It can be overwhelming for a homeowner to discover mold in their home. Mold growth can cause serious health problems and delay or complete failure to sell your home. These are some tips that will help you to understand the process and ensure that mold testing are properly addressed.
1 Why are Molds Important? – Molds can be found indoors as well as outdoors, even in dry climates. Mold is rarely a problem unless the mold starts growing indoors. Molds can cause serious health problems. Molds can produce allergens and irritants. Allergy can be caused by touching or inhaling mold spores or mold particles. Hay fever-like symptoms include sneezing and red eyes. These reactions are quite common.
Indoor air quality specialists can inspect your home to determine if there are any mold spores. Mold can often be found in a home during the home’s sale. Mold remediation can be expensive and often falls on the shoulders of the home seller.
2 Indoor mold growth – A water problem. To eliminate mold growth and prevent it from returning, a remediation company will need to identify the source of the water. It could be as simple as fixing leaky pipes or as complex as venting crawl spaces or attics. Mold growth is often caused by a lack of air circulation.
3 Do not skip air quality tests – A third-party company should perform a professional, post-mitigation air quality test to ensure that your mold remediation bid includes this. A copy of the mold test results should be requested from any home seller if mold remediation is required as a condition to a home sale. It is essential to pass an air quality test after mold remediation.
4 How should your mold remediation company handle your mold? Companies that don’t follow industry standards, or misrepresent the use of specific mold remediation techniques, are a part of this problem. This is a very lucrative industry and many companies offer mold remediation services. There is a lot of misinformation out there about mold and how it can be eliminated.
5 Why Is it So Expensive? – Remediation companies that specialize in remediation will adhere to industry standards to ensure that the job gets done correctly. These standards dictate not only the process to be followed, but also the type and number of machines required.
Xactamate, a software program used by the insurance industry, sets pricing. This pricing structure applies to remediation companies that use Xactamate for their estimating processes.
Every square inch of mold-contaminated territory will be touched at least three times during remediation. Imagine how tedious and time-consuming it can be to clean up an entire attic with all its support structures. To properly remove mold, you need to be thorough.
6 Avoid the low bidder – This topic has been discussed before, but it’s worth repeating. If your bid is low, and your company offers to spray the mold with a solution or fog the area with chemicals, that is an incomplete service. (Review the steps above). These agents cannot remove mold. You can request mold mitigation if you’re buying a house.
We see many homeowners hire companies that claim that spraying or fogging mold using these chemicals or serums will “kill it”. Although a chemical agent may kill mold, most manufacturers do not claim that it does.
In most cases, low estimates do not include all the necessary steps. Helpers certified technicians can answer any questions you may have about your mold project.
