I saw the comment posted on another mold thread that someones doctor told them that only black mold is worrysome.
Just wanted to clairify that is not true. Red molds and green molds can also be a toxic type of mold and there can be more than 1 type of mold growing within the various colors. I know this only because mark and I had black, green, red and yellow molds growin in our apartment. We fought and fought for months to have the complex remove it. Finally we just moved out (they wouldn't let us out of the lease) and they tried to get us to pay for the end of our lease. We took them to court and won getting out of our lease plus some months back of rent that we had already paid plus some medical bills related to the mold and the costs to determine the type of mold.
We did a "partially" at home mold test kit. We cut off parts of the ceiling and put it in a sealed bag and mailed it off to a company to have them test it. We also took video tape and pictures as we were removing the particles and putting them into the bags so nobody could ever say that we got it from somewhere else (just covering our butts!!!). We had 2 kinds of TOXIC!!! mold and 3 kinds of "irritable" mold. "irritable" meaning that it can be an allergen in some people, but it'snot deathly/toxic.
Not sure if you who are having these mold problems own your home or if they are rentals or an apartment. If they are rentals or an apartment... get out fast. Citing that a landlord must make a "reasonable accomodation" for someone with a disability. In this case a reasonable accomodation could be another apartment or another rental house while yours is getting repaired (at NO cost to you, the other rental or the repairs) OR letting you out of your lease alltogether.
If it is a home that you own, I have to be honest that I am not sure how insurance coverage works on that, but I would strongly recommend that you check with your homeowners insurance. If the damage is a result of recent flooding or something that can be determined as the cause (not just dripping water damage over a period of years) then I do know in some states and localities it is covered, but I can't tell you which ones for sure. All I know is that it is sitll covered and I wuld urge you to all look into some sort of coverage so you can get it erradicated (i.e. replacing the ENTIRE roof, entire fireplace, entire floorboards underneath waterlogged carpeting...)
Good luck and I'm so sorry to hear about this!!
