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Death to Mold (How we handled what we found in the kitchen).

September 24, 2007 | Category: This Old House



The picture I posted of the kitchen mold and mildew has gotten me quite a few emails and comments, mostly asking what we did about it.

Our son is allergic to mold, dust, Autumn, and most laundry detergents. Usually his reaction is to be cranky and have a rash and some post-nasal drip.

Occasionally, though, he spikes 105 fever, breaks out in hives, and can't breath and off we go to the hospital.

SO when we saw what was underneath the cabinets and walls of our kitchen, CD and I had a profound 'Holy Crap!' moment. 80-year-old dust and mildew is not unexpected, but then again - who can be prepared for what we found?

After locking our son in his hermetically sealed environment with filters going an mach speeds, we consulted the Internet and our family doctor about what to do.

Short of doing a complete gut removal of the room (which we did with the back room of the house but couldn't afford to do again) here's the consensus that we followed.

1) We scrubbed the bejabbers out of everything with a bleach-based solution. This was disgusting. CD did most of this, bless him.

2) Painted everything with Kilz Primer. We looked into other Eco alternatives, but Kilz has the availability and reputation we needed.

3) For the top coat, we used Sherwin-Williams for the whole kitchen. It was pricier that the Home Depot stuff, but we really wanted the mold-inhibitors and the anti-microbial properties.

I don't know if this helps anyone else, but there it is - what we did. (Man, do I need coffee!)


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Comments


When we had a little bit of water damage, they sprayed the wood with a bleach/water mixture. Next, they closed off the room (closed the door and put towels at the bottom) with a heater pointed towards the area that had the mold along with a dehumidifier for 36 hours. They wanted to make sure the wood was dry-dry-dry to ensure that the mold was dead in that area.

Posted by: Grace on September 24, 2007 08:25 PM


Thank you! A very useful information.
We have been treating allergies for the last several years with the help of homeopathy. It helps.

Posted by: trendoffice on September 24, 2007 02:10 PM