Mold in Master Bedroom of Condo

by Elise
(Wellington, Fl)

I want to share this story to save others from grief. We live in a Condo. After Hurricane Irma the window breached. We called in a Restoration company who helped us cork the window until we could obtain a new one. When removing wet wallboard under the window, it was discovered that a low voltage electrical pipe was in the wall, and where the pipe went into the wall to outside of the wall, the hole was never sealed. We had an unknown six-inch breach behind the wall we never knew about.

I kept seeing a white fuzz on the wall and I thought it was dust from ceiling fan but it always came back after I cleaned it. Needless to say, I got a mold inspector who checked things out and said we had 3x the normal levels. Now the bad part. I had a beloved Parrot of 27 years who up and died within 24 hours, despite up to this time, being as healthy as a horse. (excuse the pun). It was determined that the mold affected his lungs and so he died.

I never want another family to suffer the way I have. Don't think that mold only affects people. It affects our feather and fur family too. As an aside, we sued HOA and won but it won’t bring back my beloved bird. My husband had asthma as a kid; I have auto-immune RA and Fibromyalgia. So I urge people to take this information seriously and protect yourselves and all you love. As for us, we are still ripping out the walls and floors. I pray that anyone in a Condo makes sure they double check any areas that appear wet, or hear running water behind walls. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share. As I said, we all need to be educated.

Editors Reply

Thank you for sharing your story. It is very important that when you purchase property, even a condo or coop, that you hire a home inspector to evaluate the property. This is something that they should have discovered that would have saved you a lot of heartache.

We hope you and your family are doing better now. Here are some helpful articles to read:

Mold in Walls
Fibromyalgia and Mold
Mold in Apartments
Dealing With Mold in your Home