We were called in to inspect for mold after a home was flooded during Hurricane Milton. Even after the owners removed drywall and floors and sanitized with a moldecide, the mold counts were still too high.
After Cleaning, The House Seemed Clean Enough
The house had flooded about 12 inches up the walls, so the home owners removed flooring, cabinets, furniture, and four feet of drywall throughout the house. Then they scrubbed the framing and the rest of the walls with a moldecide.
Before installing new drywall, they were wise enough to call us to perform a mold and air quality test. It’s a good thing they did.
Lab Results: High Levels of Indoor Mold
They were careful in their cleaning.The walls and framing appeared clean. The house smelled clean.
To be safe, they called us for a mold inspection. We took an indoor air sample and swabbed surfaces that had gotten wet, and the lab results failed.
Indoor mold was at 10 times the acceptable limit.
The homeowners were surprised because they took extra effort to clean thoroughly. But mold is a tricky problem because you can’t see it. It’s everywhere, even without a flood. But once a house has some flooding, it usually requires a professional service to remediate the mold.
In the end, they hired a remediation company to clean again. A month later we inspected again. Fortunately, this time the numbers came back within a normal range.
Had they not hired us to do a mold and air quality test, they would have sealed up the walls with active mold spores that potentially could have caused issues for their home and their health.
Indoor Mold is Tricky
Mold and air quality are a specialty most home owners can’t handle on their own. When you want to be sure about your post-flood cleaning, get an air quality test and mold inspection.