Is this Mold?

[nosroj]

Hi there. I'm trying to find out what in the world this is. It's in the bedroom of a house we're looking at buying. The inside of that wall has the main iron sewer pipe running down through it and the bathroom is on the other side. The spot is not wet and the wall doesn't show any indication that there is moisture in there. It's a plaster wall. Has anyone seen anything like this?

Thanks in advance.

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[kurt]

Yes, probably 10,000+ times. Old plaster, some cracked, some with a little water damage, some slopped up repair, and really lousy paint job.

Clean it up. Fix the leak, if there is one and it's still there. Patch the plaster, paint it.

Stop worrying about mold. Worry if there's a leak in the wall. Mold is easy, patch and paint equally easy, fix plumbing in wall not terribly complicated, but maybe a few bucks to open and close the wall.

[Tom Raymond]

Having just completed a mold continuing education class I can answer that with certainty. Yes it's moldy.

There are between 14 and 40 million mold spores on every square inch of that house. If you clean it with a 99.9% effective cleanser it will still be moldy. Do the math; 14million times 0.1% equals 14,000 spores left behind.

Now follow Kurt's advice if you like the house.

[hausdok]

It's like I always say to callers who want to know if I'm going to be looking for "Toxic Mold" I say to them, "No, I'm not going to be looking for toxic mold because there's no such thing. There is mold ubiquitous in the environment though and it's already in that house and is in the house you are living in now, and is all over the telephone you're using to call me, and is dtuck to your eyeballs, and is in your lungs already, etc..

Sometimes they hang up 'cuz they're angry that I think their fears are pretty baseless.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike