Q.
I live in an apartment directly facing the ocean, I have houseplants, and I have
mold on the ceiling and walls in two rooms. My landlord claims that the reason
I have mold is that I have plants in my apartment--I have had indoor plants for
20+ years and have not had a mold problem. I live in a high humidity area and
do not have air conditioning in my apartment (have a great breeze from the ocean
when its balmy). I have lived in this apartment for 3 years and each year the
mold has become worse--the first 2 years I cleaned it with bleach, this year I
have so much that it is impossible to clean it with bleach. The two worst rooms
are the rooms in which I have plants, and also they are the rooms in which I
leave the windows open all summer (I live on the 7th floor and leave the windows
open 24 hours a day unless it rains). I can tell you that by the end of the
summer (2004) I got rid of most of my plants to satisfy my landlord. Could you
please advise me if my houseplants could possibly be the sole reason I have a
mold problem. [Jan. 31, 2005]
A. Indoor houseplants are a
serious source of indoor
mold
growth because of the watering of the plants increasing
indoor humidity and because mold species love to live on plants, thus making
each plant into a factory producing airborne mold spores to mold cross
contaminate your apartment. Even without plants, living close to the ocean is
going to mean high humidity and very likely mold growth. You should use a
digital hygrometer to check your indoor humidity level. You can buy one from a
large hardware or home improvement store. If the indoor humidity exceeds 50 to
60%, you have invited mold to be a permanent guest in your apartment. Use a
programmable dehumidifier to keep indoor humidity to a mold-discouraging 30 to
40%. Of course, because your home has open windows in view of the lack of air
conditioning, the dehumidifier may have to run continually and you might need
more than one unit. You also need to check out whether the apartment has any
water leaks that might be the primary or secondary cause for the mold growth.
Follow
mold inspection procedures. As far as the present
mold growth, learn the 25
steps for safe and effective
mold remediation.
Q.
We have a house built in the 1960s in the Dallas Ft. Worth area. We have a
red brick fireplace, on which we placed some houseplants for a while. We
soon noticed one of the climbing vine houseplants had a fluffy white mold
growing atop it's "climbing pole." We've noticed that the surface of some
of the bricks were covered with a white powder, and unfortunately doused
the bricks with bleach after removing the plants. This caused a fluffy
white overgrowth that was much worse than the first. What kind of mold
does this sound like, and can we just treat the bricks with a fungicide,
or do we need to remove the entire fireplace? We will be checking in the
area where the roof meets the fireplace for a suspected leak. Thank you
for your help. My mother suffers from sinus problems, and I suffer from
asthma, and both of us have low immune function.
A.
As you now know, it is unwise to have indoor live plants growing if
you want to prevent mold problems in your home.
You can use a
low-cost Mold Home Remedy Recipes available at Mold Mart. You are wise to
carefully check your roof for water leaks in the fireplace area. Because
of your family's serious mold health symptoms, you would also be
wise to mold-test your entire house with do it yourself mold test kits. Mold test the
air of each room, basement, attic, crawl space, garage, and the outward
air flow from each heating/cooling duct register for the possibility of
elevated levels of airborne mold spores, in comparison to your outdoor
mold control test.