What Your Mold Remediation Contractor Isn't Telling You

What your mold remediation contractor isn't telling you could be costing you thousands in unnecessary repairs. Drawing from years of experience in crawl space restoration, Michael Church exposes four dangerous myths about mold treatment that continue to circulate among homeowners and even professional remediation companies.

The first misconception involves contractors claiming they can treat mold while leaving insulation in place between floor joists. This approach makes proper treatment physically impossible, as disinfectants cannot reach wood surfaces behind insulation. The only effective protocol requires complete insulation removal to ensure all affected surfaces are properly treated and inspected.

Perhaps most alarming is the widespread practice of treating mold on wet surfaces. Professional remediation requires thoroughly drying affected wood before applying disinfectants – a process that takes time and cannot be rushed. As Michael puts it, "If your crawl space company starts on day one and finishes in day four, without dry time in between, they're doing it wrong."

Through a compelling real-world example, Michael demonstrates why addressing structural issues before solving moisture and mold problems leads to inevitable failure. Ten years after structural repairs were made without proper mold remediation, the new wood had become completely compromised by existing mold. This common mistake guarantees recurring problems and wasted investment.

The final myth – that dehumidifiers kill mold – persists despite lacking scientific support. While reducing humidity certainly slows mold growth, it doesn't eliminate existing contamination. As Michael explains, dormant mold is still living mold, ready to resume growth when conditions become favorable again.

Ready to finally solve your crawl space mold problems correctly? Check out Michael's comprehensive guide, "Crawl Space Repair Myths Busted," available in English and Spanish, to arm yourself with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about your home's health and structural integrity.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00):
Hey, michael Church, crawl Space Ninja.
Today I've got a compilationvideo of four myths that I've
done in the past and we're gonnafocus on mold today.
There's a lot of mold myths outthere.
Whether you're addressing moldin a crawl space, basement,
attic, living space, there's alot of mold protocols that you
should follow that I feel likedo not get followed properly by

(00:20):
our mold remediationprofessionals that are out there
.
So today we're gonna talk aboutour mold remediation
professionals that are out there.
So today we're going to talkabout specifically with the
crawl space should you do anystructural repair before doing
mold?
Should you use a dehumidifierto address mold?
Should you apply molddisinfectants to wet wood?
And those of us in the crawlspace industry love to leave
that insulation in place whenaddressing mold.

(00:41):
Make sure you watch all thisvideo and at the end of the
video I'm going to put a link tothe playlist that shows all 13
videos.
And also, if you'll check outmy book, crawl Space Repair
Myths Busted, I actually haveeight mold myths listed in here
that are good for anybody thatowns a home, whether you're on a
slab, foundation, basement orcrawl space, be great

(01:02):
information.
You can go to my.
Buy me a coffee page and youcan pick it up.
Just go to here and then clickon extras.
You can get it right here.
We even have it in the Spanishversion available, or you can go
to amazoncom and get the audioversion and the print version as
well.
Let's get started.
Today, we're going to talk aboutthe myth of leaving the
insulation in place between thejoists.

(01:23):
Is it a myth or not?
So just to be clear, we get alot, a lot, a lot of homeowners
that tell us that the crawlspace contractor that was there
three days ago looking at theircrawl space says they're going
to leave all of that fiberglassor rock wool insulation up
between the floor joistswhenever they address the mold.
We think that is a big no-no,because how in the world do you

(01:45):
know if there's any mold backthere, or how can your mold
treatment get behind theinsulation in order to properly
disinfect it?
So what we do is we take allthe insulation out, all of it.
We get rid of all theinsulation in order to address
the mold.
Okay, that is the best way tohandle it.
So somebody that tells you thatthey're going to leave their
insulation in place to addressthe mold okay, that is the best
way to handle it.

(02:05):
So somebody that tells you thatthey're gonna leave their
insulation in place to addressmold, they're only really
addressing the part of the woodthat's sticking out from
underneath the insulation, andwe call that a myth.
We don't wanna leave theinsulation in place when
addressing mold, and if yourcontractor has, you might wanna
get another opinion.
How to disinfect mold while therelative humidity and the wood
is still wet.
So mold protocol actuallyrequires you to lower the

(02:27):
humidity and dry out the surfacethat you're disinfecting.
So imagine you're in your homeand one of these big mold
cleaning water damage peoplecomes in and says hey, mr
Homeowner, we're going to sprayyour drywall down with
disinfectant, even though youstill got a plumbing leak behind
it and the drywall still wet.
Well, after you kick them outof your house and get somebody

(02:50):
else to do it, right, thenthey'll take care of it
correctly, right?
Well, why do crawl spacecompanies feel like that?
They can address mold withoutdrying out the wood first?
You have to lower the humidity,dry out the wood, then you can
properly address the mold.
So that's a myth.
Don't let anybody disinfect themold without drying it out
first.
If your crawl space companystarts on day one and finishes

(03:13):
in day four, without dry time inbetween.
They're doing it wrong.
Today we're going to talk aboutfoundation repair or structural
repairs in the crawl spacewithout addressing mold.
Okay, now, I'm not much of adoor knocker, in other words, I
don't normally go up to people'shomes and knock on the door and
introduce myself and ask toinspect the crawl space.
But I did do it this one time.

(03:33):
The people were very nice andthey let me go into the crawl
space and check out their crawlspace.
What had happened was one ofthe local pest control companies
wound up fixing the structuralproblem of their crawl space 10
years ago without addressing themold and humidity problem first
.
So guess what happened?
All that mold that was all overthat old rotten wood took over

(03:56):
the new wood that was installed10 years ago.
So all the wood was rotten, allof it.
So if you're going to addressstructural problems, if you're
going to put in post jacks, ifyou're going to do all those
things and you