Any way to repair household mold damage without spending massive amounts of money?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Our house has recently developed a mold problem. There is a substantial amount of mold on the ceiling of one room, and small amounts of mold on parts of the ceilings of nearby rooms. All in all we’re probably talking about less than ten square meters of drywall, and there is some mold on the joists and possibly some insulation.

We’ve identified the probable source of the moisture, which was a workmanship error with some prior work on the house that we are getting fixed for free, but the amount of money we are being told we have to spend to clean up the mold and repair the moldy parts of the house it is astonishing. Something like $15K total, or more. Is it not yet clear whether insurance will pay for it, or whether the roofing and gutter companies that probably caused the water leakage will pay for the cleanup.

They are going to to testing before and after the work, taking swab samples and air samples and doing cultures to identify the molds. This alone is going to be around $2K. This is apparently partly to confirm that the mold is eliminated after the work. I’m not clear how they’re going to test up inside the structure, and testing immediately after the work seems pointless since mold will eventually come back over time if moisture remains.

Also we’re told that OSHA requires the testing before workers can do removal work. Why? We can see that there is mold. Are they really going to take radically different safety precautions based on what species of mold it is? They have already outlined their plans and there are no decision trees that depend on the results of this testing. Can’t they just go ahead and spend a hundred bucks on goggles, gloves and a respirator for each worker and call it a day?

They are planning on sealing off the rooms they work in, having negative-pressure air filtration set up, doing the demolition work, cleaning, applying fungicide to the joists and whatnot and then doing repairs. (Mostly drywall and painting, maybe some insulation.)

Overall it looks like they are going to treat the house like it’s Love Canal. I do not understand why this is necessary. As far as we can tell so far, there is only one drywall panel and a few joists that have substantial mounts of mold. If all these measure are necessary, then logically one would also have to break out the hazmat suits and air filtration equipment every time someone throws away a mildewed shower curtain or a moldy piece of fruit.

Given that small amounts of mold are ubiquitous in the environment, anywhere outside of a cleanroom, the important thing should be simply to eliminate the source of moisture. I don’t see any point in taking extreme measures to contain the mold and prevent “contaminating” the rest of the house. Mold is everywhere and will grow sooner or later if there is moisture.

Are we being ripped off? Is it possible to do this cheaper? Several mold cleanup companies as well as our homeowner’s insurance company have told us that all this expensive cleanup is required. It seems like I could almost for the demolition myself with a respirator, a saw and a hammer, paint some fungicide around, and then pay for the drywall repair work.

2

Rip out the drywall and the insulation. Spray the framing lumber with a diluted chlorine solution to kill the mold. Replace the insulation and drywall. Paint. Should be about $4k - $6k, excluding any electrical work that might be needed to remove and replace fixtures and cans.

3

  1. You should not have to spend money to repair the mold damage yourself. If the company who messed up your prior work is redoing that work for free, then you need to push them to pay for the mold damage, too. If they won’t, file an insurance claim and/or hire an attorney.

  2. When you say your homeowners insurance company is “requiring” you to do this, have you filed a claim with them? If that is the case, it doesn’t matter how expensive the repairs are. Use the remediation company they recommend, and damn the expense. Based on your description of events, I’d be willing to bet you could win a construction defect claim/lawsuit against the contractor who performed the original work. So they’ll end up paying for the repairs, not you. As long as you don’t have a mold exclusion on your HO policy (a lot of them do, so read it carefully), your HO carrier should pay the remediation company and then go after the responsible contractor for reimbursement. This process is called subrogation, FYI.
    __
    Anyway, much of the reason mold remediation is so expensive is because mold remediation companies remediate mold all day, every day. Although it may seem like a minimal hazard *to you *for them to deal with your moldy drywall quickly and with minimal safety equipment, to them it’s a daily occupational hazard. Sure, breathing in 20% more mold on a few occasions isn’t that big a deal to you. But to an employee who works around mold 40+ hours a week, 20% more exposure over time is a really big deal. *Black *mold, in particular, is potentially linked to increased cancer risk.

And, just in general, any company that actually follows every single OSHA regulation (whether it’s wrt mold removal, roofing safely with full harnesses and three points of contact, or whatever) is not likely to come cheap. I can’t speak to whether or not you personally are being quoted an outrageous price for mold removal in this case. Perhaps you could get quotes from multiple remediation companies in your area, and see if any others will do it for less. If not, and multiple quotes come back with similar values, then you know the estimate is accurate.

This is not a DIY repair.