"Apparently" I had my humidifier set waaay to high as I had quite a bit of condensation on most of my windows and in turn, I also have quite a bit of mold growing on along some of my window frames/casings!!! I was told to try bleach but that seems to turn the wood into a "pulpy fibrous" type material which in turn again, makes it look like the mold is still there...PLEASE help me!!!! Is there some kind of product I should be using, as well as maybe a special method of getting rid of this problem? I obviously turned my humidifier off for the time being...when I get this problem under control and completely dried out, I now know what setting to set it at! Thank you for any and all help!!!!!

 

How long was this humidifier running and what was the temperature of the house while it was running. This wasn't a vacation home, was it?

 

It's one of those humidifiers that run thru the furnace and no it's not a vacation home. I know what to do as far as the setting the humidifier going forward, I need to know how to get rid of the mold on around my windows....do you have any ideas? Thanx for the quick response!

 

1 part bleach to 10 parts water should kill the mold. It must dry within 24 hours or any mold not killed will grow back.

 

I wasn't questioning your knowledge base of the humidifier, so don't get too upset if we ask questions. I can't imagine a humidifier in a household setting that would turn the wood to pulp or fibrous material. Wiping wood with even pure bleach won't turn it to pulp. Sorry it just doesn't make sense. What Airman said should take care of the mold.

 

Oh sorry, I surely didn't mean to come off that way....I love you guys!!!! You have helped me soooo much over the years!! I thought your line of questioning was directed in the wrong direction, I guess. I used straight bleach and either I did'nt get all the mold off or the bleach turned the wood kind of Pulpy...I will try what airman said and get back to y'all....Thank you sooo much!!!

 

How long did you have this problem? If the wood has been wet for a prolonged period of time, it could be rotten. That would make the wood pulpy.

 

Actually, I think that is the problem...I left this go far too long!! I am going to work on them a bit more today using the bleach solution. Thanx everyone for all of your help and I'll post back later.....

 

Hi everyone!!! Well, I haven't had a chance to work on my window problem as my back went out. So this morning I start to check all of my windows in the house and guess what?...all of my windows have varying degrees of condensation from a few drops all the way to the wood turning black!!!! I live in WI and bought my tri-level 2yrs ago which makes the house 10yrs old. I turned my humidifier off over a week ago. I really need to keep this problem from getting worse or I'll end up having to replace all of the wood around every single window in the house...OH PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!

 

Rh in winter is removed by ventilating. Turn on a bath fan and open a window about an inch. RH should go down quick if it is cold out.

 

Thanx airman...speaking of "rh", can I get a meter at Home Depot and about how much do they run? If my humidity level is 0, then what the heck do I do? If/when I can get the mold off the wood then is the wood that turned "black" salvageable? I have a bad feeling about this whole ordeal....I Thank you all sooo much for all the help!!!!

 

You can get one just about any place. any where from $10 up. I have one for work that is $3700. That might be over kill for you. Wood can be cleaned up. It might not be stain grade because of the staining but you can paint it. Your RH will not be 0. You might have to get it down into the 30's.

 

"$3500" is just a tad out of my range and maybe a little bit of "overkill" LOL....I still don't know what I should do once I clean/kill the mold...how do I keep the condensation from reoccurring? I wonder if the cheap foam weather strip put around the edges of the window would help? Any ideas?

 

You will need to keep RH low enough to keep the windows from condensation building up on them.