question about my apartment

[Guest guest]

There is major (I mean MAJOR, as in gut renovation) demolition and

renovation going on in my prewar Manhattan building in preparation

for high end condo conversion. There are 268 apts and 100

are " warehoused " and the landlord has done total gutting of these

apartments and in the process many tenants have had leaks and floods,

myself being one. The first flood occured in July and my bathroom

ceiling, part of it, caved in. This was due to their having turned

off the water in my line to work on pipes, and then having forgotten,

when they turned it on full blast, that they'd taken the toilet out

of the apartment over me and forgotten to shut off the pipes. The

second leak which lasted a few hours occurred on a Sunday night in

August and came from a leaking pipe 2 floors over me in another

gutted apartment. To repair the first they broke up the bathroom

floor above and poured in concrete where the hole was (this hole

existed because of a repair a few years prior of a ceiling pipe).

That area dried fine but the rest of the bathroom, and a small part

of the ceiling outside the bathroom and in the master bedroom--where

the 2nd leak was--did not and plastering just led to bubbling, so

we'd scrape, plaster again and it would bubble again. It took major

yelling and threatening and a letter from my holistic doctor that was

threatening etc, they have entirely scraped down the ceiling almost

to the concrete (I see a bit of concrete, some mesh etc). It was

definitely wet--the plaster that came off was somewhat wet. Anyway it

sort of smelled but I can't see any mold. We put a dehumidifer in

there 24/7 and also I turned on the radiator so its hot and dry in

there. However I am scared there could be mold somewhere in there

though I don't know where. Is there anything else I should do besides

let it dry out like this for a few weeks? If there were mold up in

the concrete wouldn't it have been growing on the wet surface between

the concrete and the plaster? Or is there any other place it could

grow? I don't see the point of putting out petri dishes as one always

has mold spores. I just seek some advice here. I've also kept the

bathroom window open for 3 months. I also bought this sachet,

chlorine dioxide, that is used in mildewy areas of boats. Thanx for

any advice about whether I should look anywhere else. In these old

buildings the concrete/cement in walls and in floors/ceilings is very

thick, btw. They don't build 'em like that anymore.