On integrity and mold damage remediation

    Quite simply, the definition of our company

Before there was Hurricane Sandy, before Tropical Storm Lee and Hurricane Irene, there were still problems with mold at the Jersey shore.

This story is about a job we did more than 4 years ago. Its a story about honesty and integrity. It’s a story about a commitment to getting the job done right – even when it would have been easier to abandon the project.

In 2009, we were contacted by the owner of a condominium in Ocean City, NJ. She had suspected a problem with her unit. So, we suggested she get the testing done by an independent third party – which she did. The indoor hygienist did determine that there were elevated levels of mold spores in the home and wrote the protocol for remediation.

Setting up containment so no mold will contaminate the rest of the home

Following the written protocol from the Indoor Hygienist, we set up containment, and sealed off the rest of the home from the contaminated area. Then, we installed negative air, which helped to form a slight vacuum on the area being remediated and vented the contaminated air outside – where mold spores rightfully belong.

Toxic black mold growth on insulation contaminated this Ocean City Condo

We removed the drywall and all the contaminated building materials – including wet insulation.

Clearing the contaminated materials from the home helped solve part of the problem

However, even after following the protocol for remediating this home, the post-treatment indoor air quality test didn’t pass.
 

Even worse, the results from the test indicated that after remediation, the spore count was actually higher than before!
 

This had never happened before, and we were left wondering what went wrong.

We cleaned the home from top to bottom a second time, following all the IICRC recommendations and the protocol – without cost to the homeowner. It is our firm belief that the exercise of integrity reveals its full measure when there is no financial return for the effort in making things right.

And, a second indoor air quality test failed!

Beside ourselves with frustration (and not a little embarrassment!), we called in a trusted home inspector – and paid him out of our own pocket.

This is what was hiding in the crawl space under the condo

The home inspector was in the condo for all of 10 minutes and located the source of the problem.

Apparently, there had been a flood in this area of Ocean City a few months before the mold problem began in this condo. The crawl space under the condo unit had never been remediated by the Condo Association after the flood.

Along with the mud, mold and wet insulation, we found rat nests and rat traps – evidence that someone in the association knew about the problem.

The condo association has a problem. Flooding had destroyed the foundation.

We also found that the foundation was actually off the ground because the flooding had swept away the ground support.

The reason our indoor air quality test failed – twice! – was not because of our remediation efforts. It was because the negative air that was supplying a slight vacuum was bringing mold spores from the contaminated crawl space below into the condo unit! There was no way this condo unit could be remediated completely until the condo association did their due diligence in remediating the crawl space.

When last we heard, the owner of the condo unit was in legal proceedings with the condo association in order to resolve the problem. The condo association was not available for comment.

Our business exists to solve problems.

Sometimes, it’s to eliminate the health hazards of mold contamination.
Sometimes, it’s to find out why the mold contamination problem existed in the first place!

PuroClean Emergency Recovery Services 877-750-7876 – your trusted provider for mold damage remediation!