My rental tenant is claiming there is a possibility of mold in the bathroom because the paint is sagging. The tenants have been living in the place for around 3 years and one of the persons who is using the bathroom is having headaches and they feel it could be because of mold.
Few years back, the showerhead was leaking and it may have splashed water on the walls. I replaced the shower head at that time.
I talked to few companies on doing a mold test and found that a mold test is performed by taking samples of air from the house (perferably from the bathroom) and outside of the house. The mold testing company will check if the levels of mold in the house is more than the nominal levels. No company would do invasive testing by peeling the paint to see what is behind there.
I would like to how others have handled any such issues.
Is the shower surround below the shower head? Looks quite low. But to your question, mold grows on wet surfaces. If the drywall was getting wet, I ‘d think the mold would show up on the surface. Unless, there’s a leak behind the wall.
If the paint is sagging and wet to touch, most likely there is some moisture behind the wall. If this has been happening for a while, it can cause mold. Here is how I would proceed: Check if the wall is still wet and saggy, if true, then find the source of the moisture problem & address the same, replace dry wall that is affected. Mold will be gone.
Water splashing can also lead to mold if you don’t have bath fan for ventilation (even just condensation can cause this without ventilation).
The tenant is requesting to do a mold test, which costs around $500. As I mentioned earlier, the mold test is only based on air testing
@spacehopper Your suggestion is to find the source of the moisture, probably replace the dry wall and paint again. Do you think this problem would not occur again, if we had tiles all the way to the ceiling.
Depends on the source of the problem. If you have tiles (or quartz, single piece) till the ceiling, it is definitely going to be better, if shower spray was the root cause. Poor ventilation can still get mold in ceilings / othe areas. If you have leaks behind wall or roof leaks, you may still have problem some where else in the house for mold.
If the paint is sagging, there is likely moisture behind the wall. I’d check for dampness first and fix the source of the moisture. Once that’s done, replacing the drywall and repainting should solve the problem. Tiling to the ceiling can help prevent it in the future.
