Building a Safe Home

[Lisa Petrison]

Here is a list of a wide variety of links related to the topic of building homes for mold-sensitive people.

web.me.com/moldfreehomeideas/Index/List_of_Links.html

[Lisa Petrison]

I have long been interested in the portable housing made by Intershelter/Omnisphere.

www.intershelter.com

The pictures make it seem like it's basically the same principle as my fiberglass Casita travel trailer, except a little bit more "permanent."

It seems to be all fiberglass, with a window and a regular door.

It seems mostly designed for emergency housing (e.g. after natural disasters or to isolate people with contagious diseases) but also is suggested for things like "migrant housing."

It can be assembled in four hours by two people with no special skills, using just a wrench, a screwdriver and a step ladder.

It can be repeatedly taken down and put up again in different locations.

The sizes are 14' and 20'. The 20' can have a loft. The cost for the 20' is $12,000.

It comes in a box that can be put in the back of a pickup truck. The 20' one weighs 1200 pounds.

It comes in all kinds of colors.

Kitchen and bathroom facilities can be installed.

The insulation allows it to be used in arctic weather (the company is based in Alaska).

It is made to withstand temperatures of 120+ degrees, hurricane strength winds and earthquakes.

It ships from Spokane, Washington, and seems to be made either there and/or in Alaska.

I've yet to see one of these myself or find a "Moldie" who has. If anyone happens to find one, I'd like to hear a report.

Best, Lisa


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From the website:

We produce and market the InterShelter™, a patented revolutionary portable shelter, made of a high-tech aerospace composite material, or cutting edge HD plastic that has bridged the gap from tents and trailers to traditionally built framed houses.

Built to sustain hurricane strength winds or earthquakes and insulated to stay warm in extreme arctic sub-zero degree weather or cool in hot desert climates, these structures can be assembled in just a few hours by three untrained people.

The pieces can fit in the back of a pick up truck, single helicopter sling, or a bush cargo plane and can be set up on almost any terrain.
These shelters are not only ideal for research needs, quarantine shelters, and emergency relief situations but will satisfy the needs of Homeland Security, the Military, Labor Housing, Homeless Communities and many more.

Easy Assembly

The Dome is a frame-less structure consisting of aerospace composite panels. It has the strength of a standard building but the mobility of a tent. One Dome can be assembled by two people in less than four hours with nothing more than a screwdriver, wrench and step ladder.

Portability

When unassembled, the enclosure can fit into the back of a pickup truck, trailer or an 8'x8'x4' container and easily transported anywhere in the world. It can be repeatedly taken down and reassembled while retaining its structural integrity.

Diameter......................14 ft
Height..........................9 ft at center
Floor Area..................... 154 sq. ft.
Door Opening................ 26"x49"
Window Opening............ optional
Weight.......................... 600 lbs.

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Diameter......................20 ft
Height..........................12 ft at center
Floor Area.....................314 sq. ft/up to 500 sq. ft with loft
Door Opening................36" x 81"
Window Opening............36" x 36"
Weight..........................1,100 lbs

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An exterior gel coat which is virtually indestructible covers the panels. This gel coat is resistant to sun, snow, rain or temperatures over 120°F or below 0°F. The gel coat is molded into the fiberglass giving the Intershelter Dome incredible structural strength.

[Lisa Petrison]

www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/arts/a-mobile-utopian-house-is-star-of-a-rotterdam-design-exhibition.html?pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share

"He knew exactly what he wanted. A mobile holiday home designed for ski trips in remote places, which would be tough enough to survive sub-zero temperatures and snowstorms at high altitude. It had to be quick and easy to put up — and take down — in deep snow on rough mountainous terrain, and light enough to be flown there by helicopter. And the cheaper it was, the better.

"These were the instructions given to the Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in 1964 by a friend who loved to ski in intrepid locations. Mr. Suuronen spent four years working on a solution, which he called the Futuro. Made from light plastic, it was designed for mass production as a kit of prefabricated parts that could be assembled wherever its occupants wished in the shape of an ellipsoid, a complex geometric form that looks like a flying saucer in a 1960s comic book."

[Lisa Petrison]

From 2011:

An old friend is editor of a steel construction magazine, and I had a little conversation with him today about steel housing for Moldies.

He showed me an article on a steel house built for a woman with MCS.

