5 Steps to Proper Mold Removal

Follow these steps for quickly remediating mold problems

Mold has had its 15 minutes of fame over the last few years. Though the hype has died down, mold is still an important issue. Customer complaints require home builders to have a fast action plan; both to clean up the mold problem and to show customers a quality home builder is looking out for their health and safety and the durability of their home.

There are two important things to remember about mold: prevent it by doing things right the first time and when you do face mold, take care of it immediately. Ensuring that your warranty team follows a process for mold remediation will take care of the latter.

The following steps, which can be adapted to fit within your company's policy, serve as a basic process for quickly remediating mold problems.

Step 1: Learn about moisture

Assessing mold growth involves more than just looking at what's visibly growing on the walls or in a corner. Mold can be an invisible intruder, growing behind and around what you first see. Such devious behavior requires inquisitive thinking.

First, understand that behind all mold growth is a water or moisture problem. Second, become a master of moisture — know where moisture comes from and how it gets into the home. The ultimate goal of these two steps is for warranty representatives to identify a moisture source and use its location to help locate all mold growth, not just what's immediately visible.

Step 2: Document the mold problem and create a remediation plan

Before you begin mold removal, document the mold situation with writing, photos, and video. The warranty team supervisor will use the documentation to develop a remediation plan, which typically answers questions like when work is slated to begin when that work is scheduled to be completed, who will be performing the remediation, any testing that should be done, and if homeowners will be temporarily relocated. In the longer term, the documentation can help manage liability for your company or point to larger trends in mold growth.

Step 3: Calculate the extent of the contamination

Mold may not always grow in one area, so you need to figure out how much contamination you're really looking at. Calculating the extent of the contamination will impact how you approach mold removal and clean up. The goal of mold removal is to clean up mold growing within the home and to avoid exposing homeowners to large amounts of mold.

The New York City Department of Health (NYC DOH) has developed guidelines for cleaning up mold contamination. These guidelines are widely used in the construction industry and recommend six levels of mold removal based on the square footage of the mold and whether or not the mold is located within the home's HVAC system. Following the NYC DOH's guidelines, available online, calculate the remediation level needed.

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