In my last post, I shared the signs of toxic mold we missed and in this post, you’ll learn the mold remediation mistakes we made so you can avoid them.
This past spring, we stopped using our HVAC during that sweet time when we didn’t need heating or cooling. However, I started having some mouth tingles in the kitchen. For me, mouth tingling means there is a mold problem or another VOC exposure. I believe it’s a mast cell response that is similar to allergic reactions.
I couldn’t quite figure out where they were coming from at first.
So I fogged the kitchen and wiped everything down with vodka. (You’ve probably heard of using vodka to kill the bacteria on dry clean only materials, but it’s also great at killing mold spores.)
I checked to make sure we didn’t have any rotting food with mold even though that kind of mold doesn’t give me the same kind of mouth tingling that prior toxic mold at our house had.
But then I had intense mouth tingling again the next night when the dishwasher was running.
I saw the steam coming off of the dishwasher, and I realized that the steam vent was blowing on the underside of our counter. I stuck my face closer to it and sure enough, the mouth tingling was more intense.
When I touched the bottom side of the counter, the particle board just started flaking off. The steam was blowing the particle board apart!
I didn’t know that particle board grows mold when it gets wet. The substrate under this laminate was just wood flakes and glue. Any organic material, (i.e., anything wood-based) can and will grow mold. The more surface area, the more capability to grow mold. (Solid surface materials, quartz or stone are less apt to provide a surface for mold to grow.)
In other words, it’s not waterproof like wood when it is sealed. So the wood particles had absorbed water and were swelling. This would require a complete countertop removal to restore our indoor air quality. This would be our biggest fix yet.
However, when we stopped using the dishwasher we thought that the countertop would stop growing mold because we had removed the water source.
We found another toxic mold remediation our kitchen needed… The countertop where the sink was cut out had been taking in water and growing mold across the entire back seam of our kitchen sink because it hadn’t been caulked properly when it was installed before we bought the house.

Our Home Mold Remediation: Water Leaks
When I wrote an article back in 2023 about mold poisoning symptoms, we had only identified two places in need of toxic mold remediation.
So far, in our current house we’ve had to do toxic mold remediations on:
- Master bathroom shower – What we initially thought was a surface scratch was a crack that had 10 square feet of black mold behind it.
- Master bathroom, guest bathroom, and kitchen sink bases – All of them had piping that wasn’t cut exactly to length so that no matter how much you tightened them one of the joints always sprung a leak. All of the particle board bases had to be replaced because they absorbed water.
- Guest shower fiberglass handle caulking fail – There was never proper caulking done on the fiberglass on the clear plastic grab handle above the soap dish in the one piece fiberglass tub/shower unit, so water was dripping onto the backside of the fiberglass and mold was growing.
- Guest bathroom toilet flange – The toilet flange was too deep into the concrete floor and required a flange extender kit to raise it to the proper height. The original plumber’s cheap fix of just using two stacked wax rings was a temporary fix and water eventually leaked and grew mold on the backing of the original linoleum flooring, which had been poorly removed prior to the installation of the current peel-and-stick vinyl plan, so the cement under the flooring was collecting mold.
- Piping to the toilet between guest bath and living room – There was a solder joint in the copper supply pipe behind the toilet that was not properly cleaned and fluxed prior to soldering, creating a small pinhole leak that was likely slowly dripping in the wall behind the guest bath toilet for over thirty years.
- Laminate countertop above the dishwasher – The steam vent on our dishwasher was blowing moisture on the particle board substrate of the kitchen countertop above the dishwasher.
- Laminate countertop sink cut out cracked – When the sink had been cut out it weakened the particle board leading to it cracking and this was absorbing water.
- Inadequate caulking around kitchen sink – This was a big surprise when we took the sink out because we were expecting a lot of mold around the crack, but over a foot away there was a big cluster of mold where we realized the caulking had not been done well.
- Dishwasher cabinet wall soaked up moisture – Lastly, after we had removed the moldy countertop and base, I was still having some mild mouth tingling in the kitchen. We pulled some more stuff out and realized that the cabinet wall where the dishwasher hookups to the water were was moldy because people before us had carelessly disconnected the dishwater and let it drip onto the floor where the particle board soaked it up.
Here is a picture of the bottom part of that cabinet wall:

Our Mold Remediation Process
I’ve been battling severe health problems since I was a teenager. I realized that my issues with histamine sensitivity and anti-nutrient reactions may all be coming from a common source: mold poisoning.
So I was really motivated to reduce as much mold as I could in my environment. A home mold remediation is more than a mold removal. It’s also making sure the affected areas don’t grow mold again.