This is a really beautiful house, I think.

Lisa (2011)

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Me:
You've talked me into the idea that it would be good to build a steel house (with no drywall or insulation that could go moldy). What would be involved in that?

Scott:
Check out this house I wrote about in 1995...

www.modernsteel.com/Uploads/Issues/October_1995/101995_1995A9_35-10.pdf

I'm not sure you can really avoid insulation and drywall, though I guess you could use a plaster and lathe system which would probably be less prone to mold.

Me:
Wow, that is fantastic!

How does that compare to a conventional house in terms of cost What do you think of the idea of using styrofoam as insulation?

Scott:
The house in the article was a very high end residence. However, you can use cold-formed steel members (essentially, it's just like wood stick construction but it uses steel studs similar to the members used in wall partitions in commercial buildings). There is probably a slight premium (a couple of years ago wood prices escalated and the cost premium disappeared but I think there's now a slight premium again) but you also gain some advantages: your structure is plumb, since you're using screws instead of nails you don't have nail pops, and, of course, there's no insect issues. One caution - make sure your contractor knows how to deal with thermal breaks (to stop the transfer of outside temperature inside). Insulation is a bit outside my field but I'd wonder about outgassing with polystyrene. But again, way outside my knowledge base.

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Ooo, cool house.

You could always use Magnesiacore for the drywall and subfloors. It's inert and mold won't grow on it.

I think styrofoam isn't too bad in terms of outgassing. You can get the kind that is made without CFCs. Plus you can cover it with other materials so it is encased. That would be good for fire-proofing purposes, too. Exposed styrofoam melts easily.

I like that magazine.

-Fore

[Lisa Petrison]

Last night I spent the night in a KOA Kampin' Kabin, which is a small
(maybe 150 square feet) plain structure with a couple of windows and
electricity (including a space heater). I've never stayed in one of
these before.

It is true that my reactivities are a lot better than they used to be
and that most buildings (or at least most commercial buildings --
Betsy says that residences tend to be much more problematic) are
tolerable to me. Still, this Kampin' Kabin felt particularly good.

The other Kampin' Kabins (or other similar cabins at other
campgrounds) that I've peeked in have always felt fine in terms of
mold too (though some, when recently varnished, would have bothered my
chemical sensitivities back when I had problems with those). And the
few log homes and timber frame homes that I've visited over the past
few years have all felt good too.

Erik, below, seems to agree with me about these Kampin' Kabins.

I increasingly believe that mold (or at least toxic mold) does not
grow much on the solid wood that is used to build this kind of
dwelling. That kind of mold grows mostly on drywall and insulation,
neither of which are used in log homes.

Perhaps more importantly, log homes (apart from the varnish) do not
seem to use chemicals in the construction materials. It's my
impression that drywall and other construction materials in modern
homes contain all kinds of chemicals (true?). And I increasingly
believe that without chemicals being present, even toxic mold species
are not all that problematic to me.

Of course, if people are reactive to all mold no matter what
(presumably because of a severe IgE allergy), any sort of wood might
be dangerous. I would think that little bits of mold might grow in the
corners of this Kampin' Kabin -- just not the kind that is problematic
to me. So likely Desert Karen's metal buildings (which may be less
likely to grow mold) are a better solution for her.

I think that ideally, if I could find a place where I felt confident
that the outside air wasn't going to go bad, I would build two small
log cabins right next to one another. One would be one or two rooms,
for sleeping and working/hanging out. The other would be a kitchen and bathroom, with plumbing but no drywall. This would feel manageable to me, like I wouldn't be in a constant state of fear that the place was going to go bad. And it would be pleasant and feel like a long-term solution.

Unfortunately, the fact that the outdoor air anywhere could go bad
still makes this seem kind of dangerous. Still much less dangerous
than living in any sort of conventional housing though.

-Lisa (2010)


I've been in some of those KOA Kampin Kabins - pre-fab log cabins -
which were terrific. Very Kozy.

-Erik (2008, CFSU)

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I have stayed in some log cabins at a non KOA campground. Only one was bad, mold wise. The others were great. I dealt with the varnish, which wasn't new, by opening the windows.

I have also enjoyed visiting the Purple Cow ice cream parlor, on the
way to Aberdeen SD. It is a log cabin building. Of course, the outside
air is good there.

