With all this rain, how are NJ home owners dealing with black mold? (insurance, homes)

[FreshFresh]

I know a lot of homes in the tri state area NJ are flooded. Are they having any black mold issues in the basement? If so, what are they doing?

Professional help ($4,000 and up) or Do It Yourself solution? Does it need immediate attention?

[imoapie]

Yes it needs IMMEDIATE attention. Why even wait for the mold to show up, if there is paper products (sheet rock) cut it out BEFORE mold grows.

Bleach and water kill mold as well if there area is not tooo big. I think they have this as 10x10.

[blackandproud]

I had a company called Servpro come in to clean the basement and cut the sheetrock 1ft. We had sewer backup from the street, lost about everything in the basement.

[Docendo discimus]

I am worried about this too.

I have a finished, carpeted basement. The HVAC and sump pump are walled off to the side in a separate room (with a door). This room has a concrete floor and I keep the door shut.

When the electricity went out for about 24 hours, the sump pump stopped, obviously. I got about a half inch of water in the HVAC/sump pump room, and this seeped out into the regular, finished/carpeted part of the basement, about a foot or two outside the door and the wall that contains that door. Water also seeped out into the perimeter of the finished part of the basement (a couple of inches or so out from the wall). Really, just 2 walls with this problem. I'm not really sure how this happened, but it happened.

I shoveled a lot of water out as it was happening. Afterwards, I had the dehumidifier going in the basement all day every day for a week. It's almost all dry now.

You can hardly tell that anything even happened down there. But sections of the carpet did get wet, and now there's a musty dirty sock odor down there. However, I don't think enough damage happened for me to justify ripping all the carpet out. Plus, like I said, it's nearly completely dry now.

My brother is telling me I should've already called my homeowner's insurance...supposedly they will send somebody out to survey for mold or something.

Anybody have any insights?

If I should just suck it up, tell me. I didn't suffer even a fraction of what other homeowners did. That's kinda why I didn't call my insurance. I felt like they probably had tens of thousands of bigger fish to fry than my damp-ish carpet.

[camaro69]

Originally Posted by seque5tra

I am worried about this too.

I have a finished, carpeted basement. The HVAC and sump pump are walled off to the side in a separate room (with a door). This room has a concrete floor and I keep the door shut.

When the electricity went out for about 24 hours, the sump pump stopped, obviously. I got about a half inch of water in the HVAC/sump pump room, and this seeped out into the regular, finished/carpeted part of the basement, about a foot or two outside the door and the wall that contains that door. Water also seeped out into the perimeter of the finished part of the basement (a couple of inches or so out from the wall). Really, just 2 walls with this problem. I'm not really sure how this happened, but it happened.

I shoveled a lot of water out as it was happening. Afterwards, I had the dehumidifier going in the basement all day every day for a week. It's almost all dry now.

You can hardly tell that anything even happened down there. But sections of the carpet did get wet, and now there's a musty dirty sock odor down there. However, I don't think enough damage happened for me to justify ripping all the carpet out. Plus, like I said, it's nearly completely dry now.

My brother is telling me I should've already called my homeowner's insurance...supposedly they will send somebody out to survey for mold or something.

Anybody have any insights?

If I should just suck it up, tell me. I didn't suffer even a fraction of what other homeowners did. That's kinda why I didn't call my insurance. I felt like they probably had tens of thousands of bigger fish to fry than my damp-ish carpet.

FEMA is saying no matter how small...put in a claim.

[findinghope]

just as an example not due to flooding. i had a humidifier on in our bedroom and it must have leaked cause the carpet was wet for a couple of days and i didnt notice. it started to get that weird moldy smell and i had my husband pull the carpet up. the mold had already started forming and actually almost ruined the sub-floor. we had to remove the carpeting and put in new flooring. so you can imagine what a little water can do. you WILL have mold under there--very dangerous.

[FreshFresh]

Originally Posted by blackandproud

I had a company called Servpro come in to clean the basement and cut the sheetrock 1ft. We had sewer backup from the street, lost about everything in the basement.

I much did that cost? and did they prevent your basement from ever having mold again?

[Docendo discimus]

Originally Posted by camaro69

FEMA is saying no matter how small...put in a claim.

Originally Posted by findinghope

just as an example not due to flooding. i had a humidifier on in our bedroom and it must have leaked cause the carpet was wet for a couple of days and i didnt notice. it started to get that weird moldy smell and i had my husband pull the carpet up. the mold had already started forming and actually almost ruined the sub-floor. we had to remove the carpeting and put in new flooring. so you can imagine what a little water can do. you WILL have mold under there--very dangerous.

Ugh.

Ok. Thank you guys. I guess I will be calling my insurance after all.

[PDD]

Buy that generator people, it's cheap insurance.

[blackandproud]

Originally Posted by FreshFresh

I much did that cost? and did they prevent your basement from ever having mold again?

It was included in my insurance. The guy showed me the Statement of Work, it was about $3K. Little good it did, went down in the basement this morning and wouldn't you know it, flood again. But thankfully its not from sewer backup