I need some real help here...got mold in my interior....

[mfp4073]

I thought I had posted this. But I guess not. 2 levels of updates.

I finally finished off the garage and then kept the humidity out a little bit better. I then bought a dehumidifier. One of the R2D2 looking ones, not a small one mind you. I set it in the car and would run it 12 hours a day when I was home. I did that for about a month and between the drying out and the heat it seemed to work. I got this idea from someone who I spoke with on the phone who worked for one of the local mold/mildew treatment places. Basically said, dry and warm was what you need. The dehumidifier provides both. He said the clorox cleaner with bleach and other "spray" type items are in the right direction, but that they contain so much moisture that they are actually adding to the problem rather than helping.

Part 2. Several years later I moved and did not have a garage at the new place. It sat outside and was fine. It then got moved to my parents barn which is basically a quonset hut style cement floor barn. Due to field mice and stuff like that we put tarps over my car and another car that were to be stored and sealed all the sides with 2x4s so the critters could not get in. 6 months later uncovered and BOTH cars had the same mold. Looks like our mistake was not realizing humidity would come through the concrete floor. I have not gotten around to dealing with the 2 new issues yet. The solution I am going to try is to put tarps down on the floor and basically "wrap" the car.

 

[Bitter]

Mold can't thrive without moisture so you're on the right track with the dehumidifier and Damp Rid. My suggestion would be to call your local ServiceMaster or Servpro. They are experts at residential mold remediation. I'm not suggesting you allow them to come out in their moon suits and negative air machines, but I'm pretty sure they can offer you a lot of free advise and sell you the fungicides needed to get the job done.

Did you pull the seats and carpeting? I'd replace the carpet and pad and pull the vinyl on the seats to see how bad it is underneath.

 

[hungrymonkey]

dry, warm, and sunshine.

all will kill the mold. Although the spores are very resiliant.

 

[mfp4073]

As an additional update, I checked on the thunderbird (second car that got infected). It has not been in the barn and has been in my side yard ford the last few months. On pavement, not covered, gets direct morning sunlight until about 1pm. There were areas of mold that I did not wipe down and it appears to have killed all of it.


oh yeah, and in the above post where I said I spoke to a professional place, it might have been servepro or one like that.

 

[CarFreakGT]

I don't know if this would help anyone or not, but just a thought for those who may be dealing w/ a mold issue and want to know if they've successfully dealt w/ it.

You can purchase a mold test kit for ~$10 at home supply chains like Home Depot and Lowe's. They're often in the paint dept./area.

You take off the lid and set the small tray in an area for 24 hours. Then replace the lid, and wait a couple of days to see if mold develops in the dish.

Don't know how accurate or helpful these would be in certain uncontrolled environments, such as cars stored outdoors. But, maybe it would be helpful to some of you in the right environment.

 

[mfp4073]

The interesting thing from my experience is the SAME looking mold grew in 2 different environments that are almost 200 miles apart. Due to the way the cars were stored, there is very little chance one infected the other. Just more food for thought. The dish to test would be something good to test my car in the yard that looks like its cleaned.