-Fore

[Lisa Petrison]

This does not count as a "home," but for emergency housing it would be really inexpensive anyway.

www.thetinylife.com/tiny-cloroplast-house/

[Lisa Petrison]

An interesting idea for a home. Shipping containers are food grade steel on the inside, aluminum on the outside, superbly insulated already, watertight, and get retired after a certain amount of use. This office is essentially steel and glass, with a soy-based floor. These architects paid $1800 for one used and then made some modifications to use it as an office.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqLg3Mxnqrc

More articles on shipping containers:

www.inman.com/news/2012/03/14/container-homes-out-box-thinking

realestate.yahoo.com/promo/dream-homes-that-come-in-a-crate.html

[Lisa Petrison]

The Zero House.

zerohouse.net/wordpress/

[forebearance]

Those Intershelter domes look really good. My main concern would be about whether the factory where they are manufactured is mold free. I'd really like to see one in person or hear a report about one.

I regret that I haven't been able to update my mold free home ideas website in the last couple years. I haven't had access to my computer. Hopefully some day I can add the new websites I've found and add more notes to it.

[Lisa Petrison]

Since leaks from showers are a primary source of mold growth in home, here are some inspirations for outdoor showers:

relaxshacks.blogspot.com/2012/01/top-ten-best-outdoor-camp-and-beach.html?spref=fb

[Lisa Petrison]

Here is some information relevant to mold-free housing, from Rock Cogar of Colorado Springs, CO.

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I (a mold aware engineer with extensive construction background) have now updated my "list."

Top 11 Places to Find Mold in a home
1. houses more than 5 years old
2. houses with gutters on their north sides in snowy places
3. houses with a history of roof or plumbing leaks
4. houses with subgrade wood materials
5. houses that have had carpets shampooed in warm humid weather
6. Houses with wooden garage doors (the bottoms can stay wet)
7. Floors Within 3 feet of any exterior door (unless it is tile on concrete)
8. Floors adjacent to showers if subfloor under tile is wood
9. Shower enclosures if the materials behind the tile's thinset are not RedGuard or MaPlastic
10. Wooden windowsills with imperfect paint
11. Wooden Decks

My friend Kevin and I have found and remediated many of these 11 sources in my 27 year old home, which now tests out as very clean.

However the percentage of tile in this home is ever increasing.

When we rebuild a bathroom, we design it (9 step process) to be mold
free for 30-60 years.

Cheers!
Rock.

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Here is a typical example.

My whole house has been gutted and rebuilt except the 10 year old tiled upper bath. So I removed a few tiles and found traces of mold, but I also I wanted it to match the 2010 look of travertine tile of the rest of the house.

So Kevin and I gutted the bathroom. The shower enclosure was almost OK (it was a 10 year quality job) but next to the shower the wooden subfloor had rot and moderate mold. So we made the right choice.

1. Gut the room, keep all moldy spots wet with ethanol, remove all materials you can afford, down to just studs and subfloor is the goal.
2. Spray everthing (every surface) with ethanol
3. Spray every surface with Sporocide & allow to dry
4. Coat all surfaces with Spore sealant (replace any insulation you removed with new)
5. Paint with two coats regular wall paint (especially the subfloor and walls behind the insulation and studs)
6. Paint with RedGuard or MaPlastic
7. Install 1/4" WonderBoard on Floors and 1/2" Wonderboard on Shower enclosure
8. Paint with RedGuard or MaPlastic
9. Caulk any seams with Silicon Caulk
10. Paint with RedGuard or MaPlastic
11. Thinset
12. Tile
13. Grout
14. Tile and Grout Seal, 5 coats

Result: as long as every 6 months the tile is cleaned really well and Tile & Grout sealer is reapplied this bathroom will be mold free for 3 or 4 decades.

Caution: Always Suspect that any grout line could allow water through, so never allow water to stay on your tile for more than a moment.

(Note: to make a 100 year bathroom you have to build it when you build the house)

Next time we will document every step with videocam and put it on YouTube.

Cheers! Rock

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I fear that some CFS'ers are in homes that I consider to be as or nearly as toxic as meth labs, so I felt I needed to be clear that the remediations/rebuilds that Kevin and I do are in homes that are just 1.1 - 1.5 "moldy" on a 1-10 scale {where 1 is perfect and 10 is a stachy home that ought to be treated just like a meth lab}.

