Would You Live And Grow In A Place Where You Found Mold In The Attic?

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Thelight413

Thelight413

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I'm in a little bit of a pickle trying to decide what to do. I found an indoor space/house that I am allowed to live in as well as grow in, friend of mine is moving in a few months and said I could rent the place when he leaves. My only concern is that I found quite a bit of mold in the attic of the house and I just want to kinda hear what people have to say in regards to the question of "Can I still live here/Would you live here, how bad is this for my health?" There is currently a round of plants going in there with no "visible" issues, really solid looking run actually so I don't think environment is being affected by this mold but I'm just trying to do my due dilligence.

I have done a good bit of research into molds, attic molds, removal, repair etc.. and have come to the conclusion that yea...mold is less than ideal to be living around, but it's very dependent on the strain, severity, and location, furthermore, I'm thinking that there are so many poor condition rental properties in my area, in all areas, that..there has to have been mold in some of the places I've lived in the past, all in all this still doesn't make it right haha but, It's either, go through the trouble of finding another landlord and space who will allow some plants or ideally I'd like to make this space work.

I've contacted some local mold inspection services to come and do an inspection and have those readings sent off to a lab, figured that wasn't a bad idea, haven't followed through on it yet but that was a plan, but another part of me just thinks that indoor growing...is most likely always gonna cause these problems, particularly in winter of poorly built homes, warm air from the house and grow room meets the cold air outside in poorly ventilated areas and thus creates a prime environment for mold to party.

Anyone care to chime in on what they would do?

Thanks
 
Thelight413

Thelight413

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Here's an image in the attic, there is more mold between other rafters not pictured, the white stuff is insulation and beneath that is a bedroom.
We are in Colorado. Warm air has been rising up from the house into the attic, meeting the cold air, causing condensation and eventually mold.
The house is pretty poorly built, very thin walls, I'm just tryin to decide if I carry on here.. I dont plan to buy the place, just rent for a year or two. The pickle is that..its not easy to find another space, this one is already built out and ready to go, however..cancer or any long term health effects..juice isn't worth the squeeze, problem is that I'm not qualified to say "this is fine" or "this is a big deal, you shouldn't live here", hoping someone out there might be more well versed.
IMG 5230
 
MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

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Mold can be cleaned with bleach. And then the space would require a dehumidifier to keep drying it out.

My current house had bad black mold in the basement. Its old and has porous rocks for half the foundation from the early 1900’s and old cinder blocks in the newer addition side. The floor is incomplete as well.

And its next to a lake and near lake michigan so it gets humid down there.

With proper cleaning and good properly sized dehumidifiers it stays clean and mold free. But without the help the mold will come back. I have to keep it 55% RH down there.

So it costs money to keep it healthy and safe is the long winded point i am making.
 
Thelight413

Thelight413

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Mold can be cleaned with bleach. And then the space would require a dehumidifier to keep drying it out.

My current house had bad black mold in the basement. Its old and has porous rocks for half the foundation from the early 1900’s and old cinder blocks in the newer addition side. The floor is incomplete as well.

And its next to a lake and near lake michigan so it gets humid down there.

With proper cleaning and good properly sized dehumidifiers it stays clean and mold free. But without the help the mold will come back. I have to keep it 55% RH down there.

So it costs money to keep it healthy and safe is the long winded point i am making.
I appreciate the response, it would be a pretty hefty job to clean this attic thoroughly but its all I got for the time being.
 
jumpincactus

jumpincactus

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nice, got any thing educational to add or no, just leave and dont grow here
This is educational. Some times the best education we can get is the one we really didn't want to hear. There are volumes of data and reasons you 1 should never live there. And 2 don't even think of growing anything in that enviro. You are asking for nothing but headaches...……….. with the grow.

A thorough mold abatement and then decided how to better ventilate that attic space. Since you can spend lots of dinero abating but if the root cause isn't cured you will always struggle.:(
 
Madbud

Madbud

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nice, got any thing educational to add or no, just leave and dont grow here
JIC is right, thats active black mold/mildew in particleboard. You cant really encapsulate it, the roof leaks and needs to be replaced. That moldy sheathing requires special handling, expensive. If you are susceptible to pollen and allergies, black mold spores can kill you. The plants ?
 
Thelight413

Thelight413

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This is educational. Some times the best education we can get is the one we really didn't want to hear. There are volumes of data and reasons you 1 should never live there. And 2 don't even think of growing anything in that enviro. You are asking for nothing but headaches...……….. with the grow.

