Friday, June 3, 2011

HOLY MOLDY!

Those green machines were NOISY!
Lovely ceiling bag.

Another lovely celing bag.

All together, we had 5 of those machines
plus that giant dehumidifier.

This past month has been fusty! What? You don't know what fusty means? Neither did I, so I'll tell you – fusty is defined as smelling stale, damp, or stuffy. And lately, my life has been stinky and damp.

From being hospitalized for asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, and a toxic reaction to mold, to dealing with rain storm after rain storm after rain storm, this past month has been painful, both health-wise and financially.

Last Saturday, my daughter, Brittney (who is pregnant), almost fell in our kitchen when she slipped on water that had fallen from my ceiling during our most recent rain storm. She's fine, but my ceiling isn't, and I still don't know the cause because even though the guy who was supposed to look at the roof was supposed to be here five days ago, I'm still waiting. Ooh, he just showed up. Maybe I'll have an answer before I finish this blog!

We truly have had so many storms, I'm amazed I got anybody out here at all. Anyway, when I returned home from my weekend away, I noticed water spots ALL OVER MY CEILING.

Because Monday was a holiday, I had to wait for Tuesday to call my insurance company. I needed to know what steps to take in order to get the leak fixed. It had been several years since I had made a claim and I had forgotten the procedure for making one. My insurance agent gave me the name of some contractors I had to call.

Contractors came the next day and discovered mold in my ceiling, in my insulation, and in the roof. Wood floor water damage repair and mold removal is proving to be a costly venture.

But finding out that my allergy to mold contributed to making the problem so much worse than it should have been was enlightening. When the contractors discovered mold in the ceiling, light bulbs went off in my head – I'm allergic to mold – I've been really sick – I wonder if the length of my illness is somehow related to the mold in my ceiling?

After some research, I discovered that an allergy to mold can cause pneumonia in asthmatics. I gathered all my research and wrote an article about the subject. I'm waiting for it to be approved for publication; otherwise I would provide a link to it.

Bottom line, if you have water leaking, you may also have a mold problem, and if you're allergic to mold, the effects can be toxic.

If you need wood floor water damage repair in the Austin area, call The Steam Team to help with water damage repair and all kinds of other problems.  http://www.thesteamteam.com/austin-restoration-services/smoke-fire.shtml 

Just found out the reason for the leak. Apparently I have vent caps on my roof. Two out of the six vent caps on south side of the house have holes in them and need to be replaced. At least I don't need a whole new roof!

UPDATE: Vent caps have been replaced. Roof is still leaking :(

1 comment:

  1. Goodness! You never know what is lurking, do you? I hope this clean-up will also help with your health. This makes me want to just go live in a tent in the woods!

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