This is embarrassing to write about. I've written about mold before. I've interviewed people who've become ill from working in offices with it. I've researched it. And still it happened to me.
Years ago I lived in a very cheap cottage that had no heat. About the same time I worked in an office in which my desk was next to a closet full of mold. Although I had a large air purifier running constantly, I became ill. I've had an allergy to mold ever since, and I also get bronchitis every winter. One doctor even diagnosed asthma as a result of the exposure to mold.
Two months ago, shortly after I moved into a new apartment, I found that the screens covering the windows had been painted shut. I also discovered severe mold on the windows (shown in the photos). My reaction is unprintable here.
Although I'm normally scrupulous about checking potential apartments for mold, after weeks of searching for a pet-friendly rental, I'd been exhausted and desperate. The apartment seemed clean, and I didn't pull up the window blinds. It was a serious mistake.
When I mentioned the mold to the property manager, she said she'd seen it but thought it was just dirt -- which doesn't explain why it was ignored by cleaners and painters. The company's handyman recommended sandblasting, as did mold remediation experts. I was told I'd be let out of my lease.
After finally finding a new place to live, I had to wait for it to become vacant. I started experiencing some of the symptoms of mold exposure: Memory loss, an inability to concentrate, fatigue, a general "brain fog", headaches, coughing, eye irritation, sinus infections, depression, and an acute sensitivity to scent (mildew, perfume, gas leaks, and new carpets). I'm literally counting the days until I move.
I can't imagine not opening up windows for ventilation, but it's obvious the previous tenant, who lived in the apartment four years, didn't. I can't imagine not cleaning the windows (they can't be cleaned now without risking more spreading of the mold spores), or ignoring the mold -- but the previous tenant, the property management company, the cleaners, and the painters all did. My advice: Ventilate, open windows, run fans, clean condensation off windows. Keep an eye out for mold -- if you see it, do something about it right away. And always check the windows when looking at potential rentals.
What a horrible thing to happen to you! Your description of your mold exposure symptoms is especially disturbing. Enjoy your new apartment, when you get there and thanks for raising the alarm bells.
My last apartment was a moldy one as well, though I and my roommates never experienced those symptoms, thank god. It was in our bathroom, windows, bedroom walls--as well as under the paint, so the walls were charmingly soft. What a cute way to clean mold--just paint over it!
The scary thing was that our landlady tried to tell us it was just light mildew and easily cleanable (maybe we had the same landlord!). But when they sent someone out to clean it, he told us it was most definitely mold and that our landlord did this all the time and had a history of suing the tenant after they moved out for it! They didn't sue us, but we learned a lot about checking for mold in rentals...
I had nothing to do today so I've been online most of it (hence, my numerous posts on AT....and then I'll go weeks without). So here I am reading about mold. My head aches for you.
My husband and I rented an apartment from his sister for several years. Mold. I was the first to notice. When my husband passed away (gross thought it might be it wasn't the mold...) I moved to where I am now, a light, airy, dry incredibly comfortable apartment. I am still suffering from the impact of mold. Allergies, headaches and such so I truly empathize with you.
I have a co-worker who lives in NJ and spent a fortune getting rid of black mold in her basement. Its deadly.
Although I do the best I can to live with organic food and cleaning products and such, bleach seems to be the only thing that kills mold that has become so problematic, or so my experience has been. Once over with bleach and then more eco friendly products can keep it at bay.
I wish you luck in your new place and hope your pets are also going to be happy. Good luck. Certainly you deserve some good luck
I have this kind of mold in my apartment! I just noticed it the other day--could it be aggravating my asthma and giving me headaches? And can it be cleaned or should we talk to the landlord?
Thanks, any help is really appreciated.
How awful, Leslie. The effects of mold are truly frightening and not many people are really aware of them. My M.D. said that many people with allergies are not allergic to pollens or animals but rather to mold! In the Bay Area and north, because of our humid climate and erratic wet and dry seasons, many mold spores are airborne, causing allergies and contributing to asthma. Vertilation and light and cleaning can prevent this problem from getting out of hand.
I agree with Shannon: bleach is the first wave of attack. After that you can use more gentle weapons; tea tree oil is excellent for discouraging mildew (I discovered this when I broke a bottle of tea tree oil in my shower: after I wiped the oil [and glass]up, there wasn't a sign of mildew left).
