Intro and Basement Bedrooms (Vancouver)

July 1, 2005

Hi everyone:

My name is Theresa, and I live in Vancouver with my husband and three kids,

3, 8 and 10. All the bedrooms are in the basement. There is a wool berber on

the stairs and in the bedrooms downstairs. There is a definite mold/mildew

smell down here, especially during the summer when the humidity down here

increases. Any clothes left on the floor for more than a day smell like

mildew.

I cannot find any active mold or mildew growing. It is a 100 year old house

with a 20 year old foundation (concrete). It is part of a 91 unit housing

co-op with 8 heritage houses divided into duplexes, and a 7 storey town home

complex. The co-op just finished spending $3 million in leak remediation

because of shoddy workmanship on the townhouses, when it was built 20 years

ago. This is a big problem (leaky condos/co-ops) here in Vancouver.

I'd love to get rid of the carpet, but what is recommended as a floor in a

concrete-floored basement? I'm not sure if there is a vapour barrier down

there, and if so, where should it be, under or on top of the concrete? We

don't have the money to replace the flooring, and the co-op doesn't have a

lot of extra money to pay for new flooring, so I'm tempted to just rip out

the carpet and paint the concrete.

The day after we moved here, my son got his first asthma attack, although he

had respiratory problems before. Tomorrow marks two years we've been here.

My husband is now having problems that seem like respiratory allergies that

he's never had his entire life. I always wake up full of mucous, and the

kids all cough like crazy in the morning. I've had a chronic cough/sinusitis

constantly since last August.

I don't think there's any toxic mold down here, but there's definitely mold

and mildew. Gross story. About a year ago, I noticed a soft spot on the

drywall near the bathtub. The maintenance person fixed the tub spout which

was backwashing into the wall, and he replaced about a 1ft square piece of

drywall. It was black on the inside, mold-encrusted. I'm sure that whole

wall is like that. The particle-board cabinet in there reeks of mold, and I

can't store towels there.

We waited six years on a waiting list to get into this house, the upstairs

is great (we could turn one room into a bedroom up there), and the location

can't be beat (2 blocks from the ocean). I'd like to be able to stay in this

house, but want to do something to make it more livable and less of a health

hazard. Other than ripping out the carpets, where do we start?

Take care. Theresa (in Vancouver, Canada)

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