Because we had water damage in multiple places, we had a lot of remediation and restoration to do. We kept our Air Doctor and Hypo Air filters running 24/7.
For our mold cleanup, we had to replace porous materials including:
- Drywall or sheetrock (that was neither moisture nor mold-resistant)
- Unsealed wood
- Particle board
Plus we had to buy:
- Multiple tubes of mold-resistant silicone caulking
- PVC pipes
- Toilet flange
- Wax seal
- Kitchen countertop
- Sink bases
To kill mold on hard surfaces, we put vodka into a spray bottle and added essential oils like tea tree and eucalyptus. However, my husband doesn’t tolerate essential oils well, but through some trial and error we figured out that he could handle pine needle oil because it wasn’t as potent yet it still killed mycotoxins.
After replacing mold-damaged materials, we would fog with vodka and this non-toxic mold solution by Microbalance. Next, we would dust all surfaces and wipe down all materials. Thankfully we already had a HEPA vacuum.
Then, we painted over the back of the drywall and over the studs with Caliwel anti-fungal paint to prevent future mold growth.
Nevertheless, we made some mistakes as we tried to remove the mold damage and get the mycotoxins out of our house.
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Toxic Mold Remediation Mistakes We Made in Our Home
If I had to start all over again, these are the toxic mold remediation mistakes we made that I would avoid.
Not Buying a Dehumidifier Earlier
The first mistake I made in our mold remediation journey was not buying a dehumidifier earlier.
Our house was built in 1992 so the fans from the guest bathroom and the master bathroom only go into the attic. They don’t go all the way outside of the house. This made the mold growth issues worse because the moisture wasn’t leaving the house all the way.
At first I was just trying to use air filters to kill the mold spores. I didn’t realize that the lingering humidity was continuing to feed the mold spores. More than just ventilation, mold prevention requires humidity to be removed quickly.
I’m grateful that a friend who went through remediation before me told me to buy an easy-to-clean dehumidifier because sometimes their parts can retain moisture and grow mold themselves. We have not had any issues with this keystone dehumidifier growing any mold.
Not Using the Right Products
I like to use vinegar when cleaning because I love how versatile it is as a non-toxic product. However, I didn’t realize that vinegar doesn’t kill all mold spores. Similarly, bleach by itself doesn’t kill a mold either. Even scrubbing won’t kill or remove all mold.
Once I switched to using vodka, essential oils, and fogging solutions, I could tell the total mold load went down.
Some people also worry about the finish on their furniture but we haven’t had issues with the products that we used. However, older finishes like shellac, some types of varnish, and waxes will be damaged or removed by the vodka.
Not Covering My Plants Before Fogging
The thing I’m most sad about is that the mold fogging killed some of my more delicate house plants–especially after using the vodka. The first time I used vodka instead of water with the fogging solution I had multiple plants that wilted within an hour. Many of them did not recover.
Checking Other Damp Places in the Same Room
There were some hard surfaces that continued to grow mold spores even though we thought we had cleaned them the first time. Initially, there weren’t obvious visible signs of mold.
The sink stopper in the bathroom sink got very moldy that was next to the leaky toilet.
I had to treat it a few times to get rid of mold.
Some of the other places that moisture can get trapped is in an attic above a moldy room where mold can grow on the insulation.

Reducing Water Flow Doesn’t Always Reduce Mold
Before we replaced the kitchen sink pipes that were too long (and the moldy cabinet base below,) we stopped using one side of our sink that would leak every time we dumped the dish pan of water.
But it didn’t flush out enough stuff and particles inside got moldy inside the pipe. I didn’t realize the buildup of soap scum, grease, and other food residue on the inside of the pipes is what grows the mold.
Usually, I don’t react to moldy food but I suspect the toxic mold growing around the kitchen sink perimeter attached itself down the drain pipe.
I wish we still would have tried to clean it better so there wasn’t soap scum, grease, and food residue feeding the mold spores.
Containing the Mold Spores
Unfortunately for us, our guest bathroom does not have an exterior window. While we tried to bag up materials and fog everything down before opening it back up to the rest of the house, I ended up fogging multiple times to make sure all mold colonies were killed.
I had issues with some of my house plants getting mold and I believe this was due to mold contamination. The bottom saucers and the outside of the terracotta got moldy. One wood plant stand that I thought was sealed got moldy so I had to throw it out. And even though I tried to use a gentle detergent solution to remove it, it killed some of the plants.
Microscopic mold spores are readily transported in the air. To reduce contamination in other areas of your home, it’s best to not carry mold-infested materials through your house.
