Moldman has successfully performed many mold jobs for people living in Creve Coeur, Missouri. This includes mold removal, mold inspections and mold testing for all types of mold (e.g. black mold, white mold etc) and in various locations (basements, attics, etc). We love this community and highly sought-after place to live with its beautiful homes, many businesses and vast parklands.
We also can appreciate its memorable name which means “heartbreak” in French. But what we enjoy most about this area are the people who live here and have had great experiences with all of our customers in this area.
Travis Boyer, owner of Moldman St. Louis, discusses one recent job or case study from Creve Coeur that will give you a sense of what causes mold, how it’s fixed for good and how we operate. Even if your particular mold issue is a little different than below, most of the information below should apply to your situation too because, for example, all mold problems are caused by the same thing (water or moisture) and the steps taken to remediate the mold are the same on most mold jobs.
About the mold removal job:
In what city, suburb or area did the mold job take place?
It was a basement mold removal job in Creve Coeur, Missouri.
Can you tell us more about the mold problem? Where was it? What was causing it?
The mold was on the basement drywall. It was being caused by a combination of sewer backup and water coming into the house through the basement door.
What did the customer want? Or what was their goal with this project?
The customer had three goals:
Get rid of the mold (mold remediation)
Eliminate the biohazard condition caused by the sewer backup (biohazard remediation)
Determine the source of the sewer backup, and get it fixed so the problem does not return.
In summary, the customer wanted to return the basement to a safe livable environment again and fix the source (sewer backup) so the problem does not happen again.
Can you walk us through the steps you took to get rid of the mold here?
Seal off basement (known as “containment” in the industry) from rest of house
Turn off HVAC, cover all vents
Put on safety gear: gloves, masks, and respirators.
Use industrial strength negative air machines to pump fresh clean air into the basement and bad, contaminated air to the outside (this process is known as “negative air” setup)
Safely remove all damaged furniture and belongings that are not savable
Safely remove impacted carpet, pad and tack strip. Carpet was not savable and it was causing most of the bad smell
Safely remove bottom 2-4 feet of affected drywall any associated insulation in most of basement
HEPA vacuum and walls, ceilings, exposed studs
Apply EPA registered chemical
Scrub and apply chemicals around drain where sewer backed up
Wipe down all vertical and horizontal surfaces using an EPA disinfectant
Leave air scrubbers 72 hours
Check walls and sill plates with water moisture meter
QC check
Cleanup, turn furnace on
Walkthrough and sign off by the customer
Once you get rid of the mold, what steps need to be taken to ensure the mold does not return? (e.g. fixing the water problem)
All mold problems, including this one, are caused by water problems. So to make sure the mold does not return, you have to fix the water problem.
In this case, the water problem was a sewer backup. We are not sewer experts so we advised the customer to hire a sewer company that could place a camera into the sewer and figure out why this happened and then fix it.
We also recommended that they hire a handyman or contractor to seal the basement door so the water does not come in through it anymore.
Was the customer pleased with the final results?
Yes, she was thrilled to have her basement back in livable condition and to get rid of the very unpleasant sewer smell!
Any final words or advice you could give people here?
This problem was not caused by a failed sump pump. However, we see many basements flood because they do not have a working sump pump or it goes out during a power outage after a heavy storm. It is very important to have a sump pump in your basement with a battery backup so it can still work even if the power goes out. We recommend that all customers with basements have a sump pump with a battery backup.
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