Crawlspace Mold
What You Need To Know About It.
Identifying Mold In Your Crawl Space
You get to the entrance of your crawlspace. The door slowly opens as your skin begins to crawl. The creaking sound lets the light in as you slowly begin to observe what might be awaiting inside. Cause as we all know, noone – is ever in a rush to jump into a crawl space.
You’re having a hard time seeing. So you peak your head into and face full a dreadful circumstance, your face is now covered in spider webs. And if you were lucky, your mouth was closed before you entered. Cause it’s never a good feeling to have spider web in your mouth.
You fumble with the flashlight, it sputters and springs to life making you feel even more claustrophobic. You feel like you’re in a horror movie. You can’t stand. Your knees are aching. Then you look at the walls and think… “what is that”? That black stuff … is it paint? Is it dirt? Is it… is it mold! What on Earth happened to these walls? Why does it smell so awful in here? Why couldn’t I get someone else to do this? Is that really mold all over my crawl space walls?!
You slowly stand up and hit your head on the ceiling, you lose your footing and fall right into the dirt. Now there’s more than just spider web on your face, there’s dirt all over you…. and worst of all, there’s mold all over your crawl space walls. You begin to scream frantically and quickly crawl like a lizard towards the sun light. You launch yourself outside towards the sun like a missile landing on the grass. And you think to yourself, “I will never do this again”!
Crawl space mold is usually not any fun to deal with.
It doesn’t just pose serious safety hazards (biological contamination, VOC’s, mycotoxins, structural failure, etc) but it drops property values and costs billions every year in home repairs.
Most of the time mold in a crawl space is triggered by moisture, water leaks, condensation or poor ventilation. If the humidity levels are above 40%, you can see various different strains of mold colonizing in your crawl space. And every single one needs to be remediated. Whether you the homeowner does it, or you decide to call in a reputable mold company.
A crawlspace is very prone to mold growth due to its location inside the house. Humidity is often drawn down to floors of a home where it seeps through, gets stuck above ventilation in the crawl space or condenses all over the walls.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, if you see or smell mold in your crawl space, it has to be removed.
The mold you see in your crawl space may or may not be toxic. But air sampling can help reveal what type of mold is growing, how much, and whether or not they surpass threshold levels as a biological contamination. But even if they don’t, mold still devours homes like termites, poses serious risk to the foundation and frame, so it needs to come out.
Remediating mold in a crawl space is not as simple as merely painting over it. It needs to be evaluated properly and all moisture sources should be identified. Then the walls need to be treated and scrubbed down thoroughly. They need to be HEPA vacuumed. Afterwards they are sprayed and cleaned with a safe, industrial moldicide. Then phase 3 will require encapsulation of the surfaces to prevent any cross or re-contamination.
If you think you have mold in your crawl space, most companies do 100% free inspections.
It’s always a good idea to get multiple inspections done so you are positive you’re getting a fair deal. There are a couple companies in New Jersey who will ask you to pay for the inspection and these companies have very bad reputations in this industry. That’s another thing, makes sure you research the company before calling them out and especially before signing any contracts. If you compare our reviews to any other mold remediation company in New Jersey you’ll notice that our reputation speaks for itself.
We take this work very seriously and will never leave a home until you are completely satisfied. We will make sure you understand every step of the process, why it needs to be done, and how you can transfer the warranty if you decide to sell your home.
How to get in touch?
Very simple, just give us a call at 908-601-1307 or shoot us an email using the form to the top right of our site.
MMRG, LLC is fully licensed, insured, ESA, EAA, IAQ and IICRC accredited.
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