Standing water in central air ducts, attic fans

[snowman04976]

Hi all-
First time I ever logged in here but have been browsing around for a while.

My wife and I bought our first home together just last summer. Its a modest single story ranch in New Hampshire. When we had the home inspected, the inspector found a major mold problem in the attic- black mold too. We wheeled and dealed with the asking price and offset it enough to be addressed later. It appears the root cause of the mold is because there are no soffitt vents, only a ridge vent. In addition, the hatch going to the attic was terribly constructed allowing alot of warm moist air from the home into the cold attic. We heat the home with a Hearthstone woodstove, hot water circ, oil fired boiler as an option.

Long story long, what should be done here to at least get proper ventilation up there!? Should I get an attic fan? What kind? They work on a humidity control? What if its 90% humidity outside, the fan would stay on indefinitely?? Or just go with natural circulation with the ridge vent & soffitt vents? Right now, there is frost all over the walls of the attic it is so moist...


This leads me to phase two of my questions- The air handler (central air AC evaporator) is also in the attic. All the supply air ducts to the rooms are uninsulated, not much fancier than a drier exhaust hose. IS that the way they should be??? They are lying flat on the attic floor to each duct, it appears the ducts were never covered, insulated, or plugged during prior winters. This led to major condensation buildup, gallons upon gallons. I knew there was some buildup, but after investigating the water stain in my kitchen (from air handler overflowing with condensation) I picked up the kitchen supply duct, it dumped about 10 gallons onto the floor beneath.


Now I am at a loss for what direction to go with this situation. I know all the ducts are moldy from the standing condensation. What can I do? Remove existing ducts and somehow clean them? How about replace them with insulated units? How about rip the whole freakin roof off and build a second story? (serious!)

I am not interested in mold abatement at this point- as long as my HVAC is internally sterile. There may be a little one on the way and I know children are much more sensitive and succeptible to mold spores. There are tons and tons of sources out there regarding mold- it gets overwhelming. Am I doing myself harm to go up in the moldy attic just looking around!? No mask (dumb...) But I have worked in worse environments..

Sorry for the long winded story and the bunch of questions- but those are the issues above me. I will talk about the basement at another date! Thanks for any advice!!
Cheers-
Jim

[HayZee518]

it seems that the mold spores have already rooted themselves in your ductwork so any air passing through them will only spread or re-spread the spores throughout the house, only to get sucked in via the return air only to start the journey again. Option one) disassemble the trunk lines if they are sheet metal. They are held in place with 1/2 inch "drives" pieces of folded metal at each juncture of a trunk piece [i.e. 24 inches long] and two s-cleats. Scrub it out with TSP and water. Flexible duct should have been reinforced, aluminized fiberglass - not aluminum extruded dryer hose. Remove and scrub the registers - mold collects everyplace. Change filters often. Get the ones that provide a sticky surface to trap the spores, once they dry out they're useless. If the trunk lines sag, they will collect moisture so arrange so that they drain back to the air handler. Galvanized trunk lines should be covered with fiberglass insulation to keep from forming condensation both inside and out [reason for your water buildup]