Mold in our Bedroom

[rosie_plus_one]

We moved into our rental house in August last year. We began with our bed against the west wall, partially under a window. It was a king sized bed we had had for about 9 months. In November we bought a used queen sized bed from a storage unit auction and put it in the same spot in the bedroom. Over the next few months an enormous patch of mold developed directly underneath the window, behind the bed. It covers about half of the width of the bed, and is the side that DP always sleeps on. There is no mold on the wall that is not underneath the window, and which is my side of the bed.

We moved the bed to the North wall, with my side of the bed under the other window in the room. Now mold is developing on the ceiling over DP's side of the bed.

Is this mold in the bed, is this to do with the windows, or does DP produce mold spores while he's sleeping?!?!?!

I'm kind of freaking out about it because I tried to clean the wall and I can't get the stains out, I'm pregnant and we're going to have the newborn in the bedroom, and I keep having nightmares that I am sleeping on a moldy bed.

I need your opinions on the bed theory and the DP-mold-producer theory, and I need advice on how to get these black stains off the wall!!

Thanks

[Denvergirlie]

I doubt it's a person causing the mold....

I would seriously think that it's they bed.... but if you moved the bed in at the same time as you moved into the house it's a toss up.

Bleach will "treat" the mold, but only if it's surface and not from growing within.

There was another thread just last week about a bad mold issue in a rental house.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=619147

It was growing in the walls and the landlord has had to fix it.

Either way you need to get rid of the mold, it's toxic to your and your families health.

[rosie_plus_one]

We got the bed probably 3 months after we moved in, so I think that is what is causing it.

Under those circumstances, I feel like it's my fault and I don't really want to call the property management until I get in under control so they don't take my entire security deposit.

What can I do at this point?

[mightymoo]

Hold on, not all mold is toxic. Yes, there exists toxic mold, and of course you don't know what kind it is, but there are plenty of harmless types of mold.

I had some mold grow in a closet a few years ago. I panicked and called in a mold inspection company which charged me $600 to tell me the mold was harmless and I could basically wash it off myself. In our case, the mold was caused by the fact that we had an exterior wall with no insulation. We put rubbermaid containers in front of it. Since the wall itself was cold (since there was no insulation), but the room was warm, putting something in front of the exterior wall stopped any air flow and allowed moisture to condense on the wall and as a result mold grew.

The mold inspector, besides taking air quality samples to determine the types of mold in the house, cut small patches in the dry wall to see if the mold was inside the wall or not. You might want to do this to determine if the mold is coming through the wall. Drywall is easy to patch, so I personally would just cut a small hole where the mold is growing and see if there is mold on the other side of the wall. If not, then its likely an issue like I describe above, the mold is growing because of a condensation issue caused by lack of insulation or air flow, etc - which could be affected by the position of the bed - certainly having it up against the wall could cause that, I don't know about the ceiling. (You don't have a humidifier in the room do you?)

If you rented the house in August and the problem didn't start occurring until the winter, then that definitely fits with it being an issue like that.

If there is mold on the other side of the drywall, then the mold is in the walls and is caused by a much bigger issue like a leaking roof, etc - it is definitely something the management needs to deal with.

[rosie_plus_one]

Originally Posted by mightymoo

(You don't have a humidifier in the room do you?)

Nope, no humidifier in the room. We almost never turn on the heat in the room though - I was wondering if that was maybe a partial cause?

Thank you so much for responding. I was in a total panic last night after reading stuff online.

I tried scrubbing down the wall with a bleach/water mixture, but there are still residual stains on the walls, kind of a dark almost black color. Should I just paint over those after I check behind the drywall?

Thanks again, mightymoo.

[mightymoo]

Originally Posted by rosie_plus_one

I tried scrubbing down the wall with a bleach/water mixture, but there are still residual stains on the walls, kind of a dark almost black color. Should I just paint over those after I check behind the drywall?

Yeah, you won't be able to get all the remnants off the paint, its stained at this point. We painted over the area in our bedroom. If you do that, make sure to prime first because the stains may come through paint, primer will block it. FWIW, the inspector told us that bleach will kill many types of mold but not all. He didn't have a better alternative for me (outside of the stuff they use professionally), but I just wanted to mention it.

You will need to figure out what is causing it or it will just come back though.

[rosie_plus_one]

I'm almost 100% sure it's this mattress causing it. The mattress itself has some dark coloration on it, which I assumed was just staining but now I'm starting to think it's mold. The mold issue started within a few weeks of getting the bed and no other changes have occurred in the environment. There isn't mold developing anywhere else in the room, except on the wall where the bed is touching it and the ceiling directly above the bed. There's no mold anywhere else in the house either.

[mightymoo]

Originally Posted by rosie_plus_one

I'm almost 100% sure it's this mattress causing it. The mattress itself has some dark coloration on it, which I assumed was just staining but now I'm starting to think it's mold. The mold issue started within a few weeks of getting the bed and no other changes have occurred in the environment. There isn't mold developing anywhere else in the room, except on the wall where the bed is touching it and the ceiling directly above the bed. There's no mold anywhere else in the house either.

yeah, the mattress could have brought the mold in, but mold will only grow where its damp, so it wouldn't grow on the wall if there wasn't some dampness there, kwim? I would definitely be getting a new mattress though!

[Rebecca]

Turning on the heat and running a dehumidifier will slow the mold growth too. I'd get a new mattress in a heartbeat. The idea of sleeping on mold really freaks me out.

[rosie_plus_one]

Originally Posted by Rebecca

Turning on the heat and running a dehumidifier will slow the mold growth too. I'd get a new mattress in a heartbeat. The idea of sleeping on mold really freaks me out.

You have no idea how hard it was to get into bed last night.

[mightymoo]

Can you borrow an air mattress or something to use until you can replace the mattress?

[kijip]

I would toss that bed. You can sleep on the sofa in the living room for a bit or on the floor until you buy a new bed.

[mbravebird]

Bleach doesn't kill mold, but tea tree oil does, as does grapefruit seed extract and vinegar. Take a look at this link for more info:
http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/home/110

And get rid of the mattress. Get on Freecycle to see if you can get another one. Let folks on Freecycle know that you're pregnant and trying to avoid mold and you might very well find someone who's willing to give you an extra they have.

After looking at lots of air purifiers, I ended up purchasing this one for a space in our house where I didn't want mold to come back:
http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping...purifiers.html
I chose this one because it has a guaranteed effect on the mold content of the whole room, not just on the air that comes out of the purifier.

HTH...

[rosie_plus_one]

I took $$ out of our emergency fund yesterday and bought a brand new mattress, wrapped in plastic. It felt good to know it was pure. I moved all of the furniture out of the room, scrubbed all the walls with a very strong bleach/comet mixture, cranked the heat as high as it goes and opened the windows. I also sprayed a lot of that Lysol Mold and Mildew stuff in the air.

Next weekend I'm hoping to paint the section of wall that was stained - unfortunately it appears that our paint is water soluable, so it mostly came off as I was scrubbing at the mold.

I'll look at that air purifier, thanks!

[Rebecca]

Yay for you! Did you sleep better? I got the heebie jeebies just reading your posts!:

[rosie_plus_one]

Well, I'm not concerned about the mold anymore but the new mattress is SUPER firm because that's what DP likes, but it's almost too firm for me! He said it would soften up a little as we wear it in though. I've never slept on a brand new mattress before.

We sprayed down all the walls with a tea tree oil solution as well, and I think next weekend I'll pull out the bed and check to see what the situation is.

Thanks for all the help from everyone