The Mold Remediation Process: Step-by-Step Overview
If you recently discovered mold inside your home, you’re not alone. It’s a common problem plaguing homeowners across the country. Fortunately, there’s a way to treat it through mold remediation.
As the name implies, mold remediation is the process of getting rid of mold. Caused by moisture and rising humidity, mold can develop in any area of your house if the proper environment is present (moisture and humidity). If left untreated, it can create severe issues for not only your house’s structural integrity but also your health.
That’s why, as soon as you notice mold, your next step should be to call a professional mold remediation company. But what exactly does a mold remediation specialist do? What’s involved in the process? How long does it take? Is there a way to prevent mold growth in the future? These questions and more will be answered in today’s blog post.
6 Steps to Mold Remediation
If you found mold and want to get a professional to your property to take care of it, one of your first questions will be, “How long is it going to take?”
Unfortunately, there’s no clear-cut answer to this question, as it’s dependent on several factors, including the type of mold, its severity, and how many areas it spreads to. As such, the time frame for mold remediation may take a day, to several days, and even a couple of weeks to complete.
Over those days and/or weeks, you can expect your technician to do several things, including inspections, cleaning, and repairs. In total, there are six main steps in the mold remediation process. We’ve provided a helpful overview of these steps below:
1. Identifying Mold: The First Step in Mold Remediation
Think of the first step of mold remediation as baking a cake. You wouldn’t just toss all the ingredients together without knowing what they are or how much of an ingredient you need. The same concept applies to mold remediation.
Though there are tens of thousands of species of mold in the world, only a select few will grow inside your house. That said, there are still several types of mold to be aware of, including, but not limited to:
- Cladosporium
- Aspergillus
- Fusarium
- Stachybotrys
- Chaetomium
Most molds are easily recognizable by their smell and color. Stachybotrys, for example, is commonly referred to as black mold due to its black coloring. Chaetomium, on the other hand, is usually white at the onset but turns green the longer it sits. Its little details help your specialist identify the type of mold and develop the correct treatment method. This identification process lets them advise you on signs to look for moving forward.
For example, if your home has Cladosporium—one of the most common household molds—it can tell you where it commonly grows (insulation and inside carpets) and can exacerbate symptoms in those with asthma. So, if you notice discoloration on your carpet or spill liquid on it, knowing that Cladosporium is likely to grow can help you take preventative measures.
This inspection process also lets them identify the mold’s harmfulness. Household molds are divided into categories, ranging from mild to significant health threats. Aspergillus fumigatus, for example, is common after floods and can cause serious infections. Knowing how hazardous a mold is can help them take the proper safety measures, which brings us to our next point.
2. Containment and Safety Measures
When treating mold, your certified technician will usually set up a physical barrier in the room where the mold is present. This is because many household mold spores are airborne. Creating a physical barrier, such as a large plastic sheet, to cover the room can prevent those spores from escaping and affecting other areas of your house.
In addition to containing the mold, they will take several other comprehensive safety measures to ensure the safety of your home and your health, including, but not limited to, creating a decontamination chamber and wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) so that any contact with the mold doesn’t accidentally spread elsewhere when your specialist exits the containment area.
3. Air Filtration and Ventilation
The next step is to address the mold spores after identifying and containing the mold. As mentioned above, mold spores are airborne, so your team will use various equipment, including air scrubbers, to grab them.
These air scrubbers usually have HEPA filters, which are designed to grab some of the most minuscule spores, assuming they’re at least 0.3 microns or larger. Doing so eliminates them from going into your home’s HVAC system, which, speaking of it, will also be cleaned and have its filters replaced.
Various forms of ventilation and air filtration will be used, including opening doors and windows to get a cross-breeze, using an exhaust fan to vent air outside your building, and turning on dehumidifiers. Dehumidifiers are essential to the mold restoration specialist’s toolkit, as they grab excess humidity from the air. As mentioned above, mold thrives in environments with high moisture and humidity. Dehumidifiers and air scrubbers are designed to remove these elements, inhibiting further mold growth.
4. Mold Removal and Cleaning
Now, moving on to the process you’re likely most concerned about—actually removing the mold! Your mold removal specialist will use cleaners specifically designed to treat mold and its spores, usually biocide. Biocide is a cleaning agent strong enough to kill common fungi, such as mold, at the source instead of regular household cleaners that only treat the top layer.
In addition to killing the existing mold, it helps to inhibit mold spores from continuing to grow. The chemicals used in mold remediation are all approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Once the mold is removed, your specialist will clean the affected area so it’s thoroughly disinfected. This cleaning includes everything touched by mold, including furniture, floors, walls, and more. Remember that the cleaning process could vary depending on the item affected by mold. Your specialist can advise you on the recommended cleaning method, but standard methods include using specialized cleaners, steam cleaning, and wiping the excess down with a brush or cloth.
