Q. I hope you can help me, I'm getting desperate.  I live in a ground-level two bedroom apartment in VA with my roommate.  Recently, we've found mold all through our apartment.  The most significant area of mold appears in the upper corner of one of our closets where the wall meets the ceiling.  The ceiling above us is painted concrete, and our floor is also a concrete slab. Since finding that, I've found mold growing on wood furniture, clothes, shoes, the underside of the couch, around drainpipes, and perhaps most disconcertingly on the drawers and the undersides of all of the shelves in our kitchen cabinets.  It is not as if everything is green...in fact, some of the mold is hard to see without a flashlight, but it is nonetheless quite apparent (although just starting in some cases).  Since we've discovered the problem, we've turned on the AC, bought a dehumidifier, bought damp-it buckets for our closets and started to leave lights and exhaust fans on at times throughout the day to dry the place out.  Our biggest concern is that the mold is all over the house...it pretty much has gotten into every corner of the house irregardless of what wall the infected item is on.  

That being said, I have three basic questions:  

1.  Could anyone, without coming in and doing extensive testing, give me an idea of how serious a problem I have?  For instance, should we move out and let the landlord clean everything with us out of the situation?

2.  What can be used to clean mold out of wood furniture if you don't want to have to re-finish it?

3.  Does it sound like cleaning it ourselves would sufficiently solve the problem? [June 25, 2003]

A. With such widespread sighting of mold growth in your apartment you need to get out as soon as possible to a mold safe place to live. Do not move any of your clothing or personal property without completely and effectively decontaminating them of mold spores and any mold growth. Learn how in our easy-to-follow book DIY Mold Book.  Your landlord is not going to voluntarily do anything effective for the mold problem because landlords just will not spend money to protect their tenants' health against mold infestation. Getting rid of the mold in your apartment is not something you can do on your own because: (1) the water intrusion cause of the mold growth has to be found and fixed; (2) mold growth on and INSIDE walls, ceilings, and floors will have to be removed; (3) mold remediation cannot be safely done while you and your possessions are still in the apartment.

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Do-It-Best-Yourself Mold Solutions

Phil can help you fix your own property’s mold problems at low-cost, more safely, and better-in- results than what is done by many mold inspectors and mold contractors.  How can Phil help you?

     1. Read Phil’s five plain-English, mold advice books to master mold inspection, testing, removal, remediation, and prevention for your house, condo, apartment, office,  or workplace.

     2. Buy do-it-yourself, affordable mold test kits, mold lab analysis, video inspection scope, mold cleaner, and mold killer, for the  successful toxic and household mold inspection, mold testing, mold species identification and quantification, mold cleaning, mold removal, and mold remediation to find mold, kill mold, clean mold, and remove mold from your residence or commercial building.

     3. Get FREE mold advice, mold help, and/or answers to your mold questions, by emailing mold expert Phillip Fry at envirodangers@yahoo.com. You can also email pictures of your mold problems in jpeg file format as email attachments.

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