Please.. help!

TitansFan

TitansFan

Active member
My house is 3 years old. Currently In my rooms with vaulted ceilings I have drywall tape peeling on the ceiling that covers the jointso drywall sheets. I also have black spots on the ceilings showing up. I am being told it is mold. To me it looks like dirt. In no way do I have a dirty house though. I am not sure about it being mold because the drywall is not spongy feeling. To me it would seem to have mold there would have to be enough moisture to cause water spots in the drywall.

The cause of all this I'm told is my tank. It is a 65 gallon tank that is positioned 3 feet from my central heat and air intake. The tank evaporates around 4 gallons a week. The room has a ceiling fan running pretty much 24/7. What difference would it make to have the take on another wall in the same room?

The contractors are afraid if the insurance adjuster comes in he will immediately blame it on my tank. This is from a "specialist" who even went by emerald bay to ask them about the evaporation.

I really don't want to move my tank as it is an established, mature reef that is doing great.

Does anyone else have a tank near central heat and air intake? Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? Do I roll the dice and leave the tank where it is when the adjuster comes? Blah this sucks.
 
You can find accurate information on mold at www.epa.gov/mold or www.doctorfungus.org ; mold needs water or moisture to grow. Humidity is moisture. Mold and mildew on a ceiling would be little different than the mold and mildew growing in a humid bathroom. Keep in mind, there could be another source of moisture, say coming from above. Careful visual inspection and poking around for water sources is a good idea.

Black spots could also come from house dust deposits or open burning such as a fire place. Compare the dust collecting on your ceiling fan to what is collecting on the drywall. None of that would peal tape.

I don't know anything about central air tendencies, though my house is small and I have tanks in most rooms and no humidity problems. I have an eclipse (covered) system near an intake. I have a bedroom with a full hot tub. Now, there is an exhaust fan and dehumidifier in the room, but no pealing drywall tape, paint, or mold.
 
What type of heater is it, heat pump or gas forced air? also look at your air vents are they rusting? if they are not rusting then you are not putting the water through your vents 4 gallons a week is not a lot of water to put into a house as we would put 2 gal a day up north to be able to breath because of how the heaters would dry the air. one of the problems could be vaulted ceilings. I am not a fan of them as the normal ceiling has a vented attic to stop the condensation. That all being said I wouldn't be surprised if an insurance company wouldn't say its the tank to stop there liability. there are ways you can have it checked to see if it is mold as that is really dangerous.
 
Have you thought about a dehumidifier and cleaning the spots to see if they come back? Moving the tank could be much easier than the alternatives.
Mold can definately be a problem but be wary of contractors warning you of health problems and the like which can be very real but the mold removal buisness has become much like the asbestos removal buisness in the 80's fueled but unscrupulous contractors feeding off of people's fears and spending lots of $$$ unneccesarily. A friend of mines houes was torn completely apart (gutted) and put back together when it wasn't necessary several years ago. That can turn into a nightmare when it doesn't need to.
good luck, Chris
 
You can try a dehumidifier but if it is what I think it is that might not work. Cleaning is a way to check if it was a one time thing. But you need to see if it is mold and also where is the source because even though there are crooks for contractors that rip you off there are some places that the contractor did not build the houses right and when they get a lot of mold it becomes a health risk. That is why I said you need it tested by a real lab not a contractor. I know there are people that work in the state that check our buildings out but I don't know who does it for residences. By the way if the black spots are showing up only under the tape that is pealing off then it may have been a problem with the mud used to put the tape on as mud molds easy I have opened a new box of mud and had black mold in it.
 
Before you start hopping in on a dehumidifier... have you measured humidity in your house? I think above 45% humidity is where mold *can* start growing. With me not running the heater the past few days, I've seen it up to 57%. I have a lot of wood in my house and a couple of musical instruments. Since musical instruments like to be around 40%, this is where I have my humidifier set. Do you have any condensation on your windows when its cooler/cold outside? This would be a sign of too high of humidity.

Also... my tank evaps about 4+ gallons per week. This totally depends on indoor humidity levels as to how much evap I get.

Increasing air circulation should help too. I have 6 ceiling fans in my house and they run 24x7.

Without going to the epa site... check out http://www.blueflame.org/datasheets/humidity.html for some condensed data. They recommend 35%-40% indoor humidity when outside temp is 20F+.

Get something to measure indoor humidity should be your first step.
 
