So what advice did your mold experts give you? Certainly not peroxide, baking soda & boric acid?? Have you heard of a product called Boracare? It is a mold inhibitor that sprays on & will keep mold in an inactive state. Understand that you can't kill mold, just keep it inactive. If Relative Humidity (RH) gets above 50% mold growth will be activated again. You can bleach it, kiltz it...but it is just covering the mold up for alimited time. I would first look for the moisture intrusion that caused the mold growth. Get a roofer with a good reputation & good flashing education to take a look at the flashing of the skylights. Is this where the moisture intrusion began? Also look at the wall covering in your bathroom. If you have vinyl wall paper this is a source of mold as it traps moisture behind it. Oil based paintd also make a vapor barrer on top of your walls. The paper backing on the back of sheetrock is an issue. There is a brand called Densearmor or Denseguard that has no paper backing.. For mold to grow it has to have moisture and a food source eliminate the moisture first and then determine if the food source needs replacing. Have an electrician hard wire the fan to come on when the light is turned on. Bath fans should run at least 20 minutes after shower/bath is finished to remove the additoinal humidity that has been introduced into the home. Best of luck to you.

Wherever you want to stop the wainscot, the end of the chair rail should be mitered and returned. Here's how you do that. 1. You cut the end of the chair rail at a 45 degree angle just as if you were going around a corner. 2. You cut a piece of scrap chair rail at a opposite 45 degree angle starting at the inside corner. One side or the triangle should be the outside face of the scrap chair molding. It will be the exact thickness of your chair molding. 3. Now you can glue your piece onto the end of the chair molding and clamp with tape or spring clamps till the glue dries. This will give your chair rail a finished look on the ends. You can probably find a picture of this if you google "mitered and returned molding".

Just wanted to give an update on this since so many of you had ideas on what the issue could be. Since the last post we just last week had the drywall removed, new drywall installed, a new cabinet and hooked everything back up. It was under the builders impression that the issue was still caused by the constant fan. However, shortly after the last post we discovered that our Septic Tank was never turned on. It began overflowing into the backyard, which is right behind the side of the home with the moisture issue. We were concerned about why the septic pump alarm never went off and that was because it was never connected by the electrician. We moved in last November so it was off for that whole time. We never noticed back up toilets or any odors or even the toilets making bubbly noises. We got that hooked up correctly and it started working. Last night when I was cleaning my sons room I noticed the edge of the wall on the hardwood flooring had water stains that were solid black. We have the Chesapeake Bay Gray Fog Engineered Hardwood flooring thru-out our whole first floor except for the wet areas where we have tile. The black spots we noticed are the same spots that had high moisture readings when we noticed the mold issue. The builder said the two issues werent related and that we would deal with the moisture after we took care of the mold issue. Since I have looked into all of these possible solutions, my only idea of what could have caused all this is the flashing on the home. It looked correct when they removed the brick on the side of the home but it has to have gaps in places that allowed water to leak in. the water spots are about every two feet away from each other in my youngest sons room and we found one spot in the dining area which is on the front of the home and then in the bedroom next to the bathroom that had the mold. Thank you for all of your help researching and figuring it all out.

Thanks for the tips everyone! Judy, thanks for that article! People keep telling me I'm crazy, we have city water so no way could it have mold in the pipes. Maybe it's time to get it tested, just to be sure. To answer some questions: We aren't touching the exterior of the home unless we have to due to mold issues. We are well-prepared to find mold, dry-rot, and all manner of issues once we rip the shower out. The good news is it's not in the attic, because we can get up there and see that. And it isn't in the wall behind the faucet handle. But I suspect we will have to replace subfloor, insulation, and maybe some joists and framing. The only thing that would surprise me is if it isn't as bad as I think it is. I can't start ripping it out yet though. We won't start the project until I've done a lot of research - demo may be 3-4 months away or more if we find major problems. I do my homework. And I don't want to be without a shower for 9 months or forced to move ahead with the project before I'm ready. But the shower is above the garage, so to your point...I think at least I'll drill some holes in the garage ceiling drywall and get a look underneath before we start this. The bathtub hasn't been used in years because it's one of those jetted-deals that spews black crud every time you turn it on. That's where the new shower is going. I can see under the tub, it's all good, so at least there we are starting fresh there. It's a good point that mold remediation may be necessary...We've done it in the past with my mothers house, so I'm familiar with that process and the lengths they go to to eradicate it. I'll be prepared for this. .I'll look into the dehumidifying system too. This is an avenue I haven't explored yet. Thanks everyone!