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How to get rid with mold in moistured houses, wet cellars & soaked walls, rising damp & dampness

Konrad Fischer, Architect

Mold Attack - What to do?

A Guide - Part 1

(update 23.04.09)

Mold in your house and bathroom

British version German version
Information to detect, prevent and eliminate
mushrooms, fungi, mold and mildew

like Aspergillus nidulans and Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus versicolor, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium chrysogenum, Penicillium expansum, Penicillium verrucosum, Penicillium viridicatum, Fusarium, Stachybotrys chartarum (atra), Acremonium, Alternaria, Aureobasidium, Basidiospores, Basidiomycetes, Poria incrassata, Botrytis, Chaetomium, Cladosporium, Trichoderma, Ulocladium

without poisoned toxic and harmfull bleach.

Hello and welcome on this site!

What are you looking for and why? Will you get rid of mold affection in your house? Do you or somebody of your family suffer from mold? Got your health affected by mold reactions like allergy symptoms? Other mold-related illness like asthma or hay fever? Are you looking for good news to get rid with the health hazard by mold attack? And did you know, that the bad smell of stinking mold and mildew is just a warning signal your body gives you to avoid further contact with such badly filled up air? Maybe you're right here, try it out.

What is mold?

Mold fungus (type of filamentous fungi) can be described as a fuzzy growth on wet / damp / moistured organic material by several types of fibroid fungi. If mold is growing on textile / fabric it is named mildew. Some mold like Aspergillus, Trichoderma, Alternaria, Penicillium, Stachybotrys and Cladosporium are toxic and produce allergens and / or mycotoxins. These can cause severe illness and affect various health problems. A lot of people are allergic to mold, the symptoms follow touching or inhaling mold and mold spores.

Which symptoms can be a indication for toxic mold?

Here we have to consider a wide spreading range of health affections like
- reddened and/or burning, watery eyes, sensitivity to light, constant headache, dermatose and dermatitis,
- throat and nose irritation, sneezing, hay fever symptoms as runny nose, nasal or sinus congestion, - asthma symptoms like dyspnea, cough, wheezing, difficulties in breathing cumulating in asthma attacks,
- flu-like symptoms infection of the lungs culminating in pneumonia,
- memory problems, mood changes
and others.

Thinking about these just common symptoms, you can suppose that every person suffers from mold - and this may be more than half the truth. Why? Because today more than 50 % of all modern residence buildings are moldy and filled up with mildew spores. That will mean they have severe mold problems and are unsound and noxious for human beings like you and me. Nevertheless also in storarge buildings, depot and arsenal buildings and rooms the growth of mold and mildew is a common problem. Ask your museum's administration and the restorators there, they could tell you the problem of mold growing on textiles, furnitures, organic exponates, beneath the problems of a big variety of little insects which are living by eating, thus damaging and destroying the fine art objects, heritage artefacts and other content stored and deposited there 'for safekeeping'. These moldy problems of magazine buildings and other non-dwelling-buildings are included in the following text, even if not directly mentioned.

How comes the mold in our house and homes?

Let us first look for the real reasons for mold attack and dicuss the remedies later (scroll down, if you doesn't like to wait). OK, here you will get a old-fashioned german point of view, but maybe not so far away from the problems in your home. And some parts of my breakdown and clarification of the facts will be controversial to anything you've heard before. My English vocabulary and grammer will not be as good as you like (partly thanks google tranlator), but I suppose this is no english lesson but a analysis of mold problems and possible correctives in the topic of building construction and repair. The health sympoms must naturally remain to the doctors / physicians.

Black Mold in the Bathroom
Black mold in the bath 1: Plastified acidic coatings in the cooled window area offer best breeding ground for the mould fungi. Just in contrast to alcalical lime whitewash. The shortly air changing after the showering cannot remove the surplus air humidity. During and after the showering the damp will get into the cooled corner between the wall and the ceiling.

It's your time you are going to waste by reading this page, OK, but it is also your house, your mold and your health. So let's continue -

