New apartment flooded with AC water. How bad is it?

Despite the horror headlines you hear about "toxic mold," as home problems go mold is not life-threatening, and it's remediable.

If there is mold growing, you will probably feel like you have a cold. As soon as you can, have the floor opened up so the damage can dry out. (You are, of course, going to have to repair the floor).

For most people, stopping the leak and drying out the materials would be a solution. If you're really worried (perhaps you already have a respiratory problem like asthma, or you continue to feel like you have a lingering cold) you can get a certified mold engineer to run air quality tests, and then treat the apartment. This is an expensive (probably four figures) solution, so you need to decide if you want to go that far or not.

If you do take that road, I would recommend Russell Housman at AllTech Environmental (www.alltechenviro.com). He's a prince.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

Thank you so much Ali R.

Since it is a "new apartment" I assume this is a condo. In my coop, the floor and the AC unit are owned by the owners corp. I had the same problem with my unit (the plumbing for condensate seems often to be under engineered), and the owners corp replaced the floor with substandard materials. It happened again and I got the owners corp to give me the insurance procedes directly and I used them to both install an overflow drain to the exterior of the building and a higher quality floor, which makes the floor mine now.

So my advice would be to immediately check the offering plan to determine who owns the AC unit and floor. If they are both yours, call up your insurance agent and go get your own contractor to remediate immediately. If both are theirs, tell them of your concerns about mold and that any delay may be negligent on their part, voiding insurance coverage. If one is theirs and one is yours, good luck sorting out the mess.

If the building does the repair work on the floor, insist on seeing the materials to be used prior to letting the contractor in the door.

If I misunderstood and this is a rental, contact your lawyer if this turns into a health issue as this may well constitute a constructive eviction.

Best of luck.

Caffiene

Mold does not survive under normal room conditions. Once you take away the humidity it dies fairly quickly. Tho you would still have mold spores floating around but without moisture they also die. Just air your room/apt as much as possible after the incident and control the moisture by drying out everything. Too much is made out of mold. Yes, its a problem when there is mold growing/present in a humid environment indoors for a period of time.

jrd, what is considered substandard material? What is the correct one to use?
Thank you.