I'm not an expert by any means, but I think all you can do is remove all the rotting wood and drywall. Hopefully, as you go, you will be able to find the source of the water.

Did you have a sink, dishwasher or window anywhere near the area where you found mold? Is your tub/shower located on the adjacent bathroom wall? Was it the upper or lower cabs that had mold behind?

Sorry you found this problem. It always sucks when the project goes off in directions we didn't anticipate.

Here's a mold killer recipe:

try a spray bottle with the following in it:

1/2 gal. white vinegar
1/2 gal. hydrogen peroxide-common peroxide available from your drugstore
1 cup boric acid
keep closed tightly
mix well - use in a spray bottle on a dry surface.

Shake well and spray area well. The vinegar/peroxide kills active live mold and the boric acid keeps them that way. (Note: uncapped peroxide loses it's oxygen molecules to the air when not capped tight and becomes H2O [water], so keep this solution in a bottle that can be capped off tight).

Keep in mind, the mold WILL return unless you identify the source.

thanks. Tomorrow the walls come down and am hoping to investigate the source. Actually, I know where it is coming from for the most part. The upstairs bathroom is directly above. I guess i'll be taking down some of the ceiling as well.

Pull the sheetrock or whatever your wall is amde of off the studs. You may see more traces inside the wall than you are seeing on the outside. Look for a pattern in the area with mold -- you may see water stains in areas that don't have mold that could show where there was more drying -- might help you trace back to the wetter source.

Check all the possibly sources -- the ones I can think of offhabd would include

an appliance or fixture connection
water supply line -- especially at turns or joints, but could have a tiny hole or leak anywhere
a drain line
roof or a flashing leak that could be running down the wall
a vent stack or other opening in your roof that could leak
Water heater starting to leak
AC drain clog or leak
2nd story plumbing fixtures or drains
exterior water supply line (like my faucet outside the kitchen window)

If the mold is not in an area of the kitchen that has water and drain lines, I would look to the bathroom and overhead for a possible source. Identifying the source, correcting the problem and letting everything dry thoroughly are VERY important. REplace the wallboard and any insulation -- the studs depending on how bad things are.

You're right -- withthe walls coming down or opening up for work is a better time to find this problem. Fix it well so everything that goes back up can stay back up.

1. Calm down and DO NOT research alleged health hazards on the internet. There was a lot of hype/scare tactics abounding a few years ago. Most of it did not hold up to scientific scrutiny, but rumors still abound in cyberspace.
2. Mold needs water and food to grow; it especially likes cellulose (paper on back of drywall) and, to a lesser degree, wood. Find the water source. Fix it. That will stop further mold growth.
3. Calm down. It's not as bad as it looks.
4. Kill the visible mold spores (mold spores "fruit" even when dead, say some experts): depending on how bad it is and from easiest/DIY to hardest/call in professionals: wipe down with bleach (or what the 1st poster recommends), use a fungicide (Kilz - paint primer - is a mild one IIRC), scrub with wire scrubber, sister in a stud next to the rotted stud, replace the rotted stud.
5. Calm down. I mention this again because there was a lot of hype, I made a lot of money off it (I'm an atty specializing in construction defect law), and had to deal with a lot of very upset clients.
Good luck!

Bluekitobsessed is right -- there was a lot of hype that made some folks a lot of mooney, cost others money (the folks trying to sell homes or iinsure them atthe time) and rewrote insurance policies, but it's not as bad as all that hype. My background is a commercial laws and in-house atty in other areas who grew up in the insurance business. My dad was an agent and started his agency in out family room.

Clean it, repair it, dry it, double check it, and carry on.

We found that we had some hidden water damage and mold in this house. It was a relocation deal, and none of the damage was worth going back against the company, the realtor and the out of state homeowner -- and there was no way we could tell who had done the hiding. Most of it cleaned up int he kitchen remodel and the other appears to be nothing more than a water sopt that came through on our bathroom ceiling but no continuing leak. Some kilz, some white paint -- back in business.

Good luck getting it cleaned up, fixed up, and keeping your cool. ;-)

Just following along. Wow! Thanks everyone for the education.

