It is very common for homeowners to have a moldy or mildewy smell in their basement that is very hard to locate. There can be many causes of such smell and the tracking alone can make some a little queasy. Sometimes these problems can only be determined by having the area looked by professionals. Basement [...]

We all know that mold contamination negatively affects indoor air quality. In other words, when a building has a really bad odor, mold is often to blame, at least in part.  But there can be a whole host of other reasons for bad odors, and they can be pretty nasty.

Imagine a house where the garbage has piled up for months, cats or other pets run wild, and the house is infested with rodents and insects.  Get the picture?  

This is what we call "distressed property".  The house is full of e-coli and other bacteria and pathogens. Sure, there's plenty of mold throughout the house, but that may be the least of the problems. Sadly, sometimes we find elderly people living in these squalid conditions. 

Take a look at these photos.  From the second we stepped into the house, the odors just knocked us over.  

In cases like these everything has to go, and it's a dirty, difficult job.  The garbage and trash has to be removed and disposed of, along with animal waste and contaminated materials.  Then the cleaning begins. 

The process of cleaning a distressed property is not unlike our standard protocols for mold remediation.  Usually there is a lot more damage to the structure, though. Hardwood floors that have been saturated with cat urine, for example, is hard to save.

As they say, pictures are worth a thousand words.  Take a look...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Antimicrobial Information Hotline www.epa.gov/oppad001/ (703) 308-0127/(703) 308-6467(FAX) Monday-Friday 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM EST email: Info_Antimicrobial@epa.gov  The Antimicrobials Information Hotline provides answers to questions concerning current antimicrobial issues (disinfectants, fungicides, others) regulated by the pesticide law, rules and regulations. These cover interpretation laws, rules, and regulations, and registration and re-registration of antimicrobial chemicals and products. [...]

• A mold inspection consists of sensory perception.  Can you see mold? Smell it?  We look for sources of moisture because we know this basic truth --where there is moisture, the right temperature and an organic food source, there will be mold.  
• The "looks dry, smells dry, feels dry" method is old school and ineffective.
• Through the use of ever-improving technologies, our ability to find mold has taken giant leaps forward. 
  
• In addition to moisture meters and boroscopes, we use FLIR Thermo Imaging, the same kind of infra-red technology used by the military and law enforcement agencies. 
  
• With these high-tech cameras, we can find moisture that remains hidden behind walls and ceilings.  And that leads us right to what we're looking for -- hidden mold. 
• Check out these pictures. The dark areas in the FLIR photos indicate moisture.  We confirmed the presence of moisture with a moisture meter. 

It looked dry, felt dry, smelled dry.  But it wasn't dry.

 

Chlorine bleach is well known for killing bacteria, and it has no rivals when it comes to removing color.  But is bleach effective in killing mold?  Not really. Here's why:

1. It is too diluted and thus too weak to permanently kill mold unless the mold is simply sitting on top of a hard surface like a counter top or sink.

2. What little killing power chlorine bleach does have is diminished significantly as the bleach sits in warehouses and on grocery store shelves or inside your home or business [50% loss in killing power in just the first 90 days inside a never opened jug or container] Chlorine ions constantly escapes through the plastic walls of its containers.

3. Chlorine bleach's ion structure also prevents chlorine from penetrating into porous materials such as dry wall and wood--- It just stays on the outside surface, whereas mold has protected enzyme roots growing inside the porous construction materials. When you spray porous surface molds with bleach, the water in the water solution soaks into the wood while the bleach chemical sits atop the surface, gasses off, and thus only partially kills the surface layer of mold while the water penetration of the building materials fosters further mold growth.

4. Chlorine Bleach is not registered with the EPA as a disinfectant to kill mold. You can verify that important fact yourself when you are unable to find an EPA registration number for killing mold on the label of any brand of chlorine bleach.