Not dead yet!
Well-Known Member
I have a lab tested case of Stachybotrys in my home. It grew on the outside of windows because:
1. It's been humid for months, and it takes 93% of higher humidity to allow it to grow.
2. The AC makes the windows 'stream' on the outside with water.
3. The windows are old, single pane, and the glazing was breaking down, allowing even more air to enter, bringing spores.
4. The paint was old enough to have cracks opening the wood to the fungus.
5. There was flashing instead of weather stripping on the windows and underneath, it was bare wood, never been painted there. There are three places for flashing, top, bottom and middle. If you have flashing, remove it, paint it, put weather stripping there.
6. Some fool of a construction engineer decided it was clever to put HVAC forced air registers right underneath windows which just added to the streaming effect of water on the outside. We bought air redirectors so the cold air doesn't go straight up.
7. My husband insisted we do NOT put curtains up (blocks the view), and it was a huge mistake because it added to the cold air/hot air effect that caused the water on the outside. Use curtains if you have old windows!
The cost for replacing windows never came down below $9000 for about 20 windows in a medium size home, not even if we chose picture windows in places.
The cost for painting was around $2500. So we chose that.
It took 3 days and 5 people, but we got it all cleaned up. We're going to need to do more painting, especially the porch, or we could demolish the porch and just put stairs down from there. Metal ones.
We learned that 'remediation' companies have a built in flaw: they ONLY do the inside of the home. So if your outer layer of drywall is covered in Stachybotrys, they will not even look for it. The guy tested the INSIDE layer of driwall and found nothing. We kept saying, yeah but the house is BRICK and it needs tuckpointing, and there have been cases where the brick in other homes leaked into the OUTSIDE wall. They refused to even look for something like that.
My opinion: they're a scam, steer clear of remediators, and instead, get a mason to tuckpoint.
We're considering getting some thing like this from England, and wonder who might install the Nuaire Drimaster in the US:
Or even if they are 'code.'
The past few days after the cleanup all I did was sleep. I was conscious about 20% of the days. I'm still feeling exhausted, but not as bad as before. Through the sleep haze I could feel my kidneys and liver burning and painful.
Funny thing happened: I used anti-allergy eye drops, and my vision cleared!! I mean, I had blurriness which I thought was just age related, but it was allergies. It's been there for months, now gone.
Note that Stachybotrys eats cellulose but NOT sugar! Sugar was making me feel better. Science sources say it's hard to grow it on media that contains sugar.
It looks gray to me, not so much black. Circular splotches, darker in the center. Like flowery black lace.
I still think I need a vacation in the desert.
I will probably want to sell my house anyway.
All I can think of atm. Need another nap.
1. It's been humid for months, and it takes 93% of higher humidity to allow it to grow.
2. The AC makes the windows 'stream' on the outside with water.
3. The windows are old, single pane, and the glazing was breaking down, allowing even more air to enter, bringing spores.
4. The paint was old enough to have cracks opening the wood to the fungus.
5. There was flashing instead of weather stripping on the windows and underneath, it was bare wood, never been painted there. There are three places for flashing, top, bottom and middle. If you have flashing, remove it, paint it, put weather stripping there.
6. Some fool of a construction engineer decided it was clever to put HVAC forced air registers right underneath windows which just added to the streaming effect of water on the outside. We bought air redirectors so the cold air doesn't go straight up.
7. My husband insisted we do NOT put curtains up (blocks the view), and it was a huge mistake because it added to the cold air/hot air effect that caused the water on the outside. Use curtains if you have old windows!
The cost for replacing windows never came down below $9000 for about 20 windows in a medium size home, not even if we chose picture windows in places.
The cost for painting was around $2500. So we chose that.
It took 3 days and 5 people, but we got it all cleaned up. We're going to need to do more painting, especially the porch, or we could demolish the porch and just put stairs down from there. Metal ones.
We learned that 'remediation' companies have a built in flaw: they ONLY do the inside of the home. So if your outer layer of drywall is covered in Stachybotrys, they will not even look for it. The guy tested the INSIDE layer of driwall and found nothing. We kept saying, yeah but the house is BRICK and it needs tuckpointing, and there have been cases where the brick in other homes leaked into the OUTSIDE wall. They refused to even look for something like that.
My opinion: they're a scam, steer clear of remediators, and instead, get a mason to tuckpoint.
We're considering getting some thing like this from England, and wonder who might install the Nuaire Drimaster in the US:
Or even if they are 'code.'
The past few days after the cleanup all I did was sleep. I was conscious about 20% of the days. I'm still feeling exhausted, but not as bad as before. Through the sleep haze I could feel my kidneys and liver burning and painful.
Funny thing happened: I used anti-allergy eye drops, and my vision cleared!! I mean, I had blurriness which I thought was just age related, but it was allergies. It's been there for months, now gone.
Note that Stachybotrys eats cellulose but NOT sugar! Sugar was making me feel better. Science sources say it's hard to grow it on media that contains sugar.
It looks gray to me, not so much black. Circular splotches, darker in the center. Like flowery black lace.
I still think I need a vacation in the desert.
I will probably want to sell my house anyway.
All I can think of atm. Need another nap.
Last edited:
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