tommyt

We have a U shaped galley style kitchen. The subfloor is concrete and the floor in the kitchen and dining room is tile. However, the builder did not put tile under the cabinets creating an area 1/2' lower than the top of the tile. Please see attached drawing.

Our dishwasher started leaking some time ago and we didn't notice it leaking until we noticed mold on the baseboard along the back side of the 42" high wall where the eat at counter is.

We have removed the dishwasher and fixed the leak but there is black and grey mold growing on the drywall 12" to 18" high, 3 to 4 feet in either direction of the corner. (See drawing again please)

The drywall still seems very solid when I tap on it with my big mag light. It doesn't seem like it is crumbling. I have sprayed straight household bleach on the exterior surface of the wall under the counter.

We do not have the money right now to remove the cheap cabinets and counter so that we could remove the drywall completely and rebuild the area. Some of the cabinets would probably also be damaged as well as the counter and back splash and I doubt that we could find identical replacements to match.

I am thinking of cutting 6" access holes in the drywall in the corner and behind the dishwasher and using my 2 gal yard sprayer with wand and spraying more bleach in the cavity between the metal studs and the drywall on either side. This would hopefully kill any surface mold and some in the paper perhaps as deep as 1/16" into the drywall in between the studs.

Is this a viable alternative to removing the drywall? Is there a better product than bleach for killing mold? Will the mold most likely come back after killing it with bleach even if I keep the area dry?

Thanks...

Regards,
Tom

nealtw

Bleach only works on hard surface glass or tile. There are products that kill mold and others will be along to tell you about that. Evan if you kill it you still want to remove as much of the dammged drywall as possible. Evan if that means removing part of the floor and back part of the dividing gables of the cupboards.

GambrinusGlubbe

Be careful using the stronger products that are pure sodium hypochlorite (the label says "causes irreversible eye damage").

I have had some success using Microbium and Moldex (the pre-diluted kind in the spray bottle), on basement walls and porch roof joists.

SnellExperts

Have you located the water source? If not that should be your first step. Completely dry that area and make sure it can't get wet again and that will keep it from continuing to grow. You can use products like bleach to kill the mold and wipe away the topical areas, but the dead spores that will still be there can still cause a reaction. So if your pretty allergic to the stuff, you may want to dry it, clean it, then seal it off until you can replace it.

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joecaption

What type countertops do you have that would be so hard to remove?
If the formica then there just screwed from the bottom into the counter tops. Once lifted off the cabinets are simply screw to each other and through the back.
From what I can see it's about an hours job to have that wall cleared out to work on.
Sounded like you were tying to blame your builder for not tiling to the wall. It's a 50/50 thing, Some do it some do not and both ways are ok.
Laying tile cost money for time and materals.