When possible, you’ll want to use negative air pressure. For example, in a bathroom, you can seal it off with plastic and then take the moldy materials out the window.
In the same way, you’ll want to throw out any remediation tools that you use. You can’t reuse a sponge after using it to wipe off mold.
Here are some other common toxic modern mediation mistakes people make when they try to do it on their own without a certified mold inspector or remediator.
Other Common Home Mold Remediation Mistakes
I’m grateful we had guidance who helped us to not make these mistakes, but they didn’t occur to me until someone else warned me about them. They may not be obvious.

Not Using Personal Protective Equipment
Don’t deal with mold-infested materials without the proper protection equipment. We had the help of family as we remediated.
I used either N95 masks (this is more sealed to your face than the KN9 masks people used during the pandemic) or vapor/particulate respirators (that have carbon canister filters).
I made sure that very little of my skin was exposed. I use the bandana to cover my hairline tightly below a hood.
You should wear goggles and rubber gloves and plan to throw out anything that can’t be washed.
When you are working around mold-infested materials you don’t wanna be absorbing it through your respiratory system or your skin. Of course, I showered afterward.
Deep Cleaning and Replacing Fabrics
Because fabrics can absorb mold spores, and because we had 10 square feet of black mold that I suspect was stachybotrys chartarum in the bathroom connected to our bedroom, we decided to buy a new Naturepedic mattress.
We shampooed all carpets with tea tree oil and vodka, and cleaned all drapes and curtains. I had slipcovers on all furniture that I washed with the mold fogging solution. Long term we hope to replace the carpet.
Cleaning Your HVAC System
Anytime the heat or AC came blowing through the vent in our guest bathroom and the vent closest to the bathroom, I would get mouth tingling. I realized that mold spores had gotten into our HVAC system and were being blown out and around. So not only did we fog the HVAC system but then we used a shop vac with a twenty-foot hose down the air ducts to pick up the mycotoxin dust.
Even though we have a whole house air purifier and MERV 14 air filter in our HVAC system, mold still got trapped in the ducts.
Painting and Caulking Over Mold
If you are dealing with mold, you cannot paint or caulk over moldy materials. The rim around our guest bathroom shower kept growing mold no matter how many times I cleaned it. We ended up taking all of the old caulking off to discover that the bottom layer was filthy with mold.
We didn’t do this ourselves but it was done in our house before we moved in.
Not Using Testing Sooner
If you have mystery health problems, I highly suggest testing your body and your environment for mold.
When we bought this house, we were grateful it didn’t have a crawl space or basement. We knew the roof was only a few years old so we thought we would be safe from mold. But what I’ve learned is that even new builds can have mold. Just a room with high humidity can be a source for mold growth.
When I realized my health had been declining since we moved into the house, I wish I would have immediately done whole house testing of air and dust in every room.
Reflections on Our Toxic Mold Remediation
Don’t hesitate to use professional mold remediation services. The only reason we haven’t yet is because my parents went through a big mold remediation themselves and were able to walk us through the process which has probably saved us thousands of dollars.
It felt like we bought a house with a mold infestation. However, it was a combination of poor craftsmanship, aging materials, and non-waterproof materials.
The next time we buy a house, I plan to have a mold inspection from a mycotoxin-literate inspector. Instead of relying on an air test in only one spot of the house, I hope to test air and dust in each room to make sure that any issues will be fixed before we move in.
More on Navigating Toxic Mold
- What Is Medical Gaslighting? How To Recognize It And What To Do – Many who are suffering from toxic mold aren’t believed by their doctors
- What Are Antinutrients? (And How Do They Affect Me?) – I began reacting to oxalates because the mold prevented might organs from processing them
- How to Reduce Histamine Levels: Dealing with Histamine Sensitivity – Removing mold from my environment helped reduce my histamine levels
- Signs of Mold Poisoning I Missed: What I Wish I Knew Back Then – Use these signs of mold poisoning to determine if you need to get your house tested
Sources
Fact Sheet: Mold: problems and solutions. (2017, October 24). FEMA.gov. https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20210318/fact-sheet-mold-problems-and-solutions
Ishibashi, M., Tonori, H., Miki, T., Miyajima, E., Kudo, Y., Tsunoda, M., Sakabe, K., & Aizawa, Y. (2007). Classification of patients complaining of sick house syndrome and/or multiple chemical sensitivity. The Tohoku journal of experimental medicine, 211(3), 223–233. https://doi.org/10.1620/tjem.211.223
Mold cleanup in your home | US EPA. (2023, September 26). US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/mold/mold-cleanup-your-home
Mold, testing, and remediation. (2024, March 12). Workplace Mold. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mold/testing-remediation/index.html