No one wakes up and says "I want to make a bad decision", but it sometimes it happens. Bad decisions are made when you have a topic that you have no prior experience with, for example, mold remediation.
Below are issues that could or have occured with mold testing and mold remediation companies:
- Do they have an office or do they work out of a house? Generally companies that work out of a home or have a PO Box number as opposed to a commercial address are smaller, less capable and subcontract equipment and labor to complete a job. These companies tend to close up shop after a few years. We see it time and time again.
- Ifa company says "This is an emergency mold situation and has to be completed ASAP (including a weekend)", it is a false statment. Mold doesn’t grow overnight, it takes time, weeks, months and often years to develop to a point that the mold problem even becomes visual. Rush scheduling often is meant to lock you into getting the job done. Trust me you can wait a few days to assess all your options.
- Franchise companies have large overhead every month and this is reflected in their pricing. From interviewing past and former employees of these firms, we have established a pretty solid line of evidence that their training and expertise is lacking. If a mold remediator can’t tell me how to remediate mold and they have been doing it for over a year, there is a problem with the company providing the service.
- Mold companies that also do building trade services such as sheetrock and remodeling. These firms have a vested interest in removing more building materials they can be paid to replace what is removed. Fox guarding the henhouse.
- Any mold company that says THIS IS THE WORST I HAVE EVER SEEN, is most definitely wrong. How could your problem be that bad? Could your air tests be so highly concentrated with mold spores that it is the worst ever or even one of the worst? Probably not, but if these companies get you thinking it is, it would scare you to act. We have seen many mildly impacted mold sites and some really bad ones. When studying about mold you get trained on sites where occupants moved out and houses had to be demolished, THOSE are the worst sites not yours. If it sounds like someone is trying to scare you, they probably are.
- The worst mold companies are the ones that test for mold and provide no narrative regarding how they tested, where and what the results mean. They give you test results, saying the laboratory said that the levels are “X” amount and that means they are high. Unless the lab came to your property, they have no idea. The lab only knows that the sample was marked for this address and the levels found are what they saw in the sample, nothing more. The mold testing company needs to say they saw 2000 sq. ft. of mold or it was 2 sq. ft. and they sampled the worst area and YES they expected the results to be really high. We see this all the time and we expect that these firms base their samples to get inflated results to scare you.
- Lastly, they tell you they are certified. There are NO State or Federal Mold regulations or certifications. In truth, there is no Federal or State license for mold remediation. Only New York State has a certification and licensing program and that only started on January 1, 2016. Every other state has no program, so if a company is pitching their license they are pitching you know what.