Bluekitobsessed, DD battled mold in her "new to her" house too. She's in the process of putting the walls and ceilings back together as time and money permit, but she was being told (by mold remediators and ozone machine dealer) not to report it to ins. co. That not only would insurance not cover any of it but it would also go into insurance database and make the property forever unsellable--because future buyers wouldn't be able to get insurance. I did read something to that effect in insurance websites too. Can you shed any light on that aspect? Thanks.

JDM34, I'm so sorry this happened in your house but, please don't let my post scare you further. DD's house had been horribly neglected by people who were too lazy to even CLEAN before showing it for sale, much less bother to find and fix a leak--and there were many longstanding leaks. Just one of the many "surprises" she found after a home inspector pointed out so many obvious defects. But for some reason she really loved the house anyway. Sandy

I must have been still typing as lascatx posted. That's just what I was asking about. Sandy

I agree with janwad. Although I used to be pretty skeptical about these things, I once had to visit an abandoned unit that was full of mold. After about five minutes, I had to leave and was completely overcome with an asthma attack. There may have been abuse of these cases, as there were with asbestos, and other real health hazards. That doesn't mean they were never valid.

I do have allergies to mold and mildew. I also had fibromyalgia diagnosed some years ago -- having nothing to do with mold or mildew. I still say that most of the issues were hyped and sometimes severely hyped. That doesn't mean that no one had or has legitimate health issues, but it does mean that a form of hyesteria developed. I also suspect that anyone with fibromyalgia, CFS, Lyme Disease or MCS has issues other than mold and/or mildew to be concerned about -- even if those problems are or may be made worse by excessive exposure to mold and mildew. And I say excessive because you cannot live along the Gulf Coast and not be exposed to molds and mildew most of the year -- indoors or outdoors. You can control them by not giving them places to flourish in or around your home, by watching for any water issues and by promptly fixing them.

I'm not attacking anyone or their experiences -- I just know what I saw in near hysteria here in the Gulf Coast, both among home owners, then insurance companies, then the real estate market. I saw people with no problems who couldn't sell their home. We were told that because of a hail storm and a roof claim, we would not be able to replace the coverage on our home -- and we could have had an issue selling it if the person buying it had a problem getting insurance. We didn't even have to have a leak-- we had fixed the roof so we wouldn't have a leak. We avoided the problem by renting for a year (takind a different kind of property damage) and then selling. And that's with my BIL as my insurance agent and the company one my dad had been a major agent for since I was a child.

I saw people who did have problems who couldn't get them resolved for years. I saw several neighbors replace bathrooms and or kitchens -- full upgrades, because they had ignored a water leak and filed a claim. They made no bones about the fact that they wouldn't have done it expect that insurance was paying for it. And so many other problems. I am also certain that if the problems were as severe as some hyped them to be, there wouldn't be a healthy person within 100 miles for at least half of the summers. We have mold and mildew spores in the air all the time and moisture makes them come to life and grow. And we get plenty of that. Life in the subtropics.

Sandy, real estate and insurance issues vary from state to state. I would suggest she talk to the realtor -- they should know if there are insurance and issues regarding slaes of homes that have had mold remediation. It took and insurance and housing crisis here to force regulatory and legislative changes about 4 or 5 years ago. I just had my policy renewed, so I have the documents here, and they specifically state that any mold remediation is limited to $5000 (where before, people were spending $500,000 to make repairs on a $200,000 house -- they would also list as a claim a phone call asking about a damage issue even though no payment or request for payment ever occurred). It also states that you cannot be denied coverage for mold or water damage claims unless certain criteria are met or not met. That being the case, certifying that corrective work was done and done properly and having thorough inspections before buying should address the concerns.

