LESLIE: Now we’re going to take a call from Bob who listens to us on WCCF.
Bob, how can we help you?
BOB: Hi. I’m ripping out my kitchen. I’m a hurricane Charlie victim and cabinets got damaged. It was a considerable amount of damage in the kitchen. And there was water coming right through the lights in the ceilings and so forth, areas like that, and so there’s been some presence of mold. And what I’m trying to do is – I see people have different approaches toward this mold issue and what I’ve been trying to do is just knock holes in the wall in different places; especially along where the baseboards are …
LESLIE: And take out what’s really bad?
BOB: What my problem is, if any – you know?
TOM: Oh, so you’re doing investigative surgery here.
BOB: That’s what I’m doing.
TOM: OK. (chuckles)
BOB: And I find a lot of just clean, dry studs. It’s like my house was able to dry out over time, I think.
TOM: Yeah, exactly. Listen, Dr. Bob, put down the knife. You hear, Buddy? (all chuckle) You’re causing more trouble than you need.
BOB: Yeah.
TOM: The house got wet because you had the hurricane, you had some very severe leakage and then it dried out.
BOB: Right.
TOM: And unless the water sits there for a long period of time where it’s soaking, sopping wet, the mold is not going to have a chance to grow. If you had water that came up into electrical circuits and things like that, those are other issues and perhaps you need to replace those circuits. But if you’ve had a point-in-time leak from a severe storm and the water dried up, then you don’t have to worry about mold.
BOB: OK.
TOM: It’s generally not going to be an issue. It’s when it stays wet for a long time and it reacts with – you basically have air, you have the cellulose from the drywall, and the wood and the water all react together to give mold a place to grow. But if it just leaks and then it dries out, you’re going to be fine.
BOB: OK.
TOM: Alright?
BOB: Well, thank you very much.
TOM: Alright. Now get back to fixing those holes. (Leslie chuckles)
BOB: (chuckling) OK.
TOM: Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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