In case you missed it, here are the previous links for this now-completed project:
Last week we had some black mold drama in the kitchen. I ended up cutting 2 holes in the drywall to make sure the mold wasn’t inside the wall. Thankfully it wasn’t! I have since patched both holes, added 4 coats of joint compound, sanded it down, painted it, and pushed the fridge back into place. Whew! To help with the sanding and mudding I bought a new toy:
It’s a Hyde Drywall Sander [#affiliate] which attaches to any standard shop vac and sucks the drywall dust into the vacuum while you sand. It’s a breathing LIFESAVER. The first time I sanded the drywall patches I was wheezing and coughing all night even though I’d worn my respirator. After using the drywall sander vac attachment I had no issues. I still wore my respirator [#affiliate], but it was so nice to not have drywall dust in the air and all over everything. And especially not in my lungs. I bought the Hyde drywall sander at Home Depot, but you can also get it on Amazon.
By Saturday I was on my 3rd coat of drywall mud [joint compound], and I was getting impatient with the bottom patch. It just wasn’t doing the trick and I could still see the fiberglass tape through the joint compound after each sanding. So I slathered it on like frosting and that did the trick:
Closeup view of top patch & bottom patch:
After sanding on Sunday I was actually able to paint the bottom patch!
The top patch required 1 more coat of mud. But by yesterday after work I was able to paint over the top patch as well. By today after work it was looking perfect [with flash & without flash]:
We still have no idea what caused the mold to form. Yesterday evening I lay paper grocery bags on the floor behind the fridge and used the ice maker and water spigot alot. No moisture:
Next up was checking the 2 connectors on the water hoses/wires behind the fridge:
I held kleenex’s over each one while hubby ran the ice maker and water spigot and there was zero moisture on the tissues. We’ll just keep an eye on the wall every month to make sure there’s no mold growing. If it grows back, we’ll need to do some more research and testing.
An enigma! At least it wasn’t in the wall and you were able to get rid of it. Now that you know to keep watch, it shouldn’t be a big problem.
Yes, thankfully it was not in the wall – if it had been, total nightmare!
Wow, I’m going to buy me a Hyde sander this weekend! I’ve had the same problem with sanding dust during my plaster repair project. Thanks for the tip!! And good work on the wall!
I wish I’d bought one a long time ago! Huge difference. Before buying it, there was a fine dusting of plaster dust on everything in the kitchen. After using it – nothing! And the sanding screen makes really quick work of the dried joint compound.