Space Place House

John was extremely excited about gutting the basement, which was wet, smelly and dark.  The stench was unbelievable, and it permeated the whole house.  Even though we had the whole house cleaned 3 times before we moved in, the source of the foul order remained a mystery.  Not for long though.  As soon as John started tearing out the wall panels in the basement he uncovered black mold everywhere.  This was the culprit, unbeknownst to anyone we talked to before we bought the house, including our home inspector.  

I think in retrospect they all avoided mentioning it as a possibility, certain we would not have bought this house under those conditions.  Being from the East Coast, this was not an issue we had ever encountered, especially since our house in New Jersey did not have any such problems.  Portland gets a tremendous amount of rain and the pile of dirt near the foundation had created an ongoing stream of wetness seeping into the house and infecting all the wood and of course the walls themselves, which were made of paper and fiber.  We were extremely naive and completely clueless and were soon to discover an even worst nightmare caused by the water seepage.

old basement walls

john ready to gut basement

basement gutting

Well, the mold was obvious once we tore out the basement walls which were old drywall. there was a lot of black stuff on the other side of them.  The smell was the worst thing.  Then we tore out all the old insulation which was a big mess because it was fiber fill, the old style they used in the 50’s, pure dust.  

Our old house was built with strong old growth wood beams and sills which we found were rotten.  Can you believe it??  Such old growth strength gave way to water and its continuous destructive effect.  

Once the whole basement was gutted and everything disposed off, I bought a janitorial mold killer and hired a guy to spray it on all the open wood beams, toxic stuff but it kills the bacteria.  We left openings all around the siding for about a year so the air could get in and circulate the mold out.  Then the following summer we cleaned up the basement floor and filled in the large holes and painted it.  The holes were from people digging into it over the last 100 years and not repairing it and the smell from the wet soil was also contributing to the mold.  We also put in all new insulation and new walls.

gutting the basement

replacing the original beams and sills

replacing beams

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