What Is Mold Remediation?
A mold remediation is the process of carefully removing mold sources, cleaning mold spores out of the air and those settled on surfaces, and implementing measures to help prevent future mold issues. All mold remediation actions should be done by professionals using appropriate safety gear under carefully controlled conditions to avoid making the problem worse by stirring up mold and spreading it throughout the building.
How Mold Removal Works
When mold is found on porous materials like drywall, paper, or cloth, the mold-affected material will need to be removed and disposed of under controlled conditions to avoid making the problem worse. If you only treat the surface of a porous material you are not removing the entire growth — if you see mold spores on the surface you will find the mold is growing inside the material too. Disinfecting and painting over affected drywall will leave mold inside the wall that can affect indoor air quality. If drywall has mold growing on it, it must be carefully removed under containment.
Areas of a building where airborne mold levels were elevated will need porous materials like carpet and upholstered items to be thrown out. Clothing can be laundered or dry cleaned.
To protect workers and occupants, Federal law requires that any building materials that will be disturbed or removed during construction or renovation, including mold remediation, must first undergo inspection and testing for asbestos.
Once the source of the mold has been removed the work area and areas outside the work area can be cleaned and, where possible, disinfected. Mold spores are easily airborne but eventually some will settle on surfaces. A professional HEPA vacuum is often used to clean surfaces outside of a mold containment. While some standard home vacuums purport to have HEPA filters, only a professional HEPA vacuum is appropriate in a mold remediation. When completed, the work area of a mold remediation should be totally free of dust and debris.
Disinfection can be an important step in mold remediation, but it has been misused in the past, leading many guidelines to eliminate it. Simply spraying bleach on moldy drywall is not effective, for example. When done in the context of a comprehensive remediation, however, disinfection can be helpful to prevent future mold growth. There are a variety of disinfecting agents that can be used, from specialty products to diluted household bleach. Hydrogen peroxide can even be used as a nontoxic alternative.
Mold remedation safety and Containment
The most important consideration in performing a mold remediation is the safety of those working on the problem (mold remediators) and those near the work area. To keep workers safe they should be wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) that includes gloves, coveralls (Tyvek suit), and respirators. The level of respirator used depends on the severity of the problem ranging from N95 for small issues up to full face HEPA respirators for large scale issues.
Cromwell staff use appropriate measures to avoid mold contamination or exposure.
The air in the work area will contain high levels of mold spores as the affected materials are removed and so it should be sealed off from the rest of the building by creating a negative pressure containment. Heavy plastic sheeting often held up using temporary “zip-walls” creates a physical barrier and large fans with HEPA air scrubbers are used to vent cleaned air out of the work area.
By forcing the air inside the containment out of it (after it is cleaned by the filter), the air outside the containment rushes into the containment wherever any openings exist keeping any contaminated air from leaking out those same openings. A HEPA-filtered negative pressure containment keeps all the contaminated air from leaking out into the non-affected areas of the building which protects the occupants and keeps the mold spores from contaminating other areas of the building.
Cromwell’s Approach to Mold Remediation
Our firm’s philosophy is that while mold is a problem in buildings (both from a health and a liability perspective), a mold problem can be solved quickly, easily, and completely. There are surprisingly few state or federal regulations for mold remediation, meaning a highly qualified and experienced mold removal company is a must to ensure the work is effective.
