DIY Crawl Space Guide: Mold Remediation Week 9

Lurking beneath your home, crawl space mold poses a silent threat to your property's structural integrity and your family's health. But with so much conflicting advice online, how do you tackle this problem effectively?

In Week 9 of our Crawl Space Repair Challenge, we dive deep into the world of mold removal and disinfection, separating fact from fiction. Personal protective equipment isn't just a precaution—it's essential. You'll need a full-face respirator with P100 or N95 filters, chemical-resistant suits, HEPA air scrubbers, and negative air machines to safely manage mold remediation without compromising your living space.

We explore the crucial distinction between EPA-registered and non-registered products. While EPA-registered disinfectants can legally make specific "kill claims" against mold, non-registered alternatives like hydrogen peroxide and sodium bicarbonate often provide more eco-friendly options that are equally effective. Understanding this regulatory nuance helps you make informed decisions about which products to use in your home.

Before grabbing your equipment, proper preparation makes all the difference. We walk through moisture level assessment, insulation removal, HVAC considerations, and air sealing techniques that create optimal conditions for successful remediation. From there, we compare removal methods—from professional approaches like soda blasting and dry ice blasting to more accessible DIY techniques including HEPA vacuuming and manual scrubbing.

Most importantly, we emphasize that effective mold remediation isn't complete without addressing the underlying moisture problems. Without proper humidity control, vapor barriers, and leak repairs, you're simply putting a bandage on a problem that will return with a vengeance. Join us as we provide comprehensive guidance on not just removing mold, but preventing its comeback for good.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00):
Hey there, michael Church, crawl Space Ninja.
Today we are going to look atmold removal and disinfectants
in a crawl space.
This is Crawl Space RepairChallenge, week 9.
There's a lot of misinformationout there about how to address
mold properly, so let's getstarted.
Some of the things we'll betalking about today are personal
protective equipment what isneeded if you plan on doing this

(00:21):
yourself.
Some of the equipment you mightwanna think about using if
you're going on doing thisyourself.
Some of the equipment you mightwant to think about using if
you're going to do this yourselfas a mold remediation project
in your crawl space.
Also, what is an EPA versus anon-EPA registered product when
addressing mold?
Steps to do before you addressthat mold soda blasting versus

(00:42):
other methods available outthere, as well as avoiding a few
mistakes that we've come acrossover the years.
If you are new to this CrawlSpace Repair Challenge series
we're doing, this is, as Imentioned, week nine.
We've got many videos for youto take a look at.
Last week was the vapor barriervideo.
We hope you'll check these out.
So let's talk about PPE,personal protective equipment.

(01:03):
You're going to need a fullface respirator with a P100 or
N95 mask when addressing mold.
Make sure you have chemicalresistant suits and gloves,
because some of those chemicalscan be pretty harsh depending on
where you get them from.
Be sure to use a HEPA airscrubber.
Hepa stands for high efficiencyparticulate air filter.

(01:26):
These are basically designedfor mold remediation projects,
and I would also recommend youget some negative air machines
to reverse the flow of air downfrom the house into the crawl
space so you're not accidentallyexposing the living space to
the mold in the crawl space.
Make sure you use the rightapplicators.
Some mold remediation productsuse fogging machines and some

(01:49):
use spraying machines, so makesure you read the label to
determine which one you need.
There are some other moldremediation products out there,
like sodium bicarbonate, whichwe call soda blasting.
There's also dry ice blastingand different disinfectants that
you can use that we'll becovering in this video.
If you decide to do thisyourself, most likely soda
blasting and dry ice blastingwill be difficult, so you'll

(02:12):
probably have to rely on HEPAvacuuming or scrubbing with
disinfectant.
What is the difference betweenan EPA versus a non-EPA
registered product?
Well, basically, an EPAregistered product is required
for pesticides.
Well, basically, an EPAregistered product is required
for pesticides.
This is a registration that theEnvironmental Protection Agency
gives to pesticides and otherproducts that make kill claims.

(02:32):
For example, to claim that yourproduct kills strep, it must be
approved by the EPA in order tomake that claim.
So most of the time you'll seethese as pest control products,
so they'll have an EPAregistration number.
A non-EPA registered productsare products like peroxide,
which we really love, sodiumbicarbonate, which is a very

(02:55):
green product product to usewhen addressing mold.
Peroxide is as well, and otherenzyme-based products that may
be out there that don't makemold claims but they do know
that they kill mold.
And it's sort of like wheneveryou have the FDA that regulates
vitamins versus drugs.
There are proven vitamins thathelp do things for the body, but

(03:19):
unless the FDA says that theydo this or that they have a
disclaimer that says the FDAdoesn't recommend this.
So that's kind of what the EPAdoes on the chemical side.
Even though we all knowperoxide kills mold.
It's been used for years.
Sodium bicarbonate kills mold.
Other enzymes do that theproduct themselves cannot make a

(03:39):
claim without the EPA givingthem that permission.
Also, non-epa registeredproducts, as I mentioned before,
they're usually more green,more biodegradable and more
eco-friendly.
Before starting mold removal,here are some steps that you
want to make sure you do.
First, you want to check themoisture levels.
Make sure that the woodmoisture and the humidity are at

(04:01):
a wood moisture level to wheremold products would work.
Typically that would be under60% relative humidity and under
20% wood moisture level.
Make sure that if there'sanything covering that wood,
like insulation, you want toremove that.
You want to make sure you turnon that HEPA air scrubber and
that negative air that Imentioned.
Turn off the HVAC systembecause you don't want to be

(04:23):
distributing mold throughoutyour duct work.
Air seal any penetrations inthe subfloor that you can.
Air seal.
Wear the proper PPE, as Imentioned before, and get the
people and the pets out of thehouse at least while you're
doing the mold remediation,especially those that are
sensitive to molds and indoorair quality.
Also, let me know down below ina comment if you have some

(04:44):
recommendations for others tofollow whenever they're
addressing mold.
We'd love to hear from you.
Mold removal methods.
Soda blasting versus dry iceblasting.
We did a video about thedifferences between those two
and instead of going through allof that in this video, I'm
going to put a link to thisvideo down below so you can
watch soda blasting versus dryice blasting, and a lot of

(05:05):
companies out there will useHEPA vacuuming as a third option
for mold removal.
Or you could obviously scrubthe wood clean with mold
disinfectants and rags anddifferent things like that To
prevent the mold from comingback.
You need to make sure that themoisture does not return.
So if you do have a mold issuein your crawl space, make sure

(05:27):
you do everything you can toaddress the water problem that
caused the mold problem, likecontrolling humidity.
Make sure you install thatdehumidifier to stay in the
crawl space.
Ensure that you've got theflooding or the standing water
addressed.
Install that vapor barrier tocover that earth so that it's
not giving up too much moisturefor the dehumidifier to address.

(05:49):
And, of course, if you have anyleaks in the subfloor, take
care of those as well.
Hope you liked this video.
I'm Michael Church with CrawlSpace Ninja.
If you haven't had a chance tocheck out my book Crawl Space
Repair Myths Busted, it has somegreat information in there
about mold remediation and thecrawl space.
Also, if you need to do apersonal one-on-one consultation

(06:09):
with me, you can find that atbuymeacoffeecom.
The link is in the description.
Please like and subscribe toour YouTube channel.
If you find this informationgreat.
We hope you'll make somecomments down below on how we
can improve, or if you have somesuggestions for our viewers.
As I mentioned, I'm MichaelChurch Crawl Space Ninja.
We hope you make it a happy andblessed day and we'll see you
later.