Black Mold

You can afford a gallon or so of bleach can’t you? A solution of 1 part bleach to four parts water will kill anything.

bleach!

Killing the mold is your first priority, but you have to address the leak. If you don’t fix it, the mold will grow right back, and any wood under there will rot. (if it hasn’t already)

Use a pail or any container to contain the water and don’t forget to get rid of it. Prevent the wood from getting wet, then CLEAN out the wood. Black mold, is due to wetness. before it dries, bleaching the wood may be a solution but have the water seeped into the wood, is it stained, there are available wood dyes to cover up the stain. Nobody ask you to remove the wall or the wood or not to shower, euch, stinko. The leak have to be resolved other the black mold will occur again. Black mold, are due to parasitic growth, and in the absence of water will eventually dry out and leave a stain. Bleaching, normally solution form will sep into the wood unless if you have ways and means to clean out the bleach from wetting the wood. Another method is using sandpaper, the dry method, but stains are stains, just like a surface wound or a deep punctured wound. Black mold is only surface but that long, who can tell, unless one is there to study it.

The first thing you need to do is take care of the leak. If you don’t then any measures you take to kill the mold will just take care of it temporarily, my guess the fix would not last more than 24 hours.

I also wouldn’t recommend using bleach water as bleach by itself is typically 94-97% water already and you only have a 3-6% Sodium Hypochlorite which evaporates quickly because it in itself is highly toxic and leaves 94-97% water on the places that you cleaned. Also mixing bleach with some household cleaners can be hazardous. For example, mixing an acid cleaner with sodium hypochlorite bleach generates chlorine gas. Mixing with ammonia solutions (including urine) produces chloramines. Both chlorine gas and chloramine gas are toxic. Bleach can react violently with hydrogen peroxide and produce oxygen gas:[5]

H2O2(aq) + NaOCl(aq) → NaCl(aq) + H2O(l) + O2(g)

I try to stick with an organic based cleaner. Which is can be cheaper per gallon than bleach but you have to buy it in concentrated bottles.

Now normally I would recommend getting your house tested to see what type of mold you have, but this can cost anywhere from $500-2000, which is probably more than you want to spend.

Other than that if you want to find out more about toxic mold and how to deal with it in a safe, inexpensive, non-toxic way check out

Vinegar ad bicarb of soda mix together (in shower) and scrub) leave for a while. If still there repeat.