P.S. There's nothing to be embarrassed about.
I'm glad you weren't too embarassed to post! It's good information to discuss and share.
Having bought a house in the redwoods, I'm concerned about mold. When I bought it, I didn't notice anything. It's subtle, but there is some mildew smell that seems to come from the laundry closet. I still need to pull the w/d out, but I already discovered that the dryer vent goes into the crawlspace--not outside. (red flag!)
Other peeps up here say mold is a fact of life in the woods, but I'm kind of freaked out with a mild burn/scratchy feeling in my throat & chest. (worry!)
I read up on a new natural mold-remediation product called Concrobium. It's supposed be natural. I dropped $300 on a fogger machine, and $300 on 4 gals of the liquid from HomeDepot online. Um...it's not shippable to CA yet. Our EPA is slower here, but it's in Canada and other US states. Anyhow, I managed to work it out, and it should be here soon.
Hoping it does what their website says, I'm fogging the whole darn place, including the crawlspace.
After signing our lease with an addendum to agree to air out our bathroom after taking a shower, I should have got a hint. But I didn't. We would get mildew on our bathroom countertops, but thinking it was just gross and nothing else, we would clean it and move on. Then I started having random allergic reactions to stuff that would cause my lip or eyelid swell up for hours at a time. Thinking it was just a new allergic reaction, I thought that was that. Only after moving to a new apartment and never experiencing those symptoms again did I realize it was because of the mildew and probably hidden mold. Be careful out there!
What an awful experience. I hope you will be happy and healthy in your new home. In Europe we recommend opening the windows for 15 minutes everyday even in cold weather. There is an old saying, Italian, I think, 'where the sun doesn't enter the doctor soon will'.
While you wait, you might want to try bleaching the mold (while wearing a mask of course). It won't fix the problem but it might do some short-term good. The mold will inevitably come back but at least you will kill what is currently out and prevent it from releasing it's icky spores until the next batch grows
I have mold in my apartment now two children with asthma who have been very Ill Ive called my apartment maintnance came out wiped the mold off the walls witch then grew back more.Ive called an attorney the health department nothing has happened now what do I do.
I knew there were more people like me out there. My wife and I were relocated to SF right in the middle of the .com mayhem and ended up living there for only about 2 years. We had a realtor driving us around for a whole day looking at apts that she was getting up to the minute listings on. No luck anywhere. I asked an "apartment rental manager" at one 1 bedroom how he was going to pick a tenant from the stack of applications on the floor. He said he would submit them to the office after the weekend and they would sift through them and make a decision. Based on what? This was the craziest crap I had seen in a long time. In a last ditch effort our "apartment finder" called her friend who was also a realtor and asked if she had any listings. Her friend said she was going to show a place later in the afternoon but if we came straight to the apartment and liked it, she would give it to us and not bother to show it to the anyone else. So, we headed to the mission, walked into a very spacious one bedroom. There was a front room with bay windows, a big bedroom, separate toilet and shower, big living room, big kitchen, big pantry, big enclosed back porch, big back patio. Really hideous red indoor/outdoor carpet. And a really, really strong paint smell. Very strong paint smell. We took the apartment. What else could we do? Seemed fine, just a really strong paint smell and bad carpet. So when winter time rolled around and I realized the only heat source was from an ancient heater stand alone heater with no ductwork at the front of the apartment I was a little nervous. We tried to turn it on once and it smelled really, really, bad. So it was a little cool in the apt, no big deal. Until one day I opened my bedroom closet and found all of our shoes completely grown over with a blanket of mold. No exhaust in the bathrooms, mold growing all along the ceiling. Mold spontaneously growing in spots on top of the carpeting throughout the apt. I soon took to insane sneezing fits that would not stop. I would sneeze myself to sleep. I was entering a living hell. The piece de resistance, when a friend was visiting from out of town, he and I had fallen asleep-me on the couch, he on the floor. When my wife came home from work she found our friend on the floor with mold actually growing on his pants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After a while I realized why the place smelled so strongly of paint--I've always wondered how I ended up getting an apt. in a market with less than a 1/2% availability. Hindsight is always 20/20. I think the mold made me a little crazy.
I do have mold in my appartment PLEASE someone tell me what to do is it my problem or its the landlord should i conectact the regie or what should i do iam very concern since my wife have cancer and he is going under chimeo every week
PLEASE HELP
e-mail me please