LESLIE: J.O. in Illinois, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
J.O.: Got black mold or fungus stuff on the inside of my roof, in the attic space, between the rafters.
TOM: OK.
J.O.: The roofing has been replaced and we’ve added ventilation on along the eaves and stuff, so I think we’ve done things to prevent more of it but now I need to figure out how to get the old stuff out of there. I’ve heard that you can use dry ice or something like that.
TOM: Here’s all you need to do. Mix up a 10-percent bleach solution. So, 10, maybe 15 percent bleach and water. Put it in a pump-up sprayer. You can use a garden sprayer, or something that will be easy to kind of reach back into those ceiling areas with, and spray the mold. That will kill it. And because you’ve dealt with the moisture issue, it’s not going to grow back.
So if you want to take care of what’s there, treat it with a bleach-and-water solution. And because you’ve got better ventilation now, you don’t have to worry about it reoccurring, OK?
J.O.: Yeah. Along that same line, too, I did mention is it’s got really old, matted-down, smashed-down insulation.
TOM: OK. Well, then it’s a good opportunity for you to restore your insulation. What I would do is I would take out the old insulation and I would add about 15 to 20, 22 inches of new insulation. You can use a fiberglass batt. You put the first layer, fill it up flush with the top of the floor joists and put the second layer in perpendicular.
J.O.: OK, great. Appreciate the help.
Leave a Reply