How To Get Rid of Mold In Your Home
Chances are that you’ve heard about the horrors of mold. It can be a very scary experience to live with active mold growth in your home impacting the health and well being of you and your family. If you are not familiar with how to address mold, we will walk you through the best strategy to tackle the problem. It is best to have a licensed mold inspector assess the magnitude of the problem before engaging with a contractor. The mold assessment will take samples and create a remediation plan which will then be utilized by a contractor.
In 2015, the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) established mold legislation where Article 32 states laws around licensing of Mold Inspection and Remediation Specialists. for Mold Projects. It requires both inspectors and contractors to have a license to operate in New York State. This law also requires the inspection company must be a different entity than the remediation company, preventing conflict of interest.
Before you contact a mold remediation or restoration company, it is recommended to have a professional inspection completed by a licensed inspector. This might seem like an extra and unnecessary step but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Here’s why:
1. Identifying the Mold
Before starting remediation by ripping down walls and floors, it is important to identify if and what mold is present, where and how wide spread of an issue there is. Let’s say you had some water damage from a pipe leak or a flood in your basement that wasn’t fully addressed and you think mold grew on your walls. You see mold on one wall, call a remediation company and they tell you they can replace the wall and fix everything.
The are a few problems with this scenario:
No mold testing was completed. Mold should be confirmed by testing and sending air samples & direct swabs to a lab which will analyze the species and magnitude of the spore count.
You don’t actually know if it’s mold. If it’s not, the restoration will require a different amount of work. If it is mold, how do you know it has spread? Mold can spread to other rooms, floors and surfaces without showing visibly. Mold can spread from basements to attics if not addressed within the right timeframe.
Certain species of mold are more dangerous than others. This is not something to guess or take chances on with identifying exactly what it is. In New York State, a remediation company is not allowed to conduct the inspection if they are also doing the mold removal.
2. Remediation Work Plan
As mentioned, a remediation contractor can typically only address issues that they can visibly see. Let’s say there actually is mold on your wall , you call the contractor, they clean the area and replace the sheetrock. The issue is that you source of the mold might not be addressed and other areas of the house might still have active mold growth behind the walls or not visible to the naked eye.
A mold inspector, however, will assess the property by taking samples of multiple areas throughout the home, measure levels of other metrics, analyze the report and create a custom remediation work plan and comprehensive strategy for the remediation company. The mold inspection report can be shared to the remediation contractor who will now know the extent of the problem and exactly how to address without any guessing games.
3. Post Remediation Inspection
Once the remediation of mold removal and disinfection is complete, the mold inspector comes back to the project and does another inspection with sampling and testing. This is to confirm that mold levels have reverted from abnormal to normal levels. Once the testing comes back showing normal levels, the walls can be closed up and put back to your normal living space. If this step is not done and completed properly, you run the risk that the problem has not been fully addressed which runs the risk of similar issues down the road.
In Conclusion
Mold Patrol takes pride in walking all of our customers through the process with professionalism, consistent communication, regular updates and helping educate through the entire process. We want you to feel as comfortable and confident as possible during any mold issues you are experiencing.
If your home has never had a dedicated mold inspection and or are experiencing any of these symptoms in your home, it’s worth getting things checked out. We use high tech machines to test air quality and swabs to analyze through a lab to determine the magnitude of mold in your home. Living in a clean and safe space for you and your family is a priority that shouldn’t be ignored.
Give a us a call today and we will be happy to walk you through the inspection process or any questions you may have!