(Trigger Warning: Photos of Mold and Water Damage)
These were all hidden in our basement on walls behind a large cabinet, on the back of the large cabinet, behind a giant plywood floor to ceiling 'box' we never investigated while we lived here, because it was closed up so well, behind the box where a sewer line had a crack, and up the walls behind the kitchen next to our main plumbing stack, which had a slow tiny leak over who knows how many years.
(Yes, this was all properly removed and remediated. I will get into that in another section of this site).
I want to point out again that 95% of this was HIDDEN. the air inspector didn't see it and thought I was over reacting when I tried to explain the severity of my health issues and how important it was for us to find the mold in our home. He did help me though, and tested every room in the house as I asked. When our air sample came back, and I explained how mold and mycotoxins affect 25% of the population differently (and how), he took our situation more seriously.
We didn't see this mold- until we started aggressively looking to find it. When we found the first indication of mold ourselves on a cabinet and in the corner of the basement wall- we shut off our heat, sealed all vents in our home, plastic 6m sealed off the basement entrance from our house (with multiple layers of plastic up the stair well because I was very paranoid) , and removed the cabinet to outside immediately.
We then contacted the air sampler to update our findings, with photographic evidence, and they added to the scope of work for the remediators that were slated to come in next. They removed the mold, remediated, and left us to rebuild.
Here are photos of the mold and water damage we found behind the cabinet, on the wall of the basement, inside the ply 'box' the previous owner built, at the sewer line that was in 'the box', and up in the walls behind the kitchen around our main plumbing stack:.
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