[Greenbuilding] Water Damage and Mold Abatement

[John Messerschmidt]

I'm not sure I can address your mold question, but if you have experienced
ice damming, you are losing heat through your under-insulated attic.  I
assume heat tape must be plugged in and heats up to melt your ice.  By using
this, you are throwing more money and energy right out the window (or
roof)and not solving your real problem. Super insulate your attic.

John


-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of
mebeddoe at rochester.rr.com
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 12:11 PM
To: Greenbuilding List
Cc: Cheesa-san
Subject: [Greenbuilding] Water Damage and Mold Abatement

Hi all - I'm looking for some advice, if any of you care to weigh in.  My
question concerns water damage resulting from what we now believe to be ice
damming on the roof of our stickframe.  We live in a suburban split-level
(sigh) built around 1970.  It's been re-roofed about four to five years ago.
There's a fireplace chimney running up the north exterior wall of the house.
The fireplace itself is occupied with an insert, which we use occasionally.
On the exterior wall, the chimney is flanked by two downspouts for our aging
gutters.  The interior of the north wall holds bedrooms (on the second
level) and a family room and office (on the in-ground level).  In the master
bedroom, we noticed serious buckling and what appeared to be mold staining
in a 2x4 section of the hardwood floor.  There is no staining on the
sheetrock walls.

We're about to open up the floor and wall, and we'll know then the scope of
work we're facing.  While our insurance company is quite sure the problem is
ice damming from the winter (our heat tapes failed), we'll do a hose test
while the wall is open to see if we need leaks plugged.  

However, if we open the wall and find a mold monster, our contractors are
going to shove a lovely array of chemistry at us.  I want to know if there
are any alternatives to, say, KILLZ or whatever that stuff is they like to
use to destroy mold.  SInce at this point we don't know how many house
components are involved in this, I know it may be a little tough to
pinpoint.  Still, any info you may have would be helpful.  Thanks so much!

Martha Beddoe
mebeddoe at rochester.rr.com
Peace is every step - Thich Nhat Hanh
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