We moved into a home last December, and ever since then, I have experienced dizziness, blurred vision, nasal congestion and occasional body aches in my living room. This feeling does not seem to happen in other rooms like my basement, where I spend 9 hours of my day working. It also does not affect my wife and daughter who think I am crazy because of this.
In March, we had our HVAC system replaced. There was significant mold growth on the coil of the gas pack unit. The AC units and furnaces are new, but the ducts are the original to the house built in 2000. After the work, we had our ducts cleaned and sanitized by a professional company. The symptoms have reduced somewhat since that time, but they continue only in the living room. The living room is the end of the duct run from the downstairs unit. There was some visible mold seen in the ducts by the inspectors, but they do not think this is the source of my problems due to the low mold counts in the testing.
We have an Airthings meter that has shown significant levels of PM2.5 at times, upwards of 50 ug/m3, but then periods of time when there is 0. As I type, the level is 0, and I have a headache and a "buzzing" feeling in my head. We also just had a mold test done, and the inspectors said the count returned from the lab is low and within normal expectations. One of the inspectors had a similar feeling in the living room when he was working, but he was not certain the cause. They did find aspergillus with "very high" spore estimate from Hayes Microbial Consulting, but no spores were detected in the air of the basement or living room. The aspergillus is in the joists directly below the living room, and there is a drop ceiling between the joists at the finished basement area. I have noticed no allergic reactions in this area of the basement. The inspectors did note that the crawlspace is open to the area above the ceiling tiles, so that air is flowing there, likely contributing to the cause of the mold. I plan to have that sealed.
We do have leather Barcalounger furniture that we purchased before and after the move. I did not notice issues with the sofa and loveseat at our previous house, but the allergic reactions started after the move, and around that same time we added 2 recliners. There is a significant odor that comes from the furniture, but it smells like leather to me, not formaldehyde or any chemicals. I know that there are often some problems with leather off gassing, so I guess I could move them out temporarily to see if the problems persist.
We do have a few plants in the room that were also present in the former house. I am considering moving those to the garage temporarily to determine if they are causing issues, but I would think that they would have bothered me previously in the old house.
The radon levels are high, and we are going to have a mitigation system installed. At times, the radon stays over 10 for a week or so, but most of the time it stays around 3. I know that radon does not generally cause illness immediately like this, but I wanted to include as many details as possible.
2 mold companies and a home inspector have inspected my home, but no one has found anything outside the aspergillus. Is it possible that mold could make me sick if no spores are found in the air of the living room? I was thinking that maybe the stack effect (or whatever it is called) could force the air upstairs, so I was thinking maybe mycotoxins could be present, but I cannot determine if that is possible if no aspergillus spores are found in the air. It just seems odd to me that the only place I really feel sick is the living room. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to proceed? I am getting to the point where I hate being in my house...
The mold is growing on 3 joist runs in the basement, most noticeably on the bottom sides. The area between the subfloor upstairs and the drop ceiling in the basement is open to the crawlspace, so the inspector said the air from that is filling that space. The people that owned the house before us did not control the humidity in the basement, so it stayed pretty moist. We plan on closing off the opening from the crawlspace to help, and we also run a large dehumidifier. My plan is to close off the crawlspace, control the humidity and have the joists professionally remediated. The confusion just came for me in determining if the aspergillum could cause problems without being detected in the air. I work in the basement 9 hours per day and never notice it there, only in the living room directly above the problem. Thanks for the confirmation, I do appreciate it.