5. Repairing and Restoring the Area
If items in your house are too severely damaged, they may need to be repaired or replaced. However, this will depend on the items most commonly needing repair or restoration, including those previously affected by water damage.
If, for example, a pipe bursts behind your wall, then your drywall may need to be repaired and replaced due to mold growth behind it. This process typically includes inspecting the damage and determining whether or not parts of it can be salvaged. If mold is only affecting a tiny part of your drywall, your specialist will cut that area to remove it and then replace the portion that’s now missing. If the entire wall is too far gone, they will replace it.
Often, many clients will ask how long the repair and restoration process will take, and the answer is that it depends on several factors, including the severity of the damage and what was damaged. Fixing damaged drywall is straightforward, whereas any mold affecting your home’s electrical system is a bit more complex.
6. Post-Remediation Inspection and Testing
Whether the mold restoration process took days or weeks to complete, the good news is that it’s finally done, right? Well…almost! The final step in the remediation process is to conduct a post-remediation inspection and thorough testing.
Consider this a form of quality assurance. This inspection ensures everything is done correctly once the repairs are made and the mold is removed. During it, your specialist will make sure your home looks good and there is no more mold and conduct testing on both the air quality and moisture levels to ensure that the spores are gone and the environment that once hosted the mold growth is no longer viable.
This is an important step of the mold remediation process because, without it, you could be moving back into a house that’s harmful to your health. As noted earlier, mold exposure can trigger allergy symptoms and worsen certain conditions, like asthma. Ensuring that things are good and the premises are safe protects you both now and in the future.
Speaking of the future, though, is there a way you can avoid mold growth? Keep reading to find out.
How to Prevent Mold Growth After Remediation
After the mold remediation process ends, your restoration specialist will offer tips for preventing mold growth. Here are some of the most helpful:
Be Proactive
The easiest way to prevent mold growth is to take action to minimize water damage at the onset. Before a major storm, seal off all doors and windows that provide an entrance point for water to seep in. Likewise, check your shingles for damage after the storm and, if necessary, make repairs. Doing so will reduce the risk of water leaking down into your ceiling and mold growth in your attic.
If you live in a flood zone, use sandbags and, if possible, keep items prone to mold, like upholstery, paperwork, and paintings, up off the floor so they don’t get damaged. It would help if you also stayed on top of repairs, ensuring that your water heater doesn’t have sediment buildup that could lead to a leak in your basement and any pipes in the house. Knowing the signs of a potential burst, such as discolored water or fluctuating water levels, can help you take action before water damage occurs.
Remove Water As Soon As Possible
If you can’t take proactive steps to mitigate water damage, remove water as soon as possible, regardless of how much there is. If your tub overflows, for example, you might not think you have to rush to clean up those wet towels you put down, but any moisture in the area can lead to mold.
For more minor leaks, thoroughly dry up the area. Call a professional who can come out and take care of larger pools of water. While removing water, open your doors and windows to get a cross-breeze (if it’s safe to do so). The sooner you remove water or make a plan to do so, the less mold you may have to deal with.
Know Who to Call
Last but not least, if you encounter mold, make sure you know who to call for help. Homeowners often find DIY mold remedies online, but those rarely work. Even if they do, they are only treating mold at a surface level, which means it’ll keep coming back.
Knowing who to call for quality mold remediation is paramount to keeping mold contained and getting your home back to normal. Mold remediation specialists not only provide the helpful actions listed above but also offer emotional support. Often, when mold grows out of control to the point of hiring a specialist, you likely have already been dealing with significant water damage, too.
Dealing with these situations can be difficult and emotionally draining. Hiring a professional can ease your mind, reassure you that it will be taken care of, and, more importantly, offer up time frames for completion so you’re not in the dark. Sometimes, not knowing when your home – and, by proxy, your life – will return to normal can be scary. The team at BluSky is here to answer all your questions and promptly tend to mold so your home can return to normal.
Contact BluSky For Quality Mold Remediation Near You
Finding and dealing with mold can be overwhelming, but fortunately, it’s not something you have to tackle alone. With years of experience under our belt, BluSky is your go-to resource for quality mold remediation.
Whether the mold is in your attic, behind a wall, or in a crawl space, we can take care of it. We’re proud to offer quality mold restoration services all across the United States. Contact us today at 800-266-5677 to get a quote or set up an appointment. Curious if we provide mold restoration in your area? Check out all of the locations we serve.