I view small particle air cleaning as part of the Shoemaker remediation process. If mold fragments are not removed from the air and home surfaces (walls, floors, cabinets, non-porous furniture, etc), the remediation is likely to fail, according to this approach. And yes, this occurs after water incursion is solved and the actual mold is removed.TheBrain wrote: Slacker, are you in the midst of remediation or is it done? I gather small particle cleaning comes after remediation, so your comment above suggests to me your remediation is complete. Would you mind sharing your experience with remediation and what else you’ve done with respect to small particle cleaning? For example, did you get rid of all of your books or were you able to clean them somehow?
We have been working with a Shoemaker trained Indoor Environmental Professional, and a remediation company trained by this man, both in the Chicago area. These resources are not available where we live; it was impossible to find someone local to do this kind of work.
Before going into gory details of my “journey” with mold remediation, let me try to answer TheBrain’s question of what we got rid of. We culled out our collection of books. Of books remaining, if it had visible mold on it (and many did), we threw it out. All other books were cleaned before returning to the house; special wash on outside, then air blowing of pages. We got rid of all upholstered furniture (porous) with the exception of our dining room chair cushions, which we had re-upholstered. The carpet and ceiling tiles in the basement were thrown out. All clothing was washed with detergent and borax or dry cleaned. Anything we could not take care of prior to remediation was put in storage. There may be other steps we took, but they are not coming to mind at the moment.
A complete remediation, performed by the remediation company mentioned above, occurred Oct 2018. This started after we had local workers 1) repair plumbing indicating prior leaks and 2) redirect one basement window drainage system where a leak had occurred during a massive amount of rain with soil saturation. After remediation, we retested mold DNA via HERTSMI-2, which covers 5 toxic mold species most likely to cause CIRS. The results were improved but not adequate. Since then, we've been trying to isolate the source of the problem, with increasingly worse levels of some of these mold species - both water loving and water neutral. The current theory is that the worsening of water loving mold is coming from water damage in the basement due to seepage from outside; we have had an enormous amount of rain here. My husband sampled one piece of the basement paneling in front of one of our crawlspaces; it was wet. The worsening of water neutral mold species is believed to be from outside air coming into the house and getting trapped. I wonder if water neutral mold is obligate and can grow under wet and dry conditions.
The next step is to better seal off our 2 basement crawl spaces and remove all paneling in the basement. If there are cracks in the concrete, they will need to be sealed. It may be necessary to install better drainage. So we will be in active exploration mode to determine water sources and fix what is found. A “touch” up small particle air and surface cleaning is recommended on the main floor. The majority of this work will be done by our traveling remediation company. Also recommended is installation of a house wide positive pressure air system to better circulate incoming and outgoing air to reduce levels of water neutral mold that are most likely are coming from outside. We have the option of waiting on this pending re-testing of the basement and main floor after 2nd iteration of remediation, to determine if it is necessary.
It is always an option to bail and find somewhere else to live. In our state, house sellers are legally obligated to disclose mold. Much of the work in the basement would need to be done prior to selling, or the cost of the work could be deducted from the price of the house. As far as looking for another home in the same community, we live in a wet humid environment so the risk of similar mold conditions at other places is high. My husband’s family, including his 83 year old mother, live here; moving somewhere with a drier climate is possible but highly unlikely due to his family ties.