A thorough mold abatement and then decided how to better ventilate that attic space. Since you can spend lots of dinero abating but if the root cause isn't cured you will always struggle.:(

certainly certainly, obviously would like to hear that it's probably alright and not a big deal but I'm really just looking for honest, EDUCATED opinions, not saying you're not educated but was hoping people would come with some facts, I have heard mold specialists say that people blow these issues out of the water and alot of the times, the person living there is only effected if they have an allergy. I'm curious to your "don't grow anything in there" because currently.... there is a sealed, climate controlled room, 4 lighter running in there right now, on drip system and looks like its gonna pull an easy 2.5 per light, i don't think the plants are affected by this
 
MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

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Like said above i realize now i forgot to say to fix the problem first. My house had bad leaky plumbing which we replaced most of. If the leaks were still active i would never be able to control the environment.
 
jumpincactus

jumpincactus

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certainly certainly, obviously would like to hear that it's probably alright and not a big deal but I'm really just looking for honest, EDUCATED opinions, not saying you're not educated but was hoping people would come with some facts, I have heard mold specialists say that people blow these issues out of the water and alot of the times, the person living there is only effected if they have an allergy. I'm curious to your "don't grow anything in there" because currently.... there is a sealed, climate controlled room, 4 lighter running in there right now, on drip system and looks like its gonna pull an easy 2.5 per light, i don't think the plants are affected by this
Well then ,,, with that said, with all your convos with the experts, why ask a stoner for education... lmao

Move right on in. And in my defense you didn't say anything about a successful grow going on there already. Thought from your wording you were prospecting. My 1st concern was for your families health. Then the grows success.

I have my own experts I listen to and its called common sense. I wouldn't live in that place if you paid me to.
 
Thelight413

Thelight413

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Like said above i realize now i forgot to say to fix the problem first. My house had bad leaky plumbing which we replaced most of. If the leaks were still active i would never be able to control the environment.

Right on, yea I'm not very well versed in home building and am struggling a little to determine the exact cause. After reading online, it sounds like in some homes..where a grow room isn't even present, the internal heat of the home can rise up through the house and into a poorly vented attic and cause these types of problem. I was also told by someone else that there is not enough insulation on specific parts of the house, like in specific corners, so cold air from outside is meeting the warm air inside and creating condensation.
 
Thelight413

Thelight413

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Well then ,,, with that said, with all your convos with the experts, why ask a stoner for education... lmao

Move right on in. And in my defense you didn't say anything about a successful grow going on there already. Thought from your wording you were prospecting. My 1st concern was for your families health. Then the grows success.

I have my own experts I listen to and its called common sense. I wouldn't live in that place if you paid me to.
Yea for sure well it's kinda a tricky situation man, I'm not trying to be a wise ass about anything, I can't exactly call the home inspector over to my 4 lighter and ask them to test the air quality and send it off to a lab, well I could..but I ideally don't want the home inspector to know whats going on so that Is why I came here to ask some people. And ya.. I wish I could move right on in but my conscience is saying one thing while what pays the bills is saying another thing.... make sense? Just because we smoke weed and may consider ourselves stoners, does not mean that we do not have some extremely intellectual individuals in our scene, not everyone's a pile and a lot of people speak from actual experience which is generally the best teacher. All in all..NO i dont want to move into this place with mold but, IF it can work and I'LL be alright, then shit man thats what i'm tryin to figure out, you got a list of grow friendly landlords who don't want an arm and a leg, shit's not easy and we all aren't licensed these days.
 
Dirtbag

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That particle board needs to be removed to properly remediate. You wont be able to just wash that off. To remediate it improperly you could soak everything in bleach and then fumigate heavily with sulphur vapour. But the mold will still be there deep in the sheathing and come back unless you correct the cause either with dehumidifyers or ventilation, and possibly stopping any leaks.

To be fair this is the homeowners responsibility not the tenants. Is your buddy the homeowner? And I'm curious, does the grow space vent into the attic?

As for the question of what I would do... I'm with jumpincactus, I'd look for somewhere else.
 
Freshone

Freshone

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Thats a nightmare and the only way to mitigate is rip it out,please dont live there if you have children.
Was your buddy growing there and exhausting into the attic?I had renters that did that and it cost me 15gs without labor to rip off the decking,reroof and replace moldy drywall.They will redtag a house like that if they see it around here.
 