I think we could work homes 2 or 3 times as moldy...

This house in question was a "Penicillium/Aspergillus group" house where the average indoor/outdoor ratio was 1.5 : 1, so by my estimate this house was a 2 on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is perfect and 10 is awful (i.e. stachy).

Indoor mold in this house was a few square inches and outdoor mold (on redwood trim) was a couple square feet.

By contrast, I am thinking that a high stachy house would have to be torn down and rebuilt, so treat just like a meth lab house.

Another point to make is that I have air sampled 17 homes (some as many as 6 times each) thus far and learned that:

1. Outdoor Mold in Colorado varies by a factor of 50. (i.e. 40 spores cubic meter to 2000 spores cubic meter )
2. Air samples need to be taken after 5 days of consistent weather to allow outdoor and indoor to equalize.
3. Air samples need to be taken as fast as possible (goal: all same hour)
4. During droughts, daily outdoor mold counts slowly fall
5. During damp (i.e. drizzel / fog) warm weather outdoor mold counts rise rapidly
6. One fact that needs to be understood, is that a month of damp (i.e. drizzle/ fog) warm weather in a perfect home may result in breathing more spores in that year than if you lived a year in a home with a moderate (2 on a 1-10 scale contamination by "Penicillium/Aspergillus group") in a droughty year. So, unless the home is really contaminated, weather will with ease, overpower all other factors that lead to quality of breathing air.
7. If your immune system cannot tolerate breathing any mold spores (realize that mold spores in a wilderness are far less toxic than those in or near cities), over 90% of of earth's land area, a perfect home will not be good enough for you. The 10% of land that would be clean enough is mostly on huge ice caps or along desert seacoasts like in Chile.

Thanks, Rock.

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I have been asked how to find a mold free (or a near as possible)
home.

From the Colorado perspective where I have concluded that 90% of homes have enough Penicillium/Aspergillus group to sustain symptoms, look for:
1. houses less than 5 years old
2. houses without gutters on their north sides
3. houses with no history of roof or plumbing leaks
4. houses with no subgrade wood materials
5. houses that have not had carpets shampooed in warm humid weather

Then air sample a round or two with Mircro5 or similar cassetes (25 liter samples), maybe 4-12 samples, send samples to EMSL then review report

Then if clean or nearly clean, hire Mark Peltz (Denver CO) and his mold dog to check out the house.

If that passes then strongly consider buying it or rent it.

Sorry to say, all of this is fairly complicated and fairly expensive.

We have nearly rented or bought homes, done expensive sampling and have them fail. So it can be risky in that way.

Once you find a clean home work hard to make sure it stays that way no matter what it takes. For us that means being obsessive about keeping 100-200 inches / year snow off the decks and off the lower 3 feet of the roof.

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Yesterday while at Home Depot I discovered a huge stack of HardieBacker Cement Board Tile Underlayment, which is in extremely common use under ceramic tiles, wet and black with mold !

The Home Depot Flooring guy admited that HardieBacker Cement Board Tile Underlayment does contain cellulose ("Mold food"). (By contrast <cement> Wonderboard and <plastic> Ditra are celluose
free)

Amazing, Our Tile Guy was considering HardieBacker Cement Board Tile Underlayment as an option for our kitchen !

Thanks, Rock.

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My focus is on housing, there are the main 5:
1. Roof failures
2. Plumbing Failures (includes most tile showers)
3. Grade Failures (wood below grade)
4. Flooring Failures (usually that is from carpets that got wet and dried very slowly)
5. Wooden Garage Doors (lower 6" are usually contaminated big time)

I know astonishing detail as well as ways to detect these 5 major problems. Guess it helps to be a scientist with a Construction background...

Of our three houses, only this one (Woodland Park) has Tile Showers. The others have 3 piece plastic shower/bath enclosures. My Tile guy says those things never seeem to have mold on the sheet rock behind them. He says keep them super clean and super dry just to be on the ultra safe side.

Cheers!
Rock.

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Q: It would be interesting to hear how you decide whether a house is not worth remediating. That's a question that a lot of people have. Of course, anyone has a very hard time giving up a huge asset like that, but it's good to at least know the theoretical answer.

