Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Mold Remediation Cost: Getting Rid of Mold in Your Home

After noticing a dank smell in the lower floor of your home the past few days, you did what any good homeowner would do: you put on your sherlock holmes hat, did some digging around and determined that you have mold problems in the walls of your home. "How much does mold remediation cost?" or perhaps "how much will mold removal cost?" are common questions to ask for homeowners just finding out about the mold problems their home is facing.


Why Mold Remediation is Necessary:

Mold is a very pesky subset of life that, when inhabiting your home, can pose serious health problems such as allergic reactions all the way to more serious conditions such as lung cancer, and even death in extreme cases.

So you now realize the importance of mold remediation, glad you're on board. Now let's get down to costs. There are a few different effective methods of mold remediation, and each method will incur different costs. Choosing a method based on cost is a good idea, as long as the method is appropriate for the type of mold infestation in your home. Choosing the cheapest method when you need the most expensive isn't going to do your home or your wallet any favors.


Breakdown of Mold Remediation Cost:


Initial inspection: Many remediation companies will try offering free inspections. Although this is usually just a nice, honest gesture on their part, it's also in their best interest to sell you things. Separating the opening and closing mold inspection and the remediation process will garner you a completely bias free opinion of what your home needs in terms of mold removal.

Mold Removal/Remediation: What method you need for your home is going to be the primary determinant of cost. Options here include HEPA vacuum cleaning, dry ice blasting and more. The mold inspector should be able to give you a good idea of which remediation methods are effective against the type or types of mold in your home.

Monitoring: Because of the way most molds propagate (by sending hellish amounts of spores out into the air at random) it can be very difficult to get rid of mold completely if the infestation is medium to severe. The mold inspector from the initial inspection should keep in touch during this period and stop by now and again to ensure that mold continues to remain unseen.


Tips for Reducing the Cost of Mold Remediation:

As I mentioned earlier, there are many benefits to keeping the initial inspection and the removal process separate. The other main benefit is that you can get quotes from many different remediation companies without having to get multiple inspections.

Send out copies of your mold inspection repair to 3 or 4 local companies and schedule a meet and greet with each in your home and have them give you a quote. After the first, be sure to say to companies 2, 3 and 4 "Well Company1 offered to do it for $X. Is there any way you can beat that price. We're trying to keep costs as low as possible. Thank you."

And keep doing this until you hit the rock bottom price.

Mold Remediation Cost: Bottom Line

Although you may be able to get mold remediation done for very cheap, it is very important that it is done correctly. Make sure the companies are licensed and insured. Don't hire someone off Craigslist. Mold remediation is a serious business. Good luck, and godspeed.