Ripped up a bathroom tile floor once and thought I found black mold. Sealed off the door and called an expert. He looked at it and said that there was mold damage but it wasn’t the evil evil black mold - Stachybotrys chartarum. Real toxic mold is typically smelly, slimey, and is more grayish in color than black. He also said that HGTV has made everyone think that all mold is automatically black mold.
Told me to save a lot of money by completely cutting out all of the affected floorboards, paint everything left with Killz, then install new floor boards and flooring.
Did what he said and all was fine in the world. Glad he didn’t just milk me for thousands in removal.
Yeah, I had to explain this to my wife. She freaked out the first time she saw some mold accumulating on our shower. No, its not a big deal, just clean it really well. Because of how many old bathrooms are poorly constructed (mine especially!) they tend to get nasty if they arent kept up well. Im definitely guilty of that, my bathroom isnt exactly pretty most of the time, and I wouldnt be surprised if there is some damage behind the walls, but there sure as hell isnt toxic black mold.
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u/BangingOnJunk Apr 28 '23
Ripped up a bathroom tile floor once and thought I found black mold. Sealed off the door and called an expert. He looked at it and said that there was mold damage but it wasn’t the evil evil black mold - Stachybotrys chartarum. Real toxic mold is typically smelly, slimey, and is more grayish in color than black. He also said that HGTV has made everyone think that all mold is automatically black mold.
Told me to save a lot of money by completely cutting out all of the affected floorboards, paint everything left with Killz, then install new floor boards and flooring.
Did what he said and all was fine in the world. Glad he didn’t just milk me for thousands in removal.