I can understand that your daughter would not want to call and ask her insurance agent for fear of creating the very situation she wants to avoid, but I would also not take only the word of those doing the work. They may be 100% correct and accurate -- they may also have issues they want to hide and don't want anyone tipping her off. Maybe there are still places that are as crazy as it was here -- I just wouldn't take their word alone for it.

dont panic..its very common to find during a renovation. When we ripped out my cabinets and tile floor .....we were shocked to find black mold under the entire floor, and up part of the walls..... we ended up ripping the floor out all the way to the studs... met the crickets in the crawl space....washed the studs real well with a bleach solution ...put in new insulation.... ripped out the bad sheet rock....and moved on ..... its a mess but very common...i had a leaky dishwasher years ago which was my source....find the source ...fix it.... clean up and move on ....and before you know it you will have a beautiful new kitchen and this mess will be behind you.... we even called in a mold remedeation guy after we had cleaned up to ensure we did the right thing and we had..

To give my perspective on insurance question and hype: Doctors have known for years in the medical community that all mold makes some people sick -- 5 to 20% of the population (depending on who you ask) is truly allergic to mold (and, often, a lot of other things), which can be diagnosed by a competent allergist with basic skin prick testing (there's also a few diseases caused by extreme exposure -- "farmers lung" and the like). The hype circa 2001 was the proposition that some mold (black mold) makes all people sick. Peer reviewed studies, which I have read, generally disproved that starting about 2004. So I'm not knocking those who are genuinely ill, but at the same time a lot of people were making a lot of money trying to convince 80-95% of the population that they were deathly ill. In the meantime, the insurance industry, which generally doesn't like water damage claims, freaked out because of the high cost (replacing a water damaged sheet of drywall might cost $1 but remediating mold from the same sheet might cost $10) and high risk (insured might sue for bad faith if not handled correctly). So the insurers started excluding/limiting mold and establishing a national database of water damage claims. I have advised people to submit claims only when they are catastrophic, not piddly little things, knowing that they might get dropped by their insurer and be unable to obtain alternative insurance. I think the market may have loosened up a bit in the last year or so but I'm not sure. In the meantime, I tend to agree with those who say fix it (at the source -- that means tracking the leak) and move on for all things short of catastrophic.

I am not on the Gulf Coast. I understand, very generally from the national legal news sources, that y'all have a whole 'nother nightmare, and my heart goes out to you.

Thank you both for your input. I agree it became quite the witchhunt a few years ago. DD had/has extensive damage and is just beginning to get those ripped out walls and fixtures back in place--major financial setback when her company eliminated her entire national sales force in a conference call on the very morning she closed on the house. But she's slowly getting back on track and fixing the problems in the manner you've calmly suggested they should be done. Thank you, Sandy

There are people who are allergic to mold. Absolutely.

There are people who are also deathly allergic to strawberries.

Nobody sues when they go into a house and find strawberries.

(I, too, could tell stories about people who got rich off mold. People with zero science background who scared the pants off people, and asked communities to take on millions in debt to tear down and rebuild schools and public facilities because mold was "detected".)

Fix the CAUSE of the mold because it means there's water coming in or condensing somewhere, and water is a house's worst enemy. Fix any damage. Clean it up because, well, it's gross. And then DON'T WORRY.

The term "black mold" was used to describe a particularly dangerous type of mold. But lots of mold is black in color. (except some cheese molds)

So finding "black mold" doesn't mean you have the more dangerous type of mold; you have *a* mold.

Growlery...there's one BIG difference b/w a strawberry allergy and a mold allergy. The strawberry is sitting peacefully on the counter and won't affect most people allergic to them unless they touch or ingest them. Mold, OTOH, is happily and busily sending out thousands (millions?) of spores into the air you breath...hence if someone allergic to mold even walks into the house they are inhaling the spores and, in many cases, an asthma attack can be triggered.

My DS and I have mold allergies so I know of what I speak!

BTW...people w/peanut allergies can also be as easily affected as those w/air borne allergies (mold, pollen, etc.). The scent/smell/odor of peanuts can trigger an allergic response in some who are severely allergic to them.

I have a son with a shellfish allergy who has had a reaction from a plate of shrimp fajitas going by in the restaurant. I really do understand the allergy and sensitivity issues. But honestly, a person who has been living in the home without a problem and only finds it while demoing for a remodel is not one of those cases.