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if the mold is coming up on the drywall try cleaning it off with bleach and prime the entire area with kilts or something similar that will block mold sand see if it come back. As far as the ac goes if you have hard pipe duct work it can be cleaned pretty easily but if your duck work is flex material and the mold has gotten into it. It will have to be replaced since its minly made of a fiberglass material on the inside. If so lmk I can get u the flex at cost but I hope that's not gonna. Come to that.
 
I agree with Chris. Even if it is mold it may not be harmful. There are different kinds.
On the tape peeling it could just be crappy tape. Ours did that around our bay window very badly. The contractor that built our house said it was the tape they used. He said it was "the thing" when it came out but turned out to not stick very well. He fixed it and we haven't had a problem since.

Is the contractor that is looking at it the one who built the house? He could be saying it is the tank to get the blame off himself. Just an idea.
 
Are you sure your roof isnt leaking?

My reef is located maybe 6-8' from my return and it evaps about 3 gallons a day or 21 gal a week. My windows bleed this time of year from the humidity but i do not have any effects as you describe. My FO tank is in the living room w/vaulted ceiling but it doesn't evap near as much, maybe 4 gal a week. The ceiling fan in that room runs 24/7 as well.
 
Yeah, I would think that is isn't tank related. I evap about 1 gallon/day and the room the tank is in can get fairly humid with no issues with the tape. My dining room, however, had a little drip drip drip from the hot tub upstairs until we discovered the slow occasional leak, and that room did have tape bubbling up. Fixed the leak and redid the tape and things are fine. Hopefully it is something you can find and fix relatively simply.
 
Mike if a contractor told me it was crappy tape I would never get him again as sheet rock tape is not really tape in the way you would think when it peals off it was either the mud used to put it on or the person putting it on unless there is some shifting of the walls. the tape doesn't have any adhesive in it. But if you get mold in the mud it will affect the mud. You can clean it with bleach and paint it with kilz but be warned that is covering a problem if there is a mold problem inside the roof or walls. I know all molds are not dangerous but some are and when you have it in a house you could have a lot of health problems that one may not think that it is mold.
 
It may have been the mud even, I don't really remember. I think it was a different type of tape though. I know how it is done, I have even done a tiny bit myself. The contractor is a good one. He built my parent's house too. I do think some different guys fixed it than put it in initially. He came back and fixed it for free after several years so I am not complaining.
 
Ya that is something that is normally subbed out I have done some too but am not fast and not very good. It is good that he stood behind it and fixed it I was not saying that if it happens that they are not good because there are houses that cost in the mils and have the same problem that is normally a problem with mud but some times it the operator as I found out when I started doing it and had a pro show me what I was messing up.
 
Well thank you everyone for the input.

I have had several contractors out to my house now. They have crawled over my roof, through my attic, and under my house. No one can find water entry anywhere. They are all pointing their finger at my tank. I had a humidity reading done and all was ok there. This might be expected though this time of year with how dry it is normally.

The last contractor I trust fairly well. He said if I don't believe him about the tank to get a dehumidifier.

At this point to keep from any insurance fraud I have decided to weigh my options and look to other routes of fixing this. I have been contemplating selling my home. With the way the current market is right now though, I am considering just doing some additions. During the additions I hope to have everything else repaired in the house.

What dehumidifier would you guys suggest? I think this might be the best option for me right now.
 
I used to have one when I lived in humid Minnesota. I think I had a whirlpool brand that I purchased from Home Depot. I used it all the time in our basement.
 
Clean the area

Then your options are to move the tank or move the intake ( #number 2 not much of an option. )

My tank is in the front room ( 10x10 ) vent is turned off , no fan , no air current going in there, and usally pretty dark except for the lights which the bleed from the canopy is min I have aprox 5-7 gallons a week of evap from the 100 gallon, the 20g and the feeding station all in that room, IE prime mold conditions. Never had a problem in the past 8 months the tank has been up and running. House stays around 70-72.

Keep looking for something else causing this problem. Doesnt make sence that with that much evap going into a intake where there is a filter for one would be causing a spot in just one area. If it were a problem going into your intake from the tank the spores in the vents would be spreading problems all over the house unless that is what you are saying it is all over the house, couldnt tell in the OP but seemed like it suggested just one room.
 
Avalanche Wolf: It is all over the house.

Anyone have a dehumidifier they want to sell? I hate to shell out the cash for a brand new one to find that it does nothing for me.
 
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