I need to find expert professional help in remediating a major mold problem
in a house. How do I go about finding a reliable contractor. Is there
any governmental certification program or any good trade association
programs I should look for?

Many thanks.

wrote:

I need to find expert professional help in remediating a major mold problem
in a house. How do I go about finding a reliable contractor. Is there
any governmental certification program or any good trade association
programs I should look for?

Many thanks.

Bill,

First of all, let me qualify myself. I have been in the
construction business for the past 34 years. I spent 15 years in
the insurance repair business as a preferred contractor for several
major insurance companies. I have done a large amount of work in
this field and I have completed a fire and water damage restoration
course.

If you want to go with the mold remediation, then you must also get
an independent testing laboratory and an independent repair
contractor. Honest mold remediation companies do only that; mold
removal and treatment. They do not do repairs. They do not do
testing.

Before the media got hold of the so called "Toxic mold" problem and
blew it all out of proportion, we did all of the mold remediation in
the course of our normal insurance claim repairs. Water damage from
either broken pipes, leaky roofs, firefighters, etc. was always
treated with the idea of preventing and/or stopping mold and mildew
and the associated problems. I am not going into the details,
because there are too many to list, but we did it all ourselves.

Now, however, due to the paranoia generated by the media and
uninformed victims, there are now "mold remediation specialists".
Here is an experiment for you, try to find a mold remediation
specialist that has been in business for more than 15 years. They
did not exist before this scare began. If there were really such a
huge problem, why didn't we have them before? These companies have
sprung up in response to the demand. As the scare dies down, and
thankfully, it appears to be getting less severe, these companies
will go back to other pursuits.

Call your insurance company and ask for a contractor that is
familiar with water damage claims. He will know what to do. If you
want to use a specialist, then you will need a contractor anyway to
do the repairs caused by the mold remediation.

The last mold claim that I was involved with, was a few spots of
mold in a garage and at a shower pan. If this had been the old
days, I would have done the whole job and it would have cost between
$3-4 thousand dollars. With the mold remdediation company, the
laboratory costs, and then my repairs for the damages created by the
mold specialists, the actual cost was $26,400.00. If you ask me,
the whole thing is a scam.

YMMV

Here is a good common sense site for mold info:

http://www.sirs4quality.org/articles...nd_madness.htm

Good luck.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX

Alot of mold issues are simple DIY to fix. Where is your mold and what
caused it.