Well, what started 9 days ago as replacing the sump pump and getting leaked in rainwater out of the shop has turned into a full on fight against black mold. Every time I would fix one problem, it seemed to reveal two others.
I'm taking this mold issue very seriously, but I had no idea the extent I would have to go to fully solving the issue. In a week and a half I have:
- Replaced the sump pump and drain
Sealed the outside of the foundation
Removed leaked in rainwater
Stripped an re-cemented an entire wall with hydraulic mortar (which will be painted next week with Drylok)
Ran dehumidifiers non stop
Fought black mold with bleah, mold killer, gloves, masks etc
Removed anything with mold on it ( more on this below)
First the mold was only discovered on the walls. No problem, killed easily.
Then under some rugs and mats on the floor, also no problem. Then in the deteriroating grout in the foundation, where water has leaked in every spring for 30 years. OK that's a problem. I chiseled away over 30 years worth of futile attempts at sealing this wall with a pnumatic chisel. That was fun. Then completely cemented over the entire wall and filled in the gaping cracks.
Next, mold was discovered under a wooden floor that was install about 15 years ago. This floor covered aout half of the shop. And today, we ripped the entire thing out. No finesse here, brutal force was used at every step. This left only one wooden wall in the entire shop. But guuess what? Rotten at the bottom. Good bye. With the wall gone I could clearly see the rotted wood and foundation cracks that were hiding behind the staircase. So, soon that also was gone. I have a huge pile of debris in the driveway....
Flash to present, all the moldy stuff has been removed. Humidity is down to 50%. Wall is sealed. I built a new staircase from scratch (which deserves a thread of its own, better yet buy me a beer and ask me about it). The shop is completely turned upside down. And i have build an amp in almost two weeks, this is bad.
Forgive my long winded rant and my plea for those with amps on order to please understand that this got completely out of control here. I simply could not ignore the health risks once I knew we had mold. We will try to put the shop back together tomorrow.
I had to unhook all of the network stuff while tearing out walls and floors which meant our VOIP shop phone was down. Very sorry. It will be back on in the morning. The emails have piled up a bit, I'll get on those ASAP.
A few amps were ready to ship, but obviously have not. Tomorrow or wednesday on those.
Im exhausted, been working 18 hours a day, will post pictures as soon as things return to normal.
George
No fun.