We receive numerous calls each month from customers with mold remediation questions. Many of these customers have a very small amount of visible mold and don’t feel the need to hire a qualified mold remediation company, either due to budget constraints or their possessing prior construction experience.
Most of these calls are in regard to cleaning versus removal of contaminated materials and cleaning product questions.
- Can a mold source be cleaned or does it have to be removed? As a general rule, if a mold source which is present on a porous material, that material should be removed.
- Which product should be used to safely cleanup the settled spores associated with a small visible mold source, once the source has been removed?
The actual product used is significantly less important than the procedures followed to remove the source and manage the settled spores that were dispersed by that source. Containment barriers and air flow are two of the most important aspects of a mold remediation plan.
First of all, we still feel that pre-testing is a vital component to set baselines as well as to determine the levels of cross contamination caused by spore migration. Pre-testing, if done by a qualified IEP (Indoor Environmental Professional) will identify not only the type and concentrations of mold spores present in the air, but can indicate the extent of spore migration throughout the home or building, either including or eliminating areas in the home from remediation cleaning needs. Some IEPs, like the ones at MB Mold & Air Quality Testing, will develop a scope of remediation (a step by step process) based off of the data collected from the pre-testing.
If the mold source is visible and relatively small, and the spore migration is not extensive, the affected area might only consist of a small area. This area might be just a few rooms or maybe the tests will determine that just the basement is affected, for example. Effective containment barriers as well as utilizing HEPA AFDs (Air Filtrations Devices) to managed air-flow will protect the unaffected areas of the building and capture the mold spores that are disrupted by the remediation process. Proper containment and managed air flow are essential tool in protecting the unaffected areas of the building during the remediation process.
If the mold source is large and the spore migration is extensive, the use of pressure managed airflow and proper containment become even more important to stop the spore migration and limit the amount of spore contamination in areas away from the mold source.
Negative Air Pressure and Negative Room Pressure
Negative air pressure and negative room pressure are extremely important in a mold remediation project. Hospitals use these concepts to isolate quarantine areas and prevent cross contamination, due to infectious diseases. Establishing negative air pressure in a space is relatively simple in concept. Simply remove more air out of a space than is provided into the space. The resulting negative room pressure will prevent airborne mold spores from traveling past the containment into the unaffected areas of the building.
Setting up this negative air situation in your home or building consists of placing one or more containment barriers, usually consisting of 4-6mm polyethylene sheeting between the affected and unaffected areas and exhausting sufficient air to achieve 4 air changes per hour or one every 15 minutes. The containment barrier is not to be an air tight seal, it will simply restrict the passive airflow (replacement air), causing the desired negative pressure situation.
Positive Air Pressure and Positive Room Pressure
Positive air pressure and positive room pressure can be equally important in protecting unaffected areas from affected areas while those affected areas are being remediated. In some instances, negative room pressure can not be easily achieved. Normally, this is due to a lack of easy access to the outside for exhaust air, or the remediation is being done in an outdoor area with easy access to the indoor environment. An example would be mold remediation of an attic space that has some ventilation but there is no easy way to establish negative pressure. In this case, establishing positive room pressure in rooms that could vent into the attic will cause airflow to be directed into the attic and vented outside, hence protecting the unaffected areas that are now protected by the positive pressure. HEPA AFDs should also be placed inside the affected area and run on neutral pressure as described below.
Neutral Air Pressure and Neutral Room Pressure
There are instances when the air outdoors is not acceptable for ventilation. Negative or Positive pressure environments are not viable. Both negative and positive pressure will utilize outdoor air as replacement air. When conditions do not warrant using outdoor air as replacement air, neutral airflow with HEPA Air Filtration Devices are one of the only options. In that case, containment barriers should be set as tightly as possible between affected and unaffected areas. HEPA AFDs should be placed inside the remediation area (affected area) with adequate CFM (cubic feet per minute) capability to perform at least, 4 air exchanges per hour in the remediation area. Additional HEPA AFDs (also set in neutral airflow) can be placed outside the containment in the unaffected areas in an effort to capture any spores that might inadvertently escape the affected containment area.
Regardless of which method is used during the remediation work, the containment barriers should be encapsulated and disposed of after the remediation has been completed. The project should then remain under neutral pressure HEPA air scrubbing (at min 4 ACH) for an additional 24-48 hours.
Once the HEPA AFDs have been removed, the building should be allowed to acclimate for an additional 24-48 hours before PRV (Post Remediation Verification) testing sample are collected. Testing should include not only the areas of the building that was remediated, but should include the previously unaffected area. The results from these PRV samples will indicate if the affected areas of the building have returned to a state of normal fungal ecology and confirm that the protective containment and airflow efforts were effective in guarding against cross contamination during the remediation project.