Milwaukee flooding - do you have mold?

Last week's floods have left many people in a tough position. You likely to tear out part of your basement and throw away some of your stuff. However, the water damage company who came did nothing or close to nothing about the mold that formed inside your house.

Once a water event happens in your home, the mold spores get into the air. They embed themselves in building materials and become part of the home's dust. Air in a home moves bottom to top through the air ducts and through the natural pattern of airflow called the stack effect. 

Mold doesn't hurt you because you're touching your walls. It hurts you because you're breathing it in. You will likely start seeing visible mold in other areas of your house and/or experiencing mold-related symptoms unless the mold in your air and on building materials is dealt with. When everything is dry, the mold is still around. 

Luckily, there is an affordable way to resolve this. Firstly, try to find out if you still have moisture somewhere. A musty smell means that yes, mold has moisture somewhere and is releasing MVOCs. We can help you assess where the remaining water and moisture areas are, but in the meantime there are actionable steps you can take yourself to start resolving your mold problem:

1. Get a dehumidifier and keep it running

If you haven't already, you need to suck as much moisture out of your basement as you can. keep it running. Get it really dry- down to 40%. DON'T use fans. At this point, there are likely mold spores on surfaces. You don't want to kick them up into the air.

2. Purchase a humidity monitor. One of these works well:

https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-Humidity-Thermometer-Activated-Backlight/dp/B08LKC4K15

https://www.amazon.com/Protmex-Temperature-Precision-Hygrometer-Thermometer/dp/B0BD7NQG2J

This will allow you to see if the humidity in your basement is high or not in order to determine how bad the moisture problem is. Even with a dehumidifier, if there is hidden moisture you can typically pick it up with your sense of smell or by monitoring the humidity. If your humidity is above 50% there is likely a water problem somewhere. Continuing water problems will cause more mold to form and more mold to get into the air.

3. Buy a moisture meter like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/your-orders/pop?orderId=111-1195032-8611466&shipmentId=BkrhdqbqC&lineItemId=jjpiooiqtpswrops&packageId=1&asin=B0CLJ6DTLN&ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_mob_b_pop_1

This will allow you to assess if building materials themselves have moisture in them. Suspect areas are on walls behind trim. Do not start doing mold demolition DIY. It will spread mold around your house.

 4. Call us or another mold inspector anytime in between or after these steps to check out your mold situation. Mold has certainly gotten into your air and your house unless everything wet was out of your house less than 24 hours after the flood. We offer the cheapest pricing in the area for mold sampling: $300 for 6 samples, a full visual inspection, and a remediation plan. $150 of that is credited back toward your remediation.

If everything in your house is dry, we can knock back the mold and mold spores in your house and air back to normal outdoor levels. You can start fresh. Call us and talk to a mold specialist to learn more, or browse the site for info and references. 

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