Black Mold Attacks Again!

Due to Grace’s severe dust allergies we finally had someone come to clean the air ducts in the house. I had them cleaned the day after we bought the house because the previous owner had a dog. At the time though, our HVAC unit was basically new. So I figured it was a good idea to get it all cleaned again since we had done a lot of dusty construction projects since we bought the house. We have a service contract with BGE Home but they wanted to charge $350 for full house and only 10 vents. So I scanned through a dozen flyers for duct cleaning companies and this one seemed to have the most honest advertising ($245 for full house and 15 vents). So when the guy arrived I took him to the basement to check out the main unit.

We have a whole house humidifier that we’ve never used and I thought I might want to try it out. He said no problem and he opened it up. It was COVERED in black mold. I was scared as crap. I asked him if that was because we never used it so the moisture just sat in there. He said he thought it was indicative of a bigger problem. I thought, Crap. So he opens up our main unit and sure enough. Black mold EVERY WHERE. So black mold on the incoming and outgoing. The air coil… covered in black mold. He said I shouldn’t even be running my furnace with that much on there, it’s just blowing spores everywhere. We had the windows replaced upstairs due to a black mold problem. Now I know where that black mold was coming from. Crap crap crap.
Richard popped home from work and the guy showed him all the mold. He said he couldn’t clean the ducts without cleaning the mold first but that mold remediation is expensive. Oh great. I said, well what if it grows back, how long would it take? He said sometimes it’s six months but that our basement is really “moist.” It could be sooner. We had known about our moisture problem in the basement due to plumbing we had done a couple years back and the plumber said we had a lot of pipe condensation and we should get a dehumidifier for the basement. Doh. Hindsight is always 20-20. The duct-cleaning guy said he could install a UV light apparatus that would purify the air and prevent mold from growing (but that cost money too). Anywho, long story short, we couldn’t in all good consciousness leave the mold. So we elected to get everything done: the mold remediation, the duct cleaning, and the UV light purifier system installation.

We may be a large chunk of money in the hole BUT you wouldn’t believe the difference. I cried this morning. Moses slept the whole night without snoring and I didn’t have to use any nose drops (which I usually have to constantly give him). And his eczema is looking better. It’s too much of a coincidence to not be related to getting that crap cleaned out. On the plus side as well is that our upstairs is warm again!
Needless to say, I’m glad we procrastinated on buying Xmas gifts since all our savings is going to financing this… but a healthy house, with healthy kids is the best Christmas gift ever. God, that sounds so sappy. You just wouldn’t believe how guilty Richard and I felt that the kids (and the nanny) have been breathing this crap in every day, ALL DAY long. I’m just glad it’s clean now and we know to keep an eye on it. Now our plan is to work on the moisture producers in the house. Hopefully with a tax return we can pay off this cleaning and afford to buy a dehumidifier for the basement and maybe think about venting the bathrooms and the stove hood to the outside.
On a happier note from yesterday, my bosses gave us their 2-year old pre-lit artificial Xmas tree for free! And I found a nickel on the ground at the gas station! So the day wasn’t a total bust!
Now for that Powerball! ;-)