc. It's a big deal and if untreated just gets worse! took 3 months before I could move back in.

I know that the EcoQuest Ozone AirPurifiers kill mold all the way into the wall. You odn't want to have it blowing right over your bed while your sleeping but it can solve some of your residule problems. I don't sell them but I do swear by them. I moved into a very old house and it got killed the mold all the way through the flooring. Unfortunately the flooring was also weakend. (That's how I found out ;-) )

I have a spray bottle of dilute bleach that I've been using to keep the mold at bay in my (totally unventilated ...) bathroom.

It isn't ideal in the long run, but the long run is your super's problem.

thanks for all the stories and advice! we are still deciding exactly what to do-- we will get all the drywall, etc. replaced from the places where we could see the mold, but I'm not sure whether we should get a mold inspector out to evaluate whether it might be elsewhere. our leaked has stopped now, though the area is still pretty damp feeling, so i think i'll have the super hold off on actually putting in new materials until it feels 100% dry.

If you're interested in household mold (including mold remediation), check out a freelance article I wrote earlier this year for THIS OLD HOUSE entitled "Mold!"

Lots of good suggestions from experts on the subject...

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/interiors/gallery/0,25895,1562148-0,00.html

-D