Demolishing the Moldy Bathroom

Well, today's goal was simple:  get rid of the mold!!!  First, I needed to see how extensive it was, so I decided to tear up the floor.  Of course, with the 1991 linoleum on top of the luan, I knew to expect MORE staples!  And the floor didn't disappoint.

The bathroom floor all tore up!  What a mess.

The floor came up so-so.  The luan splinters so easily, and this time I didn't have my handy scraper on a pole.  So I worked the old-fashioned way with a hammer and crow-bar.  But it came up little by little.

Thankfully, the actual floorboards were in pretty good shape.  It became rather obvious that the water damage has not limited to just the sink, though.  The toilet had also leaked, and I would notice that the air handler had leaked at some point, too.  It's just a never-ending battle in this house with water issues.  Having done a few foreclosures now, I would say that water is the #1 nemesis.  It's damage is just unrelenting.

More water damage around the air handling unit.

Having removed the mold from the floor (the luan was covered in it), I now needed to get rid of the mold on the walls.  I wasn't sure if I could clean it (topical mold) or if it had permeated the wood and walls.  I inspected the wood and the areas on the bottom of the wall where the drywall had crumbled, and it appeared that the mold was only topical.  So I grabbed lots of bleach and started going to work.  The mold started going away little by little.  It was another old-fashioned job that required lots of scrubbing and wiping, but it was producing the intended results.

I wasn't sure how I was going to do the floor around the water heater.  Should I just work around it or take out the water heater and put the floor under it?

How I started the day...

Scrubbing the black mold around the toilet.  Thankfully the floorboards were still solid.  Look at that water in the buckets!!!

The mold is slowly going away!

The drywall cleaned up a bit easier than the floor.  The drywall was smooth enough that the mold wiped away.  The OSB plywood floor made me have to get coarse-bristle brushes in there to wipe the mold away.

The wall turned out pretty clean!

Dad was yet again a tremendous help today as he helped me carry out the large pieces of flooring.  Those splintered ends are nasty and troublesome by yourself!  And while I "mopped" the mold, he did what he does best:  electrical work!  For whatever reason, this house had several damaged outlets.  I knew about them, but it wasn't high up on my priority list.  But since he had free time while I worked by myself in the bathroom, he decided to replace all of the broken outlets.  Seriously, how do you break so many outlets?!  Was it the dogs always running over things plugged in?  Or children?  I'll never know.  I was only able to take a picture of one of the four or five he replaced before it was replaced, but you get the idea.  Seriously, folks, how?

Dad replacing one of the numerous broken receptacles in the house.

I mean, they were in bad shape!  He had them repaired in no time, though.  His true specialty!

Thanks, Pa!

The bathroom at the end of the day.  The mold is mostly removed.  But I will wash it more just to make sure!  Nothing to play around with here.  What a day.

The black floor is now less black...and almost looks like wood!  I'll tackle it again a couple of times, though, before the flooring goes in.

Little by little.  It's frustrating that the house was left to get into this bad of condition.  But I'm thankful that it can all be fixed.  It's just old-fashioned hard work.

Soon, though, I'll have a modern 2017 bathroom!  Bye, bye, 1991!!!  And THAT is something to smile about.