A personal story on mould remediation

Three years ago my husband and I bought a cute little 1950’s house in Hamilton. From the home inspection I knew there were some issues I was going to have to deal with – mainly the electrical in the finished basement. This didn’t detour us from making the purchase. Having a family in construction, I knew I was in good hands.

The electrician visited us within the first few months and said we just needed to pull down the ceiling so he could see all of the wiring and make all necessary fixes. We decided this would be a great project to start in the spring.

We went through our first full year with things as they were. The first few months were fantastic. No issues. Suddenly we started to smell a funny odour in the basement. It smelled old and musty like my grandparents basement when I was growing up. I didn’t think too much about it. Then our drains started to smell. “Well that’s not normal”, we thought. Our basement carpet started to smell and the musty odour never left even when the air was dry. “What is going on?”

The bottom of one of my walls

On day in late summer we had a small flood in our basement. The restoration company came in and pulled up the baseboards and carpet to slide fans under and dry up the water. At that point we found a small amount of mould along one block wall support post. The wood was right against the cement and then paneling put right on top of that. With my knowledge of mould, I knew this was bad news. Wood should never touch cement as cement pulls water through and will go into the wood. The wood was rotted and I could see black spots all the way up the wall. I instantly panicked and called my father.

Let’s take a step back. Mouldoff is a family company. MY family. My brother and his best friend are the owners. My father is the General Manager, a Certified Indoor Environmentalist, and the founder of Mouldoff. My younger brother is one of the carpenter’s. I have grown up in the construction world. Since I was very small my father has run his own successful and trusted restoration company and has been educating and certifying himself in different building, disaster restoration and environmental fields. So I should know better than to panic right? Wrong. Regardless of what you know, when it happens to you, naturally you panic.

The outcome of my father’s visit was simple. Yes its mould and yes it needs to be dealt with. So we made plans to renovate.

I invited a friend over to pull down some walls. It’s just paneling so it should be easy. We popped off a few panels, pulled down the insulation, and took off the ceiling. And there it was – black spots everywhere. We decided to call it a day and have the professionals come in.

The next morning I talked to my brother and asked him for some help. Of course, without hesitation, in went the crew to investigate my situation. Knowing that I was going to demolish the space anyway, they pulled down the rest of the walls and swab tested the black spots. To my relief most of it was just dirt and not mould. Only a few spots of mould in small enough areas that I could handle it myself. Thank goodness.

I got to work cleaning and remediating following the plan left for me. Thankfully I already had all of the personal protective equipment I needed as I sometimes tag along on inspections and remediation projects to see what happens.

What I learned: Mould inspections are important. No matter how much you think you know about mould, there is always more to learn. Not all black spots are mould and you can save a lot of money by spending the money and time to have a proper mould inspection.

More to come as my project continues

Lisa Carter

Mouldoff.com