Whenever you have identified a mold infestation on your property, don’t hesitate to call us. As a professional restoration company, we will take several steps to ensure that the problem is fully eradicated so it won’t happen again.
When it comes to effective and safe mold remediation, it is important to avoid mold spores from spreading to the other areas of the house. This is why it’s crucial to employ the help of professionals.
Although there are instances where homeowners can handle mold on their own, the chances of it coming back or relocating are high since there are steps that they don’t know about to be able to removing mold from house interior the right way.
With this in mind, here are the general steps of professional mold remediation that we normally follow:
steps to remove mold
Table of Contents
Step #1: Isolate The Moldy Area
The first thing that we do when starting the mold remediation process in your property is to isolate the infected area. We’ll start by laying down plastic sheets while working behind closed doors. We’ll also close the windows so that the room is fully isolated.
However, there are cases where we use polyurethane sheeting to seal the doors and windows. This mostly happens in severe infestations. We do this to avoid the mold spores from relocating to other areas of the property once the removal process starts.
It’s also a common practice to try and access the infestation from the outside. As much as possible, we try to avoid moving through the property’s living spaces to mitigate the risk of allowing the mold spores to migrate.
We’ll also access the infestation through the basement bulkhead door or crawl space provided it’s possible to do so. This is also much more convenient since there will be less clean up for us to deal with later on.
Step #2: Suit Up Right For The Restoration Work
Don’t be surprised if you see us wearing head-to-toe hazmat suits when we begin the mold restoration process. This is part of our standard operating procedure to ensure our workers’ safety and minimize the risk of transferring the infestation. This precaution is undertaken by professionals regardless of whether the infestation is severe or not.
On top of the head-to-toe hazmat suit, our professionals also wear face masks, goggles, and booties during the process. This is because inhaling or coming into contact with molds is quite dangerous to human health. It can even become more dangerous once the remediation process begins and the spores are scattered into the air.
Step #3: Contain the Dust
A fine mist is a helpful tool in the remediation process, even if moisture is common. This allows our professionals to stop spores from floating on air and transferring somewhere else. Moreover, misting will contain the thus, preventing it from spreading spores.
However, the mist will not make a lot of change when working in a humid area. Besides, our team needs to ensure that the infested area is fully dried later on to prevent a recurrence.
Step #4: Get Rid of Contaminated Materials
Suppose the mold infestation affected some part of your property’s insulation or drywall. In that case, those have to be removed.
A strict EPA guideline outlines which materials have to be removed and how they should be disposed of when doing mold remediation Dallas. It is integral for professionals to be aware of this, especially when working on commercial and public buildings.
There is also a particular guideline on how to package contaminated materials properly. It should be encased in a plastic bag that is at least six mils thick. It also has to be double-bagged and tied, and sealed.
After that, it must be sprayed with disinfecting mist to thoroughly remove any mold traces from the bag’s outer part.
Step #5: Scrub and Clean the Remaining Damaged Areas
The next step in the mold remediation process is scrubbing and cleaning the remaining surface that can’t be removed. This is done using a combination of scrubbing with a single-use cleaning wipe and wire brush.
There’s a high risk of releasing the mold spore into the air when scrubbing the remaining surfaces. This makes this step more dangerous than the others. This is also exactly why we wear protective suits from head to toe.
Step #6: Apply the Biocide
After removing the materials and cleaning the surfaces, we’ll then apply biocide. Biocide is an EPA-approved liquid that is proven to kill molds.
Take note that bleach is not a recommended killing agent, according to the EPA. Although it might work on mild mold cases such as those found on the bathtub, it won’t work on severe cases.
Moreover, biocide does not automatically work. This is why we tend to leave it on the surface overnight to see the best results. Again, this is why it’s important to seal the area properly, so the chemicals do not affect the other living areas and work well against the intended targets.
Step#7: Encapsulate
Once the biocide has enough time to do its work, the next step in the process is encapsulation. This is similar to whitewash and is done to ensure that there’s no mold regrowth.
Moreover, in this step, we usually spray the encapsulating product beyond the infested area. This is to make sure that everything is covered and that even the mold spores that are not visible to the human eye are removed.
Step #8: Clean the Egress
After cleaning the area thoroughly and sealing it, we will then begin cleaning the egress area. This is done to ensure that lingering spores are eliminated.
In cases such as minor mold infestation, mopping the area alone using specialty detergent will be enough. However, in more severe cases, we will use HEPA-approved vacuums for the task.
Before leaving the area, we will also carefully pull up any window seals or plastic sheeting. This is to make sure that if any spores make their way to the plastic, they will be contained properly.
Step #9: Dry the Affected Area
This step is mostly done to ensure that molds do not grow back on the infected area. Remember, one of the prerequisites for mold growth is wet and humid conditions which are mostly what it would be like after cleaning and spraying liquid chemicals on the surfaces.
To dry the area, we usually use dehumidifiers which remove the air moisture and large fans. In some cases, we may also increase the temperature of the area to speed up the drying process.
Step #10: Check the Area
The last but one of the most important steps in mold remediation is to check the infested area. Make sure that all of them are addressed, and there are no signs of the molds. We can do this well since our technicians have trained eyes to spot signs of leftover molds that ordinary citizens can’t.
Inspecting the area is very important, given that molds are tenacious. If a tiny spec of mold is left behind, all your mold remediation efforts will go down the drain because it will grow back again. It needs to be fully removed so that it does not reoccur again.
This is one of the most common problems encountered by those who do DIY mold remediation. Whenever you experience such problems, don’t hesitate to contact us for help as soon as possible.
