What to Expect During a Mold Remediation

Mark, so you completed a mold inspection, and let's say you found some elevated mold levels and some visual mold. Yeah. So now the customer naturally is going to ask, how much is it going to cost for me to remove this mold? So how much does mold remediation and removal cost with our company? Yeah. So first, let's go over what goes into it. The first thing we want to do — let's pretend this is the area that we're treating, or we're looking at this 300 square foot basement. Okay, like 15 by 20 feet. My beautiful drawing here.

So the first order of operation is the prep work. Again, we're here to honor the homeowner's place, right? So the first thing we're going to do is set up floor covering. One thing you're going to notice: none of our guys will ever step foot in that house without shoe covers and floor covering. The second order of operation is, again, some more prep work. So the next step is going to be containment. The purpose of containment — I mean, keep in mind, what we're going to be doing in that house is going to be very invasive. There's a lot that goes into it.

We want to basically protect the occupants in that house. So there's going to be zipper doors, there's going to be tension poles. Basically, it's going to be like a little crime scene in the house. Really, depending on — referencing back to our basement here — you know, what we use to determine how much the cost is going to be is what's called a mold severity index. Depending on the material, sometimes it needs to be removed. There really is no saving it if it's porous. Exactly: your drywall, your insulation.

Once that's removed, that is bagged and then goosenecked inside that containment. Now, once they're exiting that premises, you will never see our guys walking around with drywall or wood. Everything they're going to come out with is going to be bagged and pretty much goosenecked, and they take that out, because the whole idea is we don't want to contaminate other spots that don't have mold. Exactly. Now, again, referencing back to our mold severity index, there's sometimes material that can be treated.

So for instance, your bottom plates, the framing of the basement — sometimes when that's impacted we can treat it using a patented method called the React Extract. Basically, we just apply a chemical. It creates an excess of surfactants, almost like a lifting agent, and gets the mold staining out, and those roots out, those small little fibers that go in, and then we actually vacuum it off.

Now, a couple other things that are happening inside that containment chamber, or that area that we're working in: there's always going to be some kind of negative air or some kind of filtration to basically help make sure the HEPA filters, right? You're also going to see one of those HEPA filters ducted out an actual window, because again, we're disturbing things. Whatever those HEPA filters don't catch, we want to ensure that it's basically ducted outside. Once that is complete, we are then going to HEPA vacuum every square inch of that basement.

This is just to ensure that the next steps that we're going to do are going to help us pass what's called the post-remediation evaluation. So in every project that we handle, we are going to be treating the air ducts. That's just going to be part of the job. It just helps us ensure that when we leave that house, we've done everything that we could to make sure, A, the air is healthy, but B, it's visibly clean and ready for use. So with a mold remediation job, they're also going to get a full-house duct cleaning job. Correct. Got it. Yep.

Now once that is complete, between 24 to 48 hours, I'm going to return to that place, like I mentioned, to do the post-remediation evaluation. So kind of how the homeowner started is how they're going to finish and start out with us. Yep. And also, I know we offer, if a homeowner chooses to use a third-party person, they could do a post-remediation verification with a third-party person to confirm that the mold remediation was done the right way. Yes. That's the beginning to end. Now, one question we have homeowners ask me.

They say, Mark, what if you come here and I don't pass that test? Do I have to pay for it? And my answer is absolutely not. Okay, so we guarantee the work. Yep. And so what is the cost for somebody? Let's say this is a 15 by 20 room in the basement, different mold severity index in the entire room. Approximately — I know each job is different, but on average, how much is it per square foot? So, between 13 and 16 dollars per square foot.

So in our instance here, in this 15 by 20, you know, 300 square foot basement, I mean, we can be looking at anywhere from thirty-six hundred dollars up to forty-eight hundred dollars. Just a range, again: if there's a lot of content we have to move around, couches, belongings, that may factor into the budget. Generally speaking, I'm pretty confident getting somebody a number like that.

So mold remediation, duct cleaning, post-remediation evaluation or verification, all that, approximately 13 to 16 dollars per square foot — in this example, 3,600 to 4,800 dollars for all that work. Thank you. Thank you.