I am sorry to hear about this.I do not have experience with this however;I knew someone that had a probem with mold in their home and their insurance company had people come out and take care of it for them.
Did you take out any constuction insurance,if you did perhaps they could help you.Hopefully something like this would be covered under your insurance or maybe your builders insurance.
Take care and good luck.

I'm not sure I understand. Is the plywood siding the final outside siding on the house? Is it painted? If it is, they didn't use a paint with a mildewcide in it. Mildew will not form on surfaces painted with this. If it's already been painted I'd consider having it painted again with the mildewcide just on that portion of the siding that is showing the mildew. You said mold, do you mean mildew? There is a difference.

No, it's mold on the basic plywood siding, waiting for the black paper & stucco. I'm sorry - not totally up to speed on builder's terms!

I will speak to our builder about the insurance, as we have been quoted $17K to erradicate with a 5 year warranty! Our builder is suggesting hiring day laborers & supplying them with a spray system filled with a bleach solution and wire brushes...

Meeting on Friday to discuss, so any further thoughts much appreciated!

We are building in So Cal too. Several houses from the ocean and therefore, we get a lot of moisture.
One day during framing we noticed some "mildew" on the plywood flooring boards. My DH, allergic to just about everything, flipped. He started spraying ALL of the rest of the framing boards with a green, smelly, wood treatment, this was an insecticide, mold inhibitor.

Shortly after framing was complete, we tented the house and applied another mold inhibitor called methyl bromide, DWT. This was for the mildew we saw earlier and the termites we always get around here.

I actually thought my DH was losing it and really over reacting, but I didn't want to veto this decision he felt was so important to his health.
The cost of this service was about $3600. For his peace of mind....priceless.
Hope this helps.
V

boracare is a mold inhibitor..bleaches don't stop mold
they just bleach it away. Mold will -re-activate at below
50% Relative Humidity..so the trick is to treat &
then keep areas dry.
boracare can be applied with a sprayer...and can be diy..
at certaian levels of diy expertiese.

Best of luck to you.

We are building in southern Florida.

Is this a common enough problem with a southern build that we should talk to our contractor about it in advance?

Thanks ~ and thank you for posting about this aspect of building in the warm, humid South.

Barbara

We had mold in the basement of our house. Had to stop framing and bring in people in 'spacesuits' to properly treat. Took most of a week. This was before insurance companies wrote non-coverage into their policies. State Farm paid $15K. We paid $1K.

If this is toxic mold, nobody should be touching it withour proper breathing protection. (Day laborers? I don't want that on my conscience.)

We had problems like this of nightmare proportions when our builder didn't put a roof on before insulating and sheetrocking the home...over 5" of hard summer rains later and we had serious problems. After two different inspectors a lawyer and seven weeks later the problem was finally remedied by removing all sheetrock and insulation (a very nasty mess when using blown-in insulation) and using dry ice to blast all surfaces along with sanding visible areas of mold growth. I learned a heck of a lot through the process and the only way to remove mold growth is through dry ice combined with sanding. A fungicide or mold inhibiting spray will NOT prevent mold growth from occuring in areas where the mold is already present. Our builder claims that the remediation cost him about $30,000. I don't really believe that it was this expensive and we found out in the process that he lies profusely and to your face, so I really can't guess the total cost. It took two guys in space suits two weeks to clean it out after the insulation and drywall had been removed. The lab tests to confirm that the mold growth was gone were about $100 per sample, so it wasn't cheap. My husband has very bad mold allergies and asthma so we were very concerned throughout the process that if it wasn't taken care of properly we wouldn't be able to live in the house. My advice to you is to do your homework and be aggressive in the treatment process. If necessary find a trustworthy home inspector that can test the mold growth and tell you if you have anything that is potentially toxic or if it is the type of mold typically found in your region. There are many types of mold and some are worse than others. Hang in there and know that it is MUCH cheaper to fix it now than down the road once the house is built.

Kilz is just a primer and stain blocker. Won't kill it at all, just cover it up. Maybe spray with a high strength peroxide (pool type). It should kill it and sterilize anything left over. Then spray with timbor which is also a preventative for termites so it would be good for more than one thing in your area.

Everything so far your builder has suggested doesn't seem like it would really take care of the issue. Do some research yourself and figure out what to do. Even if it is just regular lumber yard mold it could cause sensitivities in somebody with mold allergies. I live in a humid climate and there is lots of mold in the air at certain times of the year here and I'm allergic to it as in getting a stuffy head and itchy eyes even though none of it is toxic.

Here is a link that might be useful: Timbor

Lyfia is right, those types of products do not kill the mold, they simply cover it up. Also, no one can tell if the mold is "not bad for your health" by just looking at it. That is hooey. Hire an inspector and find out for yourself what type of mold you are dealing with. Only then will you be able to make educated decisions in how to treat it. The builder, even if he has been honest with you so far, is probably going to resist aggressive treatment because it will take time and money and slow down the work on the project by several weeks. In the end it is you who needs to decide whether the type and amount of mold bothers you and what you want to do about it. The builder will likely be looking for the quick fix. It is very difficult to prevent mold from occurring in open construction, but an inspector can help you determine what a normal "spore count" is for construction and whether you have a problem that is beyond that level. Typically if you can see it growing, you've got too many mold spores and they need to be treated.

Remember that no one else will be looking out for your best interest, so learn all you can and question the treatments until you are comfortable with the approach. We thought that our builder was trustworthy also until the mold problems arose. After that we learned how awful and dishonest he really is...it has been very difficult building with someone you don't trust as the GC, but we've learned the hard way to question everything from window flashing to how many coats of paint are going on the walls and what quality of paint is used! We're about two weeks from moving in and they're still lying to us weekly but through micro-managing and learning every detail I am at least comfortable that we've held them accountable to build a quality home. The best part about being finished won't be moving in...it will be never dealing with the builder again! I sure hope that your builder is a better person and runs an ethical business and can help you address the mold issue and move on.

I am wondering if anyone did a Boracare with Moldcare treatment and how it held up over the years.