Surface Mold Cleaned From a Sunroom and Living Room in Norwalk

The homeowner had already done the first step herself. Before she called, she had an independent environmental consultant take air samples, and the lab result for the sunporch came back at 1,500 Aspergillus/Penicillium spores per cubic meter, 96 percent of everything in the sample, against 40 of the same type in the outdoor control. She could also see it: small white spots across the varnished pine ceiling boards, along the beams, on the sides of the built-in cabinetry and on the undersides of the shelves holding her books. Marvin walked the house on October 13.

What he found was growth sitting on finished wood surfaces, not growth inside the wood or behind the walls, which made this a cleaning scope rather than a removal scope. Nothing was cut out. The work was written to cover the sunroom and the living room in full, ceilings, walls and floors, plus the contents, because spores that settle on a ceiling also settle on everything under it.

A containment barrier with an airlock, a decontamination chamber and a zipper door went up first, and HEPA negative air scrubbers ran for six 24 hour periods so that what the cleaning disturbed was pulled through a filter instead of into the rest of the house. Every horizontal and vertical surface was HEPA vacuumed, wiped down, dry wiped and bio cleaned with a plant based antimicrobial. Then the contents, a house full of books, the furniture and the built-ins, were cleaned and sanitized one by one with the same plant based product. The crew finished on October 20. It is worth being clear about what this job was not.

Green Restoration did not take the air samples and did not sell a clearance test, and no materials were removed. What causes the moisture in a sunroom is a separate question from the growth it leaves behind, and it is the one to answer next.