Mold and mildew problems in WNC ? (rental, how much, houses)

[mountainrose]

Hello,

How much of a mold and mildew problem is there in WNC?

Does it affect your homes with having to clean it off window sills, walls, furniture, etc?

Does it cause bad mold allergies?

Would a whole-house dehumidifier help to keep a home dry enough to prevent mold problems?

If you have a bad mold or mildew problem can you please say what area you live in.

Thanks!

[young92]

Depends if the house is in the woods or not. The first house we rented had a lot of shade from tree overhang. We did have a mold issue. A dehumidifier would have helped wonders. Every house we have had after that (4?) were in sunny locations with no tree overhang. No mold either

[Michigan_WV_Travelers]

Most of our mold is limited to the garage thats under our home, yes we live in the mountains and are surrounded by trees with alot of overhead trees. We open the garage doors and turn on a fan and that seems to work at keeping the mold at bay, also we spray bleach around the corners and the concrete floor at least once a month.

[mountainrose]

Great info you guys, thanks!
The only house I ever had mold problems with was under a large tree canopy, and I didn't connect it before.

[tsmw47]

Yup, in the basement area need to run air or dehumidifer. We are at 3,200 feet but summers are pretty humid even at this elevation. House is in the sun rest of it okay.

[saucystargazer]

I rented a house a mile from the NC border in SC a few weeks ago only to have to turn around and move back out because there was mold EVERYWHERE! First found it on the ceilings and then looked for more and it was in the air ducts and on walls. I've never had mold anywhere before and never thought to look for it. It also had high ceilings so I wasn't staring at them before moving in and didn't catch it.

I'm sure its not a huge crazy problem but if you do rent first, be sure to look really hard. I learned my lesson unfortunately. We had to spend several hundred dollars on a temp rental and additional moving costs.) Buying, well I'm sure youll get an inspection and homeowners take care of their homes unlike landlords who can be hit or miss.

[Cofga]

The mold can be a big issue down here. When we were looking for houses 2 years ago 3/4 of the houses had horrible mold issues because they weren't occupied and did not have the AC and a dehumidifier running. We run a dehumidifier in the basement almost 24/7 from April-November just to keep it down to 50% relative humidity. July and August have been the most humid months and correspond to months when we run the AC during the day. As a result we have never had a a mold issue up stairs except in one small bathroom where the towels get that mildew smell after about 2 days in use. What is even worse is the mildew and fungus on plants. In northern virginia we never had mold on plants and the humidy up there could be oppressive in the summer. Here tomatoes get early and late blight, trees like dogwood and vegetables get powdery and downy mildew, grass gets fungus, other plants get crown rot, I lost half my strawberry bed this summer to some kind of blight.