weird mold problem on new house

[glenn davis]

We built 3 patio homes side by side. All three are ready for final. The power has not been turned on but otherwise complete. We open the homes every dry day for ventilation. Two of the three homes have mold or mildew on all walls except the garages and one kitchen. The two with the problem were done by a different crew than the one that is not molded/mildewed. Also there is no mold where the painter touched up. The walls were sprayed with latex, and touched up with a roller. The garages were rolled. The mold comes off easily with a broom so its like it is mildew. It is a fine grayish green powder. We have never had this experience in 30 years and we have built 9 of these homes already in the same neighborhood without this problem and we are unable to find the common denominator (although it looks like its a problem with the crew or the paint that crew used). The unaffected kitchen had been painted twice. When it first started showing up, the painter was asked to "take care of it". We thought it was dirt. He went in an rolled the kitchen. We saw that. We didn't see him "take care of" the other rooms but now we see roller marks where the mold first showed up and was touched up. There is no mold now where he touched up but it is everywhere else around it.

Our theory is that the painter watered down the paint when he sprayed it on and the additional moisture got the problem started and it continued to grow.

The walls are drywall and are both interior and exterior. The problem is worse at the bottom. The units are slab construction. The ground is wet but this is common not only in theis neighborhood but all over the county.

Does anybody have any thoughts about this?

glenn

[kevin wyatt]

Hi Glenn
This is a weird problem and I doubt it has to do with the painter adding water to the paint.
There is a mildewcide product that can be added to the paint before application. If the mildew can be brushed off heck it could be some airborne spore. It is easy to try to point fingers at subcontractors but I will bet your painter didn't do anything different then he has done on all his jobs before this one . This mold thing is way weird and it is everywhere. USG is now making sheetrock that has a mildewcide within the sheetrock itself.
Don't bust your painter on this one. When mold appears on any of our jobs we will kill it with a bleach solution or a oil-based primer like Kilz before we repaint.
Good Luck
Kevin

[Fred G.]

It could have been a bad batch of paint from the manufacturer. I do know that pre-mix drywall compound will go sour if mixed up with a little water and left to sit for a week or so, mabey something similar happend with the paint?

F

[norfleet]

it is a strange mold that just brushes off. Usually, mold likes to stick to things while it grows. How do you know it is mold? It sounds like fine particles that blew in and stuck to wet paint. for mold - see www.mold.ph
or www.doctorfungus. org