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I believe you can also get paint that will prevent the spread of mold.

As previous answer stated...find the moisture problem and you will solve your mold problem. Find a contractor that has experience dealing with below grade moisture issues and have them try to determine the cause of the moisture and what some remedes might be. This can be a very complicated issue or one that is as simple as deverting the water away from your house with gutters. Best of luck with finding the resolution!!

You may need to remove drywall and insulation - studs only if they are rotten. You will obviously want to stop future leaks so repair the foundation if it's cracked, get a battery backup on your sump pump, or repair the leak by the roof or window that's leaking. Once the cause has been fixed, you need to stop the mold. Bleach diluted with water and sprayed can take care of most minor mold problems. But if you want to be ultra safe or if you have a lot of mold or potentially dangerous mold, you will want to have a professional company fix it. There are mold remediation companies that charge a lot of money for this. However, I think the most effective treatment is with Ozone, as it will kill all mold and mold spores. You will need a company to do this as well. You also will have to leave your home (with all pets) for at least 24 hours, as the ozone is toxic to breathe.

1. Correct Moisture Problem
2. Install dehumidifier to reduce RH (relative humidity) to a level below 55%
3. Set up / operate negative air machine (hire contractor or rent a unit short term)
4. Seal any floor vents or duct work leading into living space
5. REMOVE ALL SHEETROCK AND INSULATION (if you have any)
6. Sand infected areas lightly
7. Spray apply biocide (or lysol concentrate) to all lumber surfaces (upper floor joists and subfloor)
8. Allow 48 hours dry time (RH should once again come down under 55%)
9. Spray apply a good mold inhibitor (olympic makes a good product for this)
10. install new R 19 insulation (if there was any)
11. call a local inspector or remediation company for an air test to insure you have dealt with the problem correctly.
BY ALL MEANS DO NOT USE CLOROX OR BLEACH, IT WILL ENHANCE YOUR PROBLEM DRAMATICLY
Good Luck

Source: http://www.moldstoppersonline.com

You have to get rid of the moisture proublem, buy fixing the water from coming into the basement, or fixing the moisture problem, or leak that has accured in the basement, this is never a quick fix unless you have a leaking drain line, leaking water pipe, hvac drain stoped up or bad pan and in some cases it could even be coming from a roof leak that has not shown up in the home.

Source: http://westtennesseehomeimprovements.com

Mold in a basement is a common problem. My company helps people with this every day. Some of the answers you received were helpful but not all the information is correct. First, you need to eliminate the two main ingrediants that mold needs to survive. The first one is water intrusion. This is a must. I am assuming you have no water intrusion as you make no mention. The second componant that needs to be eliminated is moisture. Moisture is also humidity. Basements need to be kept airtight in the summer months. Some folks have posted that you need air flow in your basement. Nothing could be furthur from the truth. When you open any windows for example, not one micron of air goes out of the basement, Warm humid air is sucked into the basement. Houses suck air into the basement and it meets the cool surfaces and skyrockets humidity. The windows must be kept closed and a dehumidification device installed to ensure humidity stays below 60% humidity. The dehumidifier should be energy star rated and purchasing a seperate humidity guage is a must to monitor the unit's progress. We like to keep our customer's basements at 50% humidity. This eliminates the smell that is active mold spore growth. Once the water and humidity is brought under control. Remove the organic materials that have mold on them. Walls, sheetrock and studs that have been affected. Follow the advice of previous posts as you must ensure that you do not affect the rest of the home. Once removed, install new walls using as much inorganic material as possible. We also install vapor barrier over the walls and seal the floors to stopwater vapor transmission into the basement. Poly plastic is not a acceptable vapor barrier. It is not "zero-perm" and will still allow moisture transmission. It will also crack and break into pieces over the years. A PVC liner rated "zero-perm" is the correct product in this application. Depending how large the basement is and if it is sectioned off will determine the dehumidifier strength. We use the Santa Fe line of dehidifiers as they are super energy efficiant and work like a dehumidifier on steriods. I hope this helps and I wish you the best in Basement Health!

Source: http://basementhealth.org/

The bast way to get rid of mold it just use blich 1 : 10 ratio (1 blich + water) all pros use it . Save money and use it . sometime I use 50% +50% Do NOT forget Gloves. $5.00 on materials and spray bottle solve your problems.
Serge Construction & cabinetry.

thank you

First of all any water penetration must be stopped and averted. Mold will not grow in relative humidity below 45-50%. If there is mold and it is removed it will begin to grow back in moist conditions. Severe problems need to be treated professionaly but in any case moisture needs to be controlled. Dehumidifiers are not the proper solution. They take water molecules out of the air but do not remove the mold spores. They are airborne and air naturally rises by way of stack pressure. Once it rises it infects the living space above. The healthiest answer for improved indoor air quality is to install an approved venilation system. Properly installed, the conditioned air from above will be drawn across the basement or crawl space floor and be expelled from the house. The system we are certified to distribute and install is called EZ Breathe. It can remove the air from the average home approximately 6-10 times a day, providing a much healthier breathing environment. paulrobbinswoodworkingco.

Most of the suggestions are good ones, however I think they all miss a very important point. Concrete can thru the cource of a year move GALLONS of water in and out of the home. If your foundation is exposed, than after or before using some of the following suggestions regarding removing modly material and such, the foundations needs to be sealed on the inside AND the out side preventing water from coming in and out in the first place. If you cant reach the outside of the foundation install a vapor lock on the inside of the foundation wall and install gypsum dry wall. Use a good quality primer to seal the drywall and paint. For added bonus and not much more money you can add mold inhibitors to paint sold at most paint stores.

