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My bathroom on the second floor is directly above my kitchen. The J pipe drain leaked and caused some drywall damage in the kitchen. When we cut the a section of the drywall, it appears to have black mold.
I am paying a contractor to $1000 to replace the leaky J pipe. He cut a section of the kitchen ceiling, and a section of the Stucco to have full access. He will put in an access panel for the stucco outside
But he wants an additional $4700 to remove the cabinets (only 5 feet wide area) at the damaged drywall, replace insulation and drywall, and put back the cabinets. My question is, can I allow the insulation to dry, fix the drywall superficially myself without removing the cabinets and replacing the insulation? See images. What happens if I seal up the dry wall and trap the black mold inside?
Fixing the drywall superficially means patching up the holes, patch and sand down the damaged areas and then paint.
I can do everything the contractor described but it will take more time.
You need to remove the wall sealing it up won’t make it go away, it will continue to grow and it’s extremely unhealthy. Do it right so you won’t have serious health issues later. You could take down the cabinets your self, remove drywall and insulation. Then put new insulation And dry wall up and put your cabinets back up.
According to my zoom, it appears those old cabinets were built in place. And they are not the newer pre fab, unscrew them and just drop the box. Some serious work it will be, getting the rails and stiles apart without damaging them and then to put them back without it showing ...they were taken apart and put back together. So figure some patching /sand/repaint on them if DIY'ed. . JMO
What's on the other side of the cabinet wall? Can you access it from there? If they are built in place, it's going to be difficult and expensive to try and save them. Any moldy sheetrock needs to be removed and replaced or the mold will continue to grow. You may even need to take out the lower cabinets. I'd pull the stove and cut a hole behind it to check. You might be getting a new kitchen.
That's a bad place for it.... can you go in from the outside and fix it?
The actual insulation is the cheapest part. Buy new insulation.
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