When your home floods, it can feel like the world comes to a halt. But as soon as water enters your home, the environment is just right for mold to grow. It’s important to act fast to remediate mold and keep your home safe for years to come. We’ve created a guide to mold remediation after a flood that helps you prepare should your house incur water damage from a flood.
What Is It?
If your home or business has suffered water damage due to a flood, you know that there’s no time to waste. After the water recedes, the real work of mold remediation begins. But if you’ve never had to think about mold remediation, the process might seem daunting. Thankfully, when you’re working with a professional mold remediation team, you can trust that your home is in good hands.
Mold remediation is the process of removing, cleaning, and disinfecting mold-contaminated spaces. After a flood, mold begins to grow within 24 to 48 hours. These early hours are crucial to proper remediation and prevention. When mold grows, it not only damages your home, but mold poses serious health risks. Prompt and professional mold remediation is essential for your home’s integrity and your family’s well-being.
Once mold begins growing, it doesn’t stop unless you take action. Professional remediation companies have the tools and skills to remove damaged areas of your home, halt the growth of mold, and prevent new mold from growing.
Steps to Mold Remediation
Now that we’ve defined mold remediation, how do you begin the process? There are a few steps to ensure your mold remediation is safe and effective:
1. Call a Professional
The very first step in mold remediation is finding reputable, proven mold remediation professional. Mold is very dangerous, and if you don’t know how to safely take care of your mold issues, you could incur significant harm, as could your loved ones. As soon as you realize you have water damage, seek out a mold remediation specialist with experience and good reviews. They should come to your home as soon as possible to assess the damage and begin the remediation work.
2. Assess the Damage
After you’ve secured a remediation company, they will come to your home and assess the water and mold damage. In most cases after a flood, your mold remediation company will do a visual sweep of your home to determine the damage. Other times, companies might choose more invasive testing techniques. They will have the tools and expertise to determine the extent of the mold growth and will create a plan to remediate the mold as soon as possible.
3. Dry the Space
Your remediation company will quickly take steps to dry out your home. They will open doors and windows to promote airflow then turn on fans to circulate air and speed up the drying process. Because mold thrives in damp and wet spaces, prompt drying prevents mold growth. Your company will likely run dehumidifiers for a few days to lower humidity levels, stopping mold spores in their tracks.
4. Remove Mold and Clean Up Affected Spaces
Once your mold remediation team has begun the drying process, they will work with you to remove damaged items and materials from your home. Any porous items will need to be cleaned or if they’re beyond repair, discarded completely. Remove damaged or discarded items outside of your home until your insurance company can process your claims.
Any parts of your home that have been damaged by flooding or where mold has begun to grow will need to be removed. For example, you should pull up a carpet that has been underwater and take out sheetrock that’s gotten wet. This step is crucial because thorough removal of contaminated materials prevents the mold from spreading and continuing to grow.
5. Repair and Restoration
Once your home is free of mold, your remediation company will aid in repairs and restoration, returning your home to its pre-flood state. Some companies offer fabric restoration, drywall repair, painting, and flooring services. This will help you resume normalcy as soon as possible.
Tips for Finding the Best Mold Remediation Company
If you’re in a situation where you need a mold remediation company, your home, and your health are on the line. That’s why you need to know what to look for when you’re shopping for professionals to take care of your mold issues. Here are four tips to help you find the best mold remediation company.
1. Ask about Their Warranty
What kind of warranty do they have to back up their services? Mold remediation companies should have a warranty proving their confidence in the quality of their work.
2. Are They Licensed and Insured?
Many states require both licensure and insurance for companies to practice mold remediation. When looking at a company to address your mold issues, finding a team that’s licensed and insured ensures that you’re working with a company you can trust.
3. What Certifications Do They Hold?
Mold removal and remediation is a highly specialized industry. You want to choose a company with reputable and respected certifications. The IICRC offers a nationally recognized certification that many mold specialists earn to prove their authority in this field.
4. Check Out Their Online Reviews
You can easily determine the quality of a company’s mold remediation services by checking out their customer reviews. An online review section will give you a clear picture of what past customers think about the company you’re considering. If a company meets all the above criteria and has great reviews, hire them to help you with your water damage problems!
Stats about Mold
Mold affects millions of people every year. Here are a few stats about mold and its impact on our health.
- Roughly 4.6 million people suffering from asthma do so because of mold in the home
- Infants exposed to mold are 300 percent more likely to become asthmatic than their peers with no mold exposure
- Around 70 percent of homes have dangerous mold growing
- Mold growth can be controlled by keeping humidity levels below 50 percent
- Mold takes just 24-48 hours to begin growing after water damage has occurred
Conclusion
As you can imagine, mold growth after a flood is a homeowner’s worst nightmare. But with our guide, you’ll be prepared to act quickly should your home ever sustain water damage. Finding a professional mold remediation company to take care of your home will save you time, money, and stop mold growth in its tracks.