I just wondering how do you see the wood inside of wall!? Is the wall removable? If you have seen the wood inside of wall turn into black, that for sure is mold/mildew, instead of a money spend to test and confirm it might be better spend money to get ride off it. Let me share my experience with you, may be not very "professional", so use or not is totally up to you. 1) make sure the leak has already fixed completely. (my friend thought her pipe under sink was leaking, after repaired the pipe, the leak still continuing. Turns out is the pipe cracked behind wall during the last month's extreme cold weather and she did not let the faucet dripping water during that time. A pipe crack inside of wall is very difficult to detect. I saw a website before it shows you how to use a tool to detect a water leak inside of wall, email me if you will like to know that website). 2) Find out how sever the wood's damage. If it is very bad and not just turn into black but also starting to rotten, I will suggest you replace this portion of wood. If just simply has some black mildew spot, not appear big deal at all, what I did before which works very well - I used the Lysol spread (the kind with remove mildew and with bleach content). I spread the infected area, wait about 15 - 30 mins, if any mold/mildew spot still there, then I hand wipe off the mold/mildew spot and let it air dry very very throughly (sometime, there are some insulation material around the pipe inside of wall, you would better take that out first and replace the new one after the area dry throughly). Once before, I have to spread Lysol twice since the mildew was pretty stubborn on that case. Remember, since you are able to remove the wall to see the wood, no matter what do you do, make sure the area dry throughly before you put the wall back. Otherwise, a damp wood will attract termite. I assume that your black wood just happen in a small area, if the damage is a big area and the mold/mildew has penetrate through the wall which we normally call that “壁霉", you will need to fix every damage inside of wall first, then replace the sheetrock. |