Mold/Mildew on carpet

[Rick J]

A strange one for me.
Been doing this, (not mold remediation) for a long long time. In all that time, pulling up my share of carpet. Never have I seen any incidence of mold growth on a contaminated carpet.
Until now.
Happens to be someone I know. New house. New build by them. Recenly moved in. Less than a year.
Stay at home mom. OCD clean. They began to see some kind of mold /mildew growth on the carpet in a few places.
He is knowledgeable about such things. Used to work for the large one. Has had training.
Yes , they have dogs. !!!!
Anyway he called me about the growth on the face fibers in a few places. I had not seen it. He had been in touch with the builder, as his thought was,-- HMM, WHERE DID THEY GET THE CARPET? He knows the conditions mold need to grow, since those conditions could not possibly be present, as far as they know. His animals never go in the house.
Anyway, I did stop over out of curiosity. NO ODOR at all . NO flouresence with a UV light. ???? Until some carpet was pulled back. THEN , wow.
He was completely blown away bny the extent of the contamination.
They upgraged from the basic carpet, to one of those brownish tweed friezes we are seeing a lot of. PET of course.
My thinking is that ahe is constantly cleaning, getting the stuff off of the face fiber, not realizeing that the dogs have been aquainting themselves with the new place.! LOL.
But , there is no flourescence on the face fiber at all, but the back lights up? And, no smell in the home at all?
And , since there is a bunch of urine, is there some kind of mold /mildew that grows on it?
Sorry for the long post. I am sure I will think of more to add.
He did have me do some cleaning. The carpet is clean. One room only did we address the urine.
Attached is a pic of one room I cleaned , topiclaly only, PB ultapack, with PB clean rinse.
This room had some Mold/Mildew growth . They had gone to HD and got some Congrobium and cleaned the spot already.
It was not there when I cleaned.
He texted me the next day and told me the mold/ mildew had come back in that spot. I suggested to pull that carpet back . Again , no smell., no sticky feel. But look at the back!?

 

[Mama Fen]

Impossible to say whether it's mold, bacteria, etc without testing (my initial guess is bacteria, but that's ONLY a guess). And frankly it's irrelevant - owner just wants it gone, I'm sure, and regardless of what it is treatment will be very similar.

(Given the number of urine spots in that one area, it's a place the dogs are visiting frequently and keeping damp as a result; this would allow ANY moisture-loving wee beasties to start colonizing. Add in 'constant cleaning' by OCD customer, and the moisture problem is probably quite significant.)

Best thing to do is keep the dogs OFF that spot for a while to break the Pee-Party habit, replace padding (cheaper than cleaning/drying/treating), clean front and back of carpet and dry thoroughly before stretching back in. Sanitize with something thymol-based. Maybe a topical sealer on the subfloor depending on whether the pee migrated all the way through.

Then again, it looks like such a small area of carpet that yank and replace may be more cost-effective in the long run.

 

[OneBlueSummer]

ok you said " His animals never go in the house. " but then said later you did another room that had urine? Im pretty sure that congrobium stuff from HD is just baking soda n water? Could be residue from that are you sure its mold?

Also I bet Mrs Smith dumped baking soda all over it many times and then dumped liquid probably vinager over top which would give it that white cakey look under the carpet.

Did you ask what all they have poured and sprinkled on it so far other than the HD stuff?

 

[Rick J]

ok you said " His animals never go in the house. " but then said later you did another room that had urine? Im pretty sure that congrobium stuff from HD is just baking soda n water? Could be residue from that are you sure its mold?

Also I bet Mrs Smith dumped baking soda all over it many times and then dumped liquid probably vinager over top which would give it that white cakey look under the carpet.

Did you ask what all they have poured and sprinkled on it so far other than the HD stuff?

OH YEAH!!!! all of the above, LOL!!!!
They were advised by someone to put baking soda on the moldy/mildewy stuff.
I think, only a guess, that he was trained in a class to do that.
He shot me a picture of the stuff he thought was the spores. It looked like little balls, yellow. Powdery.
Again , I am not fixing it.
I never actually saw the stuff that was growing. But apparently, they would remove it somehow, and it would come back rather quickly. so, some kind of growth going on.
And as I said , one room, the one in the pic. I did clean , topiclaly with PB,ulta pack, and ,rinsed with PB rinse. When i cleaned , no sign of it. But it returned the next day.
Yes , they are completely realistic about it. It just blindsided them, because their is no obvious sign of the urine, until the carpet it pulled up. As I said, no sign under a UV light, no smell, no sticky residue.

 

[Rick J]

Impossible to say whether it's mold, bacteria, etc without testing (my initial guess is bacteria, but that's ONLY a guess). And frankly it's irrelevant - owner just wants it gone, I'm sure, and regardless of what it is treatment will be very similar.

(Given the number of urine spots in that one area, it's a place the dogs are visiting frequently and keeping damp as a result; this would allow ANY moisture-loving wee beasties to start colonizing. Add in 'constant cleaning' by OCD customer, and the moisture problem is probably quite significant.)

Best thing to do is keep the dogs OFF that spot for a while to break the Pee-Party habit, replace padding (cheaper than cleaning/drying/treating), clean front and back of carpet and dry thoroughly before stretching back in. Sanitize with something thymol-based. Maybe a topical sealer on the subfloor depending on whether the pee migrated all the way through.

Then again, it looks like such a small area of carpet that yank and replace may be more cost-effective in the long run.

Oh it is in quite a large area, or several.
They are realistic about the situation.
Just the complete absense of ANY SIGN at all on top, smell or UV or stickyness.

AND , I have seen my share of putrid , contaminated carpet. Never seen mold/mildew on it.

 

[Mama Fen]

OBS brings up a point I didn't even consider - if the custy has been dumping baking soda on the spots, it could indeed be drawn to the urine puddle underneath the carpet and clumping around the bottom of the spot, causing that white floofy mess.

 

[Rick J]

OBS brings up a point I didn't even consider - if the custy has been dumping baking soda on the spots, it could indeed be drawn to the urine puddle underneath the carpet and clumping around the bottom of the spot, causing that white floofy mess.

I am still getting to the bottom of it, get it bottom LOL!.
Just curiouser and curioser. !!!!

But , I think the dumping of baking soda only occured in a small spot or two, not over all the areas, and only after they saw some of the yellow powdery mildewy/moldy growth on the face fiber.
In the area in which I cleaned the backing, it was obviously urine damage. (Yellow, with odor, and UV ligh glow)
The pic shown, I was not there when he pulled it. I have not been back. He yanked it up at my suggestion.
It was in a separate room, and he pulled it after I cleaned normally, but the growth returned.
Been extremely nice here , low % humidiy, window were wide open, with a good breeze, so I know it dried in a good time.