Source: advancedproductapplications.com

Most of the comments are right on about having to get rid of the source of the moisture first, otherwise you will have a permanent battle on your hands. If it is general light mold around the basement and there is no staining from outside water instrusion, then you probably have a general humidity problem. You could check on that by tearing a hole about a foot around in the worst looking spot if it is drywall or panelled - if there is mold smell or black or fuzzy white mold/fungus on the back of the piece you take out, on the studs (or rust or free moisture if metal studs), or mold or dampness on the foundation wall then it is more than just interior humidity - you probably are getting moisture through the wall from outside. This is the most likely case, unless your basement has no circulation with the rest of the house.

Another clue would be if any metal items (pipes, joist nails, etc) in the basement are rusting. Also, if the mold is appearing on spots other surfaces in contact with the outside ground (like interior walls, furnishings, stair risers, ceiling or underside of main floor) then your general humidity is definitely WAY too high, and probably means you either have no ventilation in the basement, or you have leaks through the foundations or around the basement slab.

You locally get a feel for diffusion through wall or slab by temporarily tightly taping a piece of plastic sheeting over a section of the wall or floor - leave it overnight, and if it has noticeable condensation on it the next day you have excessive moisture diffusing into the room from that surface.

You can get a decent humidity gage at a hardware or box store for about $7-10 - if your humidity is over about 70% then you are too damp. What reads as about 70% in the basement room can mean 100% (condensing conditions) at the colder exterior walls.

Stopping actual flowing outside infiltration requires going outside, removing the fill from around the house, and installing a membrane or bitumastic waterproofing system (and possibly drains) around the entire foundation - $10K + typically.

If you think it may just be interior moisture condensing on the colder surfaces, then removing the moisture is the key. If you have exposed concrete or concrete block walls, there are moisture-retardant paints that will limit vapor movement through the foundation. It will NOT stop actual leaks - just moisture diffusing through the foundation from the moist ground outside. There are separate trafficable moisture-control paints for bare concrete floors. A bare floor and wall full-house basement that is wet onthe outside surface can contribute up to 5 gallons of moisture a day to the house - more than enough to cause condensation in the cooler basement. These measures you can do yourself according to the instructions on the cans (after the bleach and scrubbing treatment to kill and remove the existing mold - read up on mold removal techniques and safety on Federal Housing Administration or Cooperative Extension Service websites). You can also buy mold and mildew inhibitor packets to add to the paint at your paint dealer.

Also check if you have any exposed dirt in a connecting crawl space - some houses have a half basement with only a crawl space under the garage and/or family room, and if there is not a tight and effective vapor control barrier over the bare ground then a lot of moisture can get into the basement air from there.

An open sump pump sump with standing water can also contribute a fair amount of moisture - you may beable to cut a piece of plastic to fit over the sump (leaving clearance for the mechanism to operate) to reduce this source - fasten down so it cannot be kicked and block the operation of the float switch mechanism.

Substantial ventilation and/or dehumidification can also remove a fair amount of moisture, but that is an on-going battle. Ventilation should be with low moisture air (inside air - heated if possible, as warm air will collect more moisture when it mixes with the downstairs air) if possible, especially if you live in an area with high summer humidity outside, and the airflow has to be enough, and distributed around the perimeter of the room (large stand-up fan ?), to actually collect the moisture, and then of course it has to be vented to the outside to get rid of the now-moist air.

One solution used in some houses is to duct heater and air conditioner air into the basement as well (which is usually not done in unfinished basements), or to install a "Robin Hood" fan between the main floor and basement, to steal some air from the main house and blow it around in the basement. This is not the best solution, because the return air is vented into the house, so the moisture is not being removed from the house envelope.

All this can be addressed by an energy efficiency consultant, or by an HVAC (HEating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) contractor if you don't want to attack it yourself.

Basements are naturally wet. First remove moisture, dehumdify your basment by running a basment dehumidifier which dries the air. Make sure to repair any sources of water or condensation including wrapping pipes that sweat, fixing cracks in foundations, making sure that dryer is vented outside... Clean the walls with Vital Oxide which kills mold on contact and will repel mold growth for some times as long as water source is cut off. Then after walls dry ( assuming they are concrete) use a HEPA filtration vacuum to suck up the dead mold spores. Dead mold spores can also evoke a response. Use a hygrometer to measure humidity in the basement. Make sure it is always below 55%. Run a basement dehumidifier to dry the air as mentioned before.(really important).

Source: http://www.stopmoldcold.com

Dear Readers,

The best and only way to prevent mold amplification in a basement is to prevent moisture or water from infiltrating the materials prevalent in most basements. The sources are flood, broken water supply lines, leaks from drainage pipes and humidity. With the exception of humidity, all water infiltration possibilities should be dealt with quickly. Remove the water you see and place a dehumidifier, and air movers to increase ventilation while the dehumidifier does its job. If you have a moisture meter, monitor the materials each day to make sure the materials are drying. If the materials are dried in 72 hours or less, you shouldn't have an issue with mold.

Humidity that exceeds 55-60% is enough moisture for mold amplification to start and sustain itself under the right set of circumstances. If humidity is your problem, you should consider a small commercial dehumidifier made for these scenarios. Increasing ventilation is also a real good idea. You should also make sure the air circulates in your basement at least 4 times an hour, if not, contact your Angie's List HVAC contractor and have them look into increasing the air circulation.

Finally, repair the source of your water infiltration, and keep the basement dry. This will take care of any mold issue that you may have. Good luck!

Bob Culley

Source: www.culleyenviro.com