Thelight413

Thelight413

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That particle board needs to be removed to properly remediate. You wont be able to just wash that off. To remediate it improperly you could soak everything in bleach and then fumigate heavily with sulphur vapour. But the mold will still be there deep in the sheathing and come back unless you correct the cause either with dehumidifyers or ventilation, and possibly stopping any leaks.

To be fair this is the homeowners responsibility not the tenants. Is your buddy the homeowner? And I'm curious, does the grow space vent into the attic?

As for the question of what I would do... I'm with jumpincactus, I'd look for somewhere else.

I appreciate the response, and it's definitely the owner's responsibility, my buddy is not the homeowner but he is friends with him. The landlord/owner has basically been renting this house out for about 4 years...to growers only..which I assume is why this has problem has gotten to this point, I'm not for certain if its from growers but it would make sense, especially if the walls are thin and high humidity was ran, or it could be just a thinly, poorly built home allowing heat to escape and that's the reason for these issues.

Definitely am on the hunt for a new space but it's just difficult.
 
Thelight413

Thelight413

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Thats a nightmare and the only way to mitigate is rip it out,please dont live there if you have children.
Was your buddy growing there and exhausting into the attic?I had renters that did that and it cost me 15gs without labor to rip off the decking,reroof and replace moldy drywall.They will redtag a house like that if they see it around here.

I cant confirm if they were running air into the attic but it wouldn't surprise me sadly, they aren't very good growers not to say that says anything about how they ran things but I could see that being their choice of "cooling", I feel bad for the landlord because I think I'm the only one who has gone up into the attic to check this out and I'll be the one to break the news to him explaining why I don't want to rent it after my buddy leaves. :(

I'm just sort of curious as to.. can you run a controlled room in bedrooms of houses and not cause any damage as far as moisture and humidity go? I think you can if you truly control all your factors like temp and humidity but idk for sure. Personally, and no bullshit, I feel bad coming in to someones property who has given you the green light as long as you don't damage anything, and then people are just causing damage left and right.

Another friend of mine is growing in the mtn's around 8500ft elevation, indoors though, but the room he's growing, I noticed the other day that he has some moisture damage (bubbling on the dry wall) so I was like whats up with that man? "uhh idk, yeaaa uhh thats been goin on unfortunately" so I'm like well shit... obviously people don't want people growing in their rental properties for these specific reasons but im wondering...if youre holding your paramaters in check with PROPER equipment, humidity specifically, and its not spiking above 70%...can you grow damage free or is this just what homegrows do..?
 
1diesel1

1diesel1

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Here's an image in the attic, there is more mold between other rafters not pictured, the white stuff is insulation and beneath that is a bedroom.
We are in Colorado. Warm air has been rising up from the house into the attic, meeting the cold air, causing condensation and eventually mold.
The house is pretty poorly built, very thin walls, I'm just tryin to decide if I carry on here.. I dont plan to buy the place, just rent for a year or two. The pickle is that..its not easy to find another space, this one is already built out and ready to go, however..cancer or any long term health effects..juice isn't worth the squeeze, problem is that I'm not qualified to say "this is fine" or "this is a big deal, you shouldn't live here", hoping someone out there might be more well versed.
View attachment 863741
You have a serious issue with your home. The attic is condensating so bad the particle board is wet. Most likely if you are growing up there you are increasing the problem. If you look closely at the particle board seam in your pic it is sagging from the weight of the roof. This is a serious issue you need to fix as soon as possible. In your picture the 2x6s look like they actually have moisture bleeding down them from the plywood this is absolutely bad. If you are going up there for long periods of time I would suggest you wear some type of breathing apparatus around 100100 NIOSH wich is designed for organic vapors. If you look very closely at the upper rite 2x6 you’ll see a very dark brown almost black streak coming from the top of the 2x6 that is caused from the 15 pound felt that is a vapor barrier under the asphalt shingles. Most likely the roof is leaking basically from the bottom vapor Barrier being wet from the extreme amount of humidity that is being introduced in your attic. The white mold is not all that bad but the black mold is a hole different subject that I’m not even going to get into. If you are a healthy individual and want to stay that way I would stay the fuck out of there. I’m not talking out my ass bro, I’m a 23 year journeyman roofer. I’ve been in many attics seen a lot of bad shit over the years yours is by far the worst I’ve seen in a very long time. If your a renter ide get the fuck out of there if your landlord finds out you are the cause of the problem he’s gona nail you in the wallet so hard your head will spin. If you own the place for God’s sake man fix it for your family and your health. Mold in that condition is nothing to fuck with it’s a slow killer that takes time to destroy your body.
Good luck bro your gona need it!!
 
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