house making us sick? *update*

[watchdogps]

We moved into this house this summer. Its an old farmhouse. For the last couple weeks, we have had frequent headaches and tiredness. We got a carbon monoxide detector and it isn't going off. The heat is fule oil and it seems to smell strnger than we think it should but we have never had it. The landlord came and looked at the furnace (which is old as dirt) and he says its fine, but of course he does, he wouldn't want to replace it...
If the monoxide isn't the issue, does a fuel oil furnace put out other gases that could do this? Or any other suggestions?

 

[goldfinches]

Check for mold. Sniff your rooms, sometimes you can smell the mustiness. Go into the crawlspace, look for it. It'll be dark, often black.

 

[annanicole18]

make sure you prepped the co detector correctly. you have to let it get a "clean" air reading outside before you can use it in the house so that you can see what a good level is outside and then see what it is in the house

 

[Mahonri]

Sounds like CO.

some homes have Radon gas. some have mold.

Check it out.

 

[watchdogps]

Quote:
Didn't know this! Will do asap!
And yes, there is probably mold. Damp old basement, plus a roof leak that is saturating the floorboards under the kitchen tile. I have a feeling the landlord isn't going to have the $ to fix this and its going to force us to move. I am terrified about that since I have eight dogs, three cats andthe poultry. Plus, we don't have a lot of money to drop on another deposit and possibly have to fence again.

 

[Stacykins]

Quote:
Didn't know this! Will do asap!
And yes, there is probably mold. Damp old basement, plus a roof leak that is saturating the floorboards under the kitchen tile. I have a feeling the landlord isn't going to have the $ to fix this and its going to force us to move. I am terrified about that since I have eight dogs, three cats andthe poultry. Plus, we don't have a lot of money to drop on another deposit and possibly have to fence again.

It is a massive health violation for the landlord to not fix mold problems, and it is definitely in your tenant rights to get that fixed ASAP. You may have to nag quite a bit, document everything, but it will be worth it. If the landlord cannot get it fixed, because it is an unsafe place to live in, he'll have to fork over your deposit and terminate your lease because any inspector would find a mold infested home unfit for residence. Moving again would be a pain in the butt, so hopefully it gets dealt with.

 

[dainerra]

I'd vote mold or radon as well.

perhaps you could talk to the landlord about you guys doing the work cleanup in exchange for some $$ off the rent?

If it's mold, the places have to be thoroughly cleaned (may or may not require a professional) and then sealed with a special paint that traps and kills the mold spores. This might need to be covered twice. Then painted over.

Perhaps remind him that if the house has a mold issue that it is likely illegal for him to rent it out until the problem is fixed? Same for radon or a CO2 problem. On monday, call your local rental assistance advocate (they handle landlord/tenet disputes) and ask them if he is required to fix it.

In AR, he is NOT required to fix it. It isn't even legally required for a house to be in a livable condition for renters.

 

[EweSheep]

Also check your heating ducts, they have unbelievable amount of dust! We have that problem! We were tested negative for radon and very very little mold but our furnance is in basement. Even had a dead bat on the bottom of furnance...must have came in from the chimney.

Also, another thing to check is changing the filters often, even those that say change it every other month, I still change it every month.

Someone mentioned a while back, some kind of vent filters that you can lay it on the heating ducts so it will catch additional dust.

 

[michickenwrangler]

Check between the walls too. They could have rodent or bat droppings, especially if this is an old house.

 

[Dar]

Quote:
you fixing it is not advisable...

make them call in professional help who has the proper respiratory equipment and with severe cases it cant just be bleached away and painted over with an anit-mold paint... in most cases the drywall will need to be removed and replaced and its not cheap... if you do it you may end up for more trouble then you bargained for and then if you do it and it was not done right the landlord can come back on you for the additional cost of fixing it right

before we lived here we were in a townhouse and the entire complex had mold issues... the end units were BAD... the landlord had to pt us up in a hotel for a week while our unit was being repaired .. the middle units were only the front and the back of the house so there were put up over night...

we were offered a "buy-out" and took it... they cancelled our lease and paid for movers to come and pack for me and paid for the move... easiest move I have ever done!