On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 09:24:01 -0600, Doug
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:01:25 -0500, micky
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:09:51 -0600, Doug
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:21:50 -0500, micky
wrote:

My shop is in my basement, which has always seemed to be a very dry
floor. However, about 4% of my cords, my spare radio and tv knobs,
and the handles of my tools get a think layer of some sort of mold on
them. It's like a grey dust. (Or some other light color, I forget.)

I wasg them in the dishwasher and they come out clean, but once in the
basement again, after a few months, U notice that the same ones have
mold. And the rest never get mold.

I suppose I could just ignore this, since it doesn't spread, but I
wonder if any of you have ideas. No other part of my house is neat
or clean, but the shop is the most important place, and I'd like it to
be clean.

Thanks.


Hope you wear some kind of protection when you're in your basement.
This doesn't sound good to me over time for your lungs, etc... .

Probably need more information about the basement such as what's done
there,

Welll, sometimes I just watch TV, sometimes I make a fire in the
fireplace, most of the time I work on electric projects in the
"family" room and wood or metal projects in the laundry room, fright
next to it.

does this occur only in one area or all over,

I think it's all over the basement, but I guess there are only 2 or 3
areas where those three things are kept. There is a dresser at the
far side of the room, the back end of the house. I keep a lot of
knobs in one of the drawers -- knobs that go back to the 1930's but
mostly I think it's those from the 50's and 60's that get moldy -- and
4 or 5% get "moldy". I put it in quotes this time because I've been
assuming it's mold. It's some sort of dust like stuff, that I can
wipe off with my fingers, but I use the dishwasher because it gets
into the cracks and crevices. .

There is t he pair of little dressers that hold my work bench, in the
middle of the house, near the base of the stairs. That has tools in
one of the drawers and in the In-basket at the far end, plus some
bananan plug jumper wires that get moldy. Thiese 8" jumpers were two
of the few cords that got moldy. Mostly it's knobs and tools. .
(Tools with yellow plastic handles are some of the moldy handles, but
not every yellow plastic handle.)

And about 18 months ago I set up the new computer in the basement so I
could use it to fix the old computer (which needed a new cpu.). So I
do that stuff down here too.

humidity level,

I think the humidity is about 30% in the summer. Lower now. (I"ll
get a meter and measure it , sicne you ask) But I'll say this. WRT
water spilled on the laundry room floor, some of it soaks into the
cement quickly and the rest evaportates within 12 to 24 hours (even
when there is a lot of water from the laundry sink over flowing, or
the hose to the washing machine springing a leak) and the cement
itself dries out in less than 12 hours. I used to make a point of
taking the laudry upstairs as soon as it was done, but one time I
forgot and since then I've noticed that it can sit in the washing
machine wet, for days, without getting moldy or smellilng bad, and can
alos sit in the dryer only partly dried for days and it smells just
the way freshly dried laundry should smell.

20 years ago after one of the bigger leaks, some mold grew on a
sheetrocked wall, but I killed it with bleach and then painted it
over, and that was the end of that.

etc... . You said the rest of the house is not clean so I wonder if
there is a connection to the basement?

I was mostly making a joke. The rest of the house isn't that dirty,
and anyhow, it was clean for 15 or 20 years and I still had the moldy
cords, tools, and knobs in the basement. Two or three times I've
gathered them together and washed them in the washing machine. I
don't pay close attention, but they all turn moldy again, in less than
a year, probably less than 3 months.

I'm not worried about my health. Some mold is bad for all of the
people some of the time, and some for some of the people all of the
time , and some doesn't bother some people any of the time, and
whatever I've got here has never bothered me in the 30 years I've
lived here. And I'm the only one living here now. I'm just
getting tired of having moldy things.


I used to think like you ... that my body was pretty strong (and it
was) but lately I'm experiencing things that never used to be so I
think age is the culprit. My point is that even if your body was
strong against the mold before, it may change with your age now. And
it may be too late after you begin to notice it. Sorry if I seem
overly concerned but I've had to deal with Cancer patients going to
the doctor, etc... .

No, I appreciate your concern. If you were my mother, I'd be annoyed,
but she never knew when to stop.