Proper Mold Remediation

Mold is an important issue and there are two important things to remember about: it needs to be prevented by doing things right the first time, and when mold is showing – it needs to be taken care of it immediately. Jenkins Environmentals’ warranty team follows a process for mold remediation and takes care of the latter, but it is our hope to help you here deal with prevention as well.

The following steps serve as a basic process for quickly remediating mold problems.

Assess the Mold Growth

Assessing mold growth involves more than just looking at what is 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, we understand that behind all mold growth is a water or moisture problem. Second, we know where moisture comes from and how it gets into the home.

Document the mold problem and create a remediation plan

Before we begin remediation, Jenkins Restorations’ team member documents the mold situation with writing, photos and video. The team supervisor will use this 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.

Calculate the extent of the contamination

Mold may not always grow in one area and we access how much contamination there is. By calculating the extent of the contamination we determine how to approach mold removal and cleanup. The goal of mold remediation is to cleanup mold growing within the home, and to avoid exposing homeowners to large amounts of mold.

Remediate mold contamination

Remediation always involves cleaning up existing mold while avoiding exposure to oneself as well as homeowners. We also prevent new growth by addressing the moisture source. Based on calculations of the contamination area, we determine the area we will be working in. Some examples of steps we take to take care of the mold:

• Repair the water problem. This will help prevent new mold spores from growing.
• Isolate the contaminated area. Close all doors and windows between the contaminated area and other rooms of the home
• Suppress dust.
• Remove all wet and mold-damaged porous materials.
• Place materials in plastic bags.
• All non-porous materials and wood surfaces that are moldy are cleaned.
• Perform visibility test – all areas should be visibly free of contamination and debris — no dust and dirt means no mold.
• Cleaned materials should be dried to allow leftover moisture to evaporate. To speed up the drying process, we use fans, dehumidifiers or raise the indoor air temperature.
• All materials that were moved are replaced or repaired.

Determine if cleanup has been successful

Just because the mold is gone and there is no dirt or dust doesn’t mean that we are done. Jenkins Restorations determine if the cleanup efforts have been successful. We know that the moisture problem has been fixed when after revisiting the home soon after remediation Jenkins Restorations team member doesn’t see any signs of recurring water damage. Also, we look for no signs of visible mold, mold-damaged materials or moldy odors.