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Post-flooding untraceable stench.
desperaterobots
perth, ausRegistered User regular
perth, ausRegistered User regular
Hi guys,
We had a crazy ass storm here on Tuesday. My house was partially flooded (hallway mostly) but there was some water in my room near the door. We have floorboards, and I live in a very old house, probably built between 1900 and 1940. Can't tell exactly.
Anyway, the house smelled of dirt quite strongly initially, but that's subsided after cleaning up. However, since the rain subsided and until now, I'm detecting a pretty pungent odor in my bedroom. It's sort of like mulch/decaying vegetable matter/death. I'm thinking theres something under the floorboards that's been awoken by sudden saturation. Or perhaps something drowned down there. :?
What's the best way to go about getting rid of this smell in the short term? I've lit candles (non-scented), sprayed 'odour neutralising' stuff in the air, and I've even squirted cologne around the place. Seems to be okay for a while then, hey, what the fuck, my nose is full of ass again. Anything else I could be trying here?
In the long-term, just see how we go and eventually call the landlord? (I've already called them about the flooding and took pictures before cleaning up.)
My nostrils thank you.
We had a crazy ass storm here on Tuesday. My house was partially flooded (hallway mostly) but there was some water in my room near the door. We have floorboards, and I live in a very old house, probably built between 1900 and 1940. Can't tell exactly.
Anyway, the house smelled of dirt quite strongly initially, but that's subsided after cleaning up. However, since the rain subsided and until now, I'm detecting a pretty pungent odor in my bedroom. It's sort of like mulch/decaying vegetable matter/death. I'm thinking theres something under the floorboards that's been awoken by sudden saturation. Or perhaps something drowned down there. :?
What's the best way to go about getting rid of this smell in the short term? I've lit candles (non-scented), sprayed 'odour neutralising' stuff in the air, and I've even squirted cologne around the place. Seems to be okay for a while then, hey, what the fuck, my nose is full of ass again. Anything else I could be trying here?
In the long-term, just see how we go and eventually call the landlord? (I've already called them about the flooding and took pictures before cleaning up.)
My nostrils thank you.
desperaterobots on
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Maybe it's not mold, though.
Standard procedure is to rip off all the wall surface that was at the waterline plus a safety margin to contain the spores, spray the hardwood with an anti-fungal sealer, and then rebuild the wall over the sprayed boards.
Since you're renting you don't need to worry about that though. Move.
Seriously, move. Exposure to black mold spores is worse for your health then smoking.
2x8s and actual wooden planks are a lot more resistant to water damage. Sheetrock and Particle Board, not so much.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Check your lease first and determine exactly what requirements the landlord has for mold repair. Also, you can look up the rent laws in your state. I wouldn't wait to contact your landlord, I'd let him know ASAP. E-mail as well so that you have a copy, or send him a letter after making a copy first, so that you have some documentation (in case he decides to be a dick and not deal with it). Document all communication with him.
As Gothic said, moving may be your best bet, depending on if that's an option for you.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
There was a thread on another forum I was trying to find about a guy who's girlfriend was hospitalized after collapsing in a bathroom from blood loss from her nose. When the guy got home from the hospital, he also started bleeding from the nose. That was only the start of a pretty vicious downward spiral. Black mold had apparently gotten pretty securely rooted in both of their bodies and it took weeks of really harsh medicines to help them.
Fortunately they both lived, but it was apparently pretty close.
Exactly. Your lungs and sinus tissues are as hospitable an environment for mold as your walls are.
One weird thing that happened when my apartment was flooded during Hurricane Ike was that water sorta traveled under the carpet - so although my carpet was technically only ruined in the living room, I noticed a smell in my bedroom, moved my bookcase, and found out that water had traveled to the bedroom and there was minor damage to the carpet there too. It wouldn't have been noticeable if I hadn't had heavy things pressing down on the carpet and bringing the water up.
In any case, DEFINITELY check for mold. If there IS mold, it's all on your landlord. And you will probably want to move out.
edit: Oh you live in Australia. Hrmmm.
Indeed, and concidering he lives in Australia, the land where absolutely everything can and will kill you in mostly horrific ways, i dont even want to think about what the fungus there can do.
As someone mentioned further up, the walls have to come down where the water has been, floorboards have to come up. Wouldnt suprise me if quite a bit of the floor comes up. Having worked with some people who do this kind of thing for a living, they will tear down shit untill its all %100 dry and no water damage at all.
I guess it could be fungus...? I'll email them about the smell now so they can send someone out to have a look. Might be a good excuse to move out...!
Not could, is.
Mold is not one of those "maybe, maybe not" things like radon or a bad burner in your furnace. If the house gets flooded, you have it, period. There are fungal spores everywhere all the time, and when you flood a house you give them lots and lots of the two things they need to make a colony:
1. Dark
2. Damp
The damp may not last but once colonies form they never truly die; a single lone spore in an arid place won't likely form a colony but once a colony does form, small bits of it will remain dormant once the water vanishes, becoming intermittently active when ambient humidity allows it to grow.
Let the area dry, use a household cleaner to clean the area, let it dry from that, then put everything back together again. The only thing that should be the same afterwords is the wood. Everything else should be new.
I'm thinking of moving, it will probably be easier.
Definitely a job you shouldn't be doing, and almost certainly a job your lease prevents you from doing. If you try, and screw something up, you'd be on the fence for damages. Start calling your landlord (he might not be reading e-mail), send e-mails with read receipts. It might not be a bad idea to contact your state or town housing authority to see what action you can take. 5 days with no action on your landlord's part can't be acceptable.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
This is a little over the top, there are many different varieties of fungus/mold and people react differently to all of them. Black mold's toxicity is still even somewhat debated, though you don't want to keep babies or the elderly around it for obvious reasons, and general exposure is frowned upon. That said, when my house flooded last I got the same pungent odor, and it turned out to be the pad underneath my carpet. If any of your carpet got wet, that would the first place I'd look.
But yes, your landlord does need to verify that you do not have an active mold colony growing in the insulation of your walls or paper backing of your drywall. Which means they need to have a reputable remediation company come out and inspect the damage and repair as necessary.
Sounds like it's time for some official mail sent certified/registered so you have a record of it.
You're right in saying that the chances of a fungus taking hold in a healthy adult body are pretty slim. That said, besides all the obvious unpleasantness associated with living in a fungal hellhole, inundating your lungs with spores is a bad idea as, should you get a fungal infection, they are bloody hard to kill. We're much more closely related to fungi than we are to bacteria or viruses. With the latter two, the basic treatment for an infection involves "target cellular processes unique to them." With fungal infections, it's "target an important cellular process that we probably share with the fungi and hope they die first." It's a close race even when we win it.
There is an excellent medical reason not to live in a moldy environment.