CONTAINING AFFECTED AREAS

When mold grows on building materials in a home, it spreads by producing microscopic spores. These spores may be ejected by some types of fungi at a rate of accelleration faster than any organism on the planet, travelling one million times their width in one second. Due to their size, these spores can easily travel through the air, hoping to settle in a moist area and begin a new colony. See Mold Basics for more information. The longer mold growth continues in a home or building, the greater the area that will be affected by airborne spores. Dead or alive, these spores can have adverse health effects.

If mold growth is detected in several areas of the home or building or has been growing for a long period of time, owners and remediators may agree that the entire building has been affected by airborne contamination without taking air samples in several areas. Otherwise, an important goal during mold assessment and air sampling should be to determine which areas of the home or building have been affected by airborne mold spores. This will minimize the area in need of treatment and lower total remediation costs.

Owners or hired handymen who attempt mold removal without knowledge of how mold spreads often make the indoor air problem much worse by spreading spores throughout the building. An important step in safely remediating a mold problem is to contain the work area. This means sealing off the area of mold damage with 6-mil poly sheeting. Protective respiratory and skin protection should be worn at all times inside the containment area as airborne spore counts will become extremely elevated as the mold damaged materials are removed. If there is no exit to the outdoors inside the containment area, and mold contaminated materials must be carried through unaffected areas, they should be sealed in trash bags and the bags should be wiped down before being carried through the home to prevent cross-contamination. Personal protective equipment should also be removed before leaving containment to prevent spreading spores to unaffected areas.

Anyone experiencing a mold problem should educate themselves about the proper way to handle the problem. For any area of mold growth larger than ten square feet, the EPA recommends hiring a qualified professional. The use of proper techniques, like containing affected areas, by trained personnel can restore normal indoor air quality, while doing it yourself or hiring a handyman can obviously make matters worse.

Air sampling or clearance testing should be performed at the end of the remediation process to show that normal indoor air quality has been restored in all areas treated. If containment has been established, clearance testing air samples should be taken inside the containment to show that the work area is clean, and outside the containment to show that the mold has not been spread to unaffected areas.