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.

MORE Black Mold!!!

Well, I decided to tackle a huge project that has been staring at me ever since I bought the house!  I recently had my immediate family and even extended family over for a July 4th celebration, and the main bathroom functioned as it should.  In other words, it took what it needed to out of the house.

But I knew that secrets lay hidden.  How?  Well, I noticed water damage on the exterior walls of the bathroom when I pulled up the kitchen floor, right behind the stove.  I also noticed it in the hallway.  I knew that water had leaked in the past...whether from the air-conditioner or sink or toilet, I knew not.  I only knew that some secret lay underneath that floor.

Upon further inspection, it was evident that the sink had leaked at one point, as the shelf of the vanity had major water damage.

So, what would my remodel find?!  I didn't know...I just knew that I wouldn't be happy with it.

So I started to tear apart the sink and vanity.  The sink came off easy enough.  But in order to remove the vanity, I had to take off the supply lines (they were bigger than the holes in the vanity).  So I took off the supply lines, and as expected, they had minor leaks even though turned off (I have almost yet to find one that doesn't.  These valves are never turned over their lifetime, so they accumulate deposits, and when they ARE finally turned, they don't do what they are supposed to do:  shut off the water!).  So I would have to buy new supply lines.

I had to remove the shut-off valves.  I'll just replace with new 1/4-turn valves.

And then I removed the entire vanity.  My oh my.  Words just can't do this justice, so I'll let this picture describe the whole fiasco:

Look at all of that black mold!!!  This bathroom was a mess!

Yup, MORE black mold.  And lots of it.  I mean, LOTS of it!!!  This house was just covered in mold!  It would all have to go.  Not only do I want to be safe living here, but I want the next owner to be safe, as well.  And let's be honest...a job worth doing is worth doing right.  So I knew that my remodel project just became a bit bigger.  I don't know if I can just clean the walls or if it has gone up inside the walls, too.  Time will tell!!!

I went to remove the toilet, and, of course, an easy job just can't be easy in a remodel.  The bolts and nut that held on the toilet were so rusted that they just disintegrated.  But not enough to break them (of course!).  So I had to cut away the bolts.

The bolts were literally just rust.

So the bathroom is now clear of objects.  But it has exposed a massive amount of black mold.  Obviously, the next project is getting rid of it all!

The bathroom just covered in mold.

Oh, this foreclosure...will it ever end?!

Now the A/C is Acting Up!!!

You may remember that back in February I had some issues with my furnace.  The blower motor burned up and caused smoke to spread all throughout the house, thus kicking on my fire alarm which scared the living daylights out of me.

Well, the temperatures have certainly turned here in the middle of summer, and today I found myself with yet another issue!  My air-conditioning unit was acting up!  I don't remember why I was in the furnace unit, but I noticed that my A-coil was nearly frozen over.  I had a huge hunk of frost!!!

It's not supposed to look like this!!!

Not knowing what that meant, I did some more research (I'm getting REALLY good at researching broken things, and I'm not sure that's a positive...or a negative!).  Well, I learned that it was possible the A-coil itself wasn't draining properly.  Ok, makes sense.  Water condenses, doesn't drain, gets cold, and ices over.

That was the hopeful problem.  Otherwise it could be freon-related or worse.  Well, I'll have to see what the problem is.  For now, I turned off the air-conditioning to allow the frost to melt.  I did take notice, though, that the upper fins are really quite full of dust!

I'm hoping it's just dirty.  Look at those fins!!!  Ew!

But now, all of a sudden, this explains why the floor around the A/C unit is moldy and actively damp.  The water is not able to drain around the frost and just goes where it may...but not in the drain pan.  So is it the A-coil that is not draining properly causing the wet floor or perhaps maybe the drain pipe itself?

We'll have to find out!  But guess what...ANOTHER unexpected project on this house!  It's never-ending!!!