Mold attack - Part 2

Issues and information for your information needs and the search engine optimization for building and housing, regardless of whether old or new homes & houses or the architectural heritage monuments, whether farmhouse and citizens home, castles and ruins, mansion, fortress, palace, cathedral, church, chapel and dome, mosque, temple and synagogue also to the preservation (preserve / conserve) of historical monuments and the monument protection (safeguard): Are they damaged by overpopulation, overcrowded conditions, inadequate services, extensive acid rain, urban air pollution, subsoil water and high humidity, due to age / aging, weather / weathering, erosion, corrosion, frost, snow, ice, inadequate, inappropriate and improper chemical restoration and strenghtening treatments, architectural, craft's, hooligan's or punker's vandalism? Tips and recommendations for the rehabilitation of an old house / older homes / residence / residential buildings and the historic structure or building repair and fix the old building, renovation, refurbishing, rehabilitation structure, house repair, building repairs and the whole building maintenance in and of itself. The role of the memorial monument preservation theory with the practice monument protection and conservation practices are viewed critically. Do you have a wooden house, or stone house, masonry, steel or framework or half timbered house, a parsonage, a monastery or even a cloister abbey? Is your building, which needs or has behalf of a building renovation or building maintenance, a house renovation, the entire building structure modification and reconstruction really totally damaged? Not always does in private property such as houses, commercial real estate, business houses and store buildings house a complete modernization fulfill all needs in a given budget. Even not at an old City Hall, a historic mill, an abandoned train station, the dreamy water mill, or a villa (Art Nouveau villa). And who owes a family home, a multi-family house and a commercial business house or energy-saving building or passive house and is planning a modernization for the old structure maybe even a castle renovation and wants to save money, on this site are many suggestions for him. Even with an upcoming church repair, rehabilitation, a castle renovation and repair the simple methods may be the best ones. Yes, it may be enough with some maintenance with appropriate repair procedures, and it saves money and the nerves. No one needs everytime an overall total renovation of the building substance to renew or to renovate, and the complete renovation is not always necessary. Then suffice here repairing in an economical sense without fulfilling of all norms and building standards and regulations. Contradictory to usual ways only construction and structure repair, always based on intelligence, and humble design! These questions of planning standard and execution or even a norm-contradicting action arose particularly urgent when half-timbered houses or partitions of it has to be renovated or restorated / restored. And if you will buy to owe a summer resort or a noble palace, perhaps you will find it on my luxury real estate sales offer page. The economic issues will be a priority with the cost-effectiveness calculations and cost-benefit analysis in detail. Are you interested in costs and prices, construction costs and financing (mortgage)? Need promotion, grants and subsidies for the funding of your investment? Subsidies are available not only for the construction cost but also for planning costs (fees). How to get them is discussed her. Then it goes on to the service provider as freelance architect, the architectural firm, the architects planning and the question of proper architecture. The other engineers for statics (calculated by the analyst for the Structural design), the House Technology, the performance of building chemistry and building physics, the technical equipment, electrical, water and sewage, gas air conditioning and ventilation systems (vents) and other installations often from special engineering offices, or just the done by the simple craftsman. Sometimes the customer is sufficient happy by only building advisor or supposedly inexpensive Do-It-Yourself. Not anyone who is called building or house inspector or doctor, as a toxic or mold hunter (mildew fungus hunters) has the real knowledge and best advice for your healthy living environment and / or upgrading your perfect dream house in a circumference of your budget. Many information can be found here also to save energy, including energy consultant and his energy consultancy, perhaps also a pseudo-ecological advice and recommendation or consult. "I want to build or rehab" said the house owner, and the rats come out of the holes. Cons given here is the unspeakable and legally mandated dizziness with the energy and energy-pass around the climate-protection legislation. Are you interested in the roof insulation, the benefits and hoax of insulation with normal materials, do you want to reduce costs and cost-effectively and (efficiently) insulation, perhaps also with solid insulation? Do you want - influenced by advertising - to build a passive house or a low-energy house in order allegedly heating costs and energy costs, or after severe structural damage as moistured thermal insulation and rotting of toxic protectors / protected wood components from floor to wall construction and the roof do repair work? Here you'll find news and tips. Similarly, the mold in the home, the mold-infestation and the algues on the facade and its causes and remedies. Is your shack by mold infestation gets moldy, the house facade green algued? Here you can get help. Feng Shui and biological or ecological, historical and natural building materials, and any natural allegedly insulation from corn and grain, seaweed, or maybe even cork, cellulose flakes, cellular glass, are in healthy living on everyone's lips, but this can be an abused trend only. It is not certain whether a poisoned wood protection or the use of algzide, pesticide, insecticide and fungicide can banish all natural friends of the house (house sponge, white sponge, brown pore sponge, green alga, black algae, lichens, wood worm, silver fish, cock roach etc. .) to eternity. Find out about alternative approaches. Detailed backgrounds and ideas against and with the trends, there is the facade renovation of the painter's work and paint work around color, paint and coating, natural stone, plaster work, as masons , the roofer and his roofing work. There are critical comments about the room work (carpentry work), leaks in the water pipes and the heating pipe. find much on building materials: limestone and clay, lime mortar, mud mortar and lime wash, cement and concrete, steel or aerated concrete renovation, the roof and cover, brick (brick masonry, roof tiles and brick, brick pores) and lime sandstone flooring as boards, and linoleum floor, colors like casein paint and alleged "mineral color, synthetic dispersion color (also synthetic, synthetic resin or plastic paint color ) in a wide range of topics, also including facts about humidity and moisture. Significance of the window in the apartment for the sustainable architecture and indoor climate and sick-building-syndromewill damage your health and the health of your children and other relatives and pets. Technical information can be found here regarding cracks, sprinkles and fissures in the masonry and render / plaster, the natural stone restoration, renovation and stone masonry restoration, radiant heating, convection heating and wall heating, also for floor heating and ceiling heating, water, air, and humidity, as well as to heating with wood pellets and chips, photovoltaic and solar energy, to room envelope heating system, to carpentry and tiling. Contributions can also be found by my colleagues like Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Claus Meier, Prof. Ing. Jens Fehrenberg, architect and engineer Paul Bossert, Dr. Dieter Martin, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Schulze, Mathias Bumann etc. So if you have a conservation approach you can spend here much time ;-)

Moisture and mould in the Castle, palace, old house, historic building

Moisture and mould in the Castle, palace, old house, historic building

'Old Building and Monument Care Information Start Side'
Specific mold consultation
Wood parasite - what to do?
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