Mold Damage Remediation

Mold does not spread like cancer, contrary to many people’s beliefs. Mold can only grow where something is wet. The areas inside your home or other building are not supposed to be wet, so mold growth always signifies there is something else wrong. 

While mold growth does not spread, the mold spores produced by the mold growth can freely move around a building.

Most mold is black and every type of mold is bad. So, this is technically correct. But in reality, they are probably referring to a mold called Stachybotrys as this type of mold has been named in many large lawsuits. 

This mold is indeed bad as it has some characteristics to potentially cause toxic effects to harm very young children, but it is not the only bad mold.

It is not uncommon to have a little bit of mold growth on a window sill or above a shower. If you do, you should wash it off as soon as you can. 

With these and a few other minor issues as exceptions, there should not be any mold growth in your house or business and it is not considered normal. Every house does not have mold growth.

While there are no federal laws – yet – that dictate mold must be remediated, there are a number of states that have their individual standards and requirements. Besides that, there are at least eight standards of care relating to mold remediation, and they are all very similar. 

Some of these standards of care are: 

• EPA
• OSHA
• New York Guidelines
• Restoration Industry Alliance
• Health Canada
• Industrial hygienists
• Governmental industrial hygienists
• IICRC

Any device with those claims is likely a fraud. There are ozone emitting devices that claim to kill mold and make your house safe. These do not kill microorganisms and instead create a toxic gas that can have detrimental health effects.

However, you can purchase HEPA filtered air filtration devices that can capture air-borne mold spores and other allergens and these will typically help with the general indoor air-quality issues rapidly. 

These are also usually sold with activated carbon filter media, which will trap gasses in the air such as mycotoxins from mold growth.

People tend to generalize that mold is bad and mildew is not much of a problem. If there is visible microorganism on building materials, it is almost always mold. If it is growing on textiles, it is probably mildew. That doesn’t really help that much as both are members of the Fungi kingdom and mildew can also have harmful health effects if the quantity is large enough.

This answer assumes that you are not seeing visible mold growth or smelling musty odors. Most of the time people that are sick due to mold are suffering from an allergic reaction and these symptoms can differ with each individual. 

The symptoms often consist of respiratory issues such as coughing and sneezing, watery eyes and runny nose, uncomfortable breathing, headaches, etc. 

The first thing to try is to leave. If the symptoms are from allergenic mold effects, they should go away when you are away from that particular property or location for a period of time. This may be a matter of a few hours or a few days. If the symptoms do not go away, it likely isn’t a mold issue.

He liked the first paragraph of the mold page, but so you know we do not do mold testing as this interferes with ethics and this is key when dealing with this subject. 

Mold can be skewed very easily unethically if you test and remediate as a mold specialists. This should be done by two sources as to be fair for a true mold problem.

I realize this is a lot of material, but we take mold very seriously and it's not a subject that very many companies deal with properly.

In some areas of the home, like bathrooms and near sinks, it’s obvious where and why mold is growing. But in other areas it may seem like a mystery to why mold growth has occurred. 

Mold may appear because of a leak, water damage after a flood or fire or improper ventilation. Breathing in mold can cause allergic reactions and over extended periods of time, lead to more chronic illnesses.