A: Depends how much mold bothers the people involved. To me very little. OK, terrible disasters, like a plumbing leak (or Ice Dam Roof Leak) not discovered for weeks that results in 100's or 1000's of sq ft of mold on the interior walls. Oddly that happens fairly often in areas of summer / weekend homes in CO. I have observed three outcomes:
1. Owner walks away and it forcloses
2. Owner pays for repairs ($100K is typical)
3. Insurance pays for repairs
So money is a big player.
But how good are the repairs ? OK, even the best (i.e. Peacemaker Construction, Colo Spgs, CO) leave tiny traces of mold behind mostly in base plates and top plates of the wall studs. For stud treatment:

Average = no stud treatment
Good = multiple chemical treatments, some sanding, seal with Mold Sealant
Better = multiple chemical treatments, some sanding, seal with Mold Sealant and then paint everthing twice
Best = multiple chemical treatments, some sanding, seal with Mold
Sealant and then paint everthing twice, paint twice with RedGuard or
MaPlastic (note RedGuard on all studs might cost $10K on an average home, paint maybe $5K)

Of course, VOC's from chemicals are problem, so a full summer of intensive airing out would be a good idea fror some.

But how perfect would such a remediated home be ?

Without intensive HEPA filters all over running all the time, the most mold ill would get sicker. But nobody else would.

With intensive HEPA filters all over running all the time, the most mold ill would stay the same.

Example: The house next door ice damed, all walls turned black. Insurance paid $70K and replaced roof, all insulation, all sheetrock and for the last 5 years I have never heard of any problems. My guess is on a 1-10 scale (1=pristine, 10=disasterous) that house is a "2" since I think they did not treat the studs at all.

So on my 1-10 scale:
(Based on Stud Treatments - see above)
Average = 2
Good = 1.5
Better =1.3
Best = 1.1
(My house was at worst a 1.5, so testing suggests that it is now {$30K later in remediation} back to 1.0.)

Best!
Rock.

[Lisa Petrison]

Here is a hodgepodge of "alternative" housing ideas. Whether any of them would be safe housing for Moldies, I don't know.

www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2250163258488.2140876.1380445550&type=3

[Lisa Petrison]

Someone sent to me the following note:

Clean air in new construction is possible. Inventor Douglas Busch took on the challenge of building a reasonably priced home that could satisfy the clean air needs of the most discriminating people - the Chemically Injured. Their homes are verified by measurement to be ultra low in toxicity and electromagnetics, plus built to keep mold at bay.

I evaluated the super clean-air test house pH Living put up in Quakertown PA last fall. It was phenomenal. This company factory builds them, and also does renovations of exisiting houses. A very neat guy (Artist, inventor). Great chance to ask questions and learn about less-toxic homes in general.

phliving.blogspot.com/

www.facebook.com/phliving?sk=info

[Lisa Petrison]

On Phoenix Rising, Forebearance wrote the following:

>Hey, I was looking at the current issue of Fine Homebuilding magazine. They put out an annual issue on Houses that is like candy for those people who are interested in home building.

>In this year's issue on Houses is a house that was built for a person with MCS. It has a lot of interesting home building ideas in it. I wouldn't use wood, personally, but there are other interesting ideas. I'm so glad to see that this issue is getting some exposure in the building community!

forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/the-latest-issue-of-fine-homebuilding-magazine-talks-about-building-an-mcs-safe-house.17698/

[Lisa Petrison]

Monolithic Dome Homes:

www.monolithic.com/topics/homes

[Lisa Petrison]

Discussion of building homes using metal shipping containers.

www.apartmenttherapy.com/are-shipping-container-homes-environmentally-and-economically-sustainable-tin-can-cabin-200403

[rubyred]

Thank you Lisa for this information. Can you please give information how to remediate the mold on the walls in our fiberglass casita after a leak and mold under the reflectix insulation. Also , if you have any solutions on working with the shower module in terms of avoiding mold growing under it and behind it, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you again!

[Lisa Petrison]

I lived for several years in a Casita, and eventually it seemed to develop a mold problem near the bathroom. My guess is that a leak penetrated the fiberglass coating of the plywood floor. It is not super-toxic mold, but I am thinking that I am going to sell the unit. Casitas have pretty good resale value as long as they are still intact - that is one reason that I chose that brand to begin with.