What to Check Before You Call a Mold Company

A mold company is one way to spend money when the house smells wrong or a spot showed up. It is a poor first move if you have not looked for water. Companies vary. Some find the leak and talk plainly. Some sell a fogger and a number. You will get a better visit, or you will skip the visit, if you do a short check first. This is not a dare to handle a large wet wall yourself. It is the homework.

Walk for water. Under sinks, at the toilet base, behind the washer, around the water heater if you can see it safely, at window sills, at the bath fan, at the attic hatch if you can look without falling, at the basement or crawl space from a safe edge. Downspouts outside. Write what is wet, what smells, and whether it tracks rain or the blower or a shower. Take pictures while it is wet. A dry wall later will look innocent and you will doubt yourself.

Separate the small and the large. A shower curtain, a washer gasket, a dusty sill you can wipe, a dry trap you can refill: those are ordinary. Soft drywall, a spreading ceiling stain, a wet attic, standing water, anything that means opening walls or touching the furnace cabinet: licensed pro. Do not demo a wall on Saturday to be thorough. You may spread debris and you may not know what you opened. If people are sick or breathing is hard, that is a doctor, the same day you care about it, not after a cleaning quote.

Fix the obvious moisture before you pay anyone to name a spot. A fan that finally exhausts outdoors, a filter that fits, a gutter that no longer dumps on the foundation, a gasket that is dry. If the smell leaves, you learned the cause. If it stays, you call with notes instead of panic. Ask the company what you will receive, whether they look for water or only test, and whether they sell the cleanup they recommend. You can want those answers. A few hundred dollars for a visit is easier to judge when you know it is not the same thing as stopping a downspout.

Skip the fogger before the visit. You will make the house harder to smell and you will not have dried the wall. Skip a lab kit as your only step. A dish on the counter does not move a spout.

Bring the notes. Where, when, what you already changed. The useful person will recognize them. The visit that ignores them is a visit you can question.

Make the call, if you still need it, after the notes exist, not instead of them. Read the first three lines to the scheduler. Wet wall under the bath, smell when the fan upstairs runs, downspout fixed or not. A company that does not want the notes is a company you can thank and leave. A company that asks for the photos is already doing the job you wanted.

Price the visit before they arrive, and ask what would make them recommend a big cleanup. You are allowed to hear the answer in daylight. A same-day scare price is optional. You can say you will decide tomorrow. The water will still be a fact in the morning, and you will decide better if you are not standing in a driveway.

If the homework solved it, stop. You do not owe a company a visit because you searched the scary phrase. Keep the pictures, keep the fan habit, and spend the next dollar on whatever actually stayed wet. The picture guide is there so the next odd smell starts with a walk, not with a truck.

This is a house check, not a diagnosis. Symptoms go to a doctor, and big wet repairs go to a licensed pro.

When Your House Doesn't Feel Right is the ClearNest picture guide for that first walk. It is $2.99 at https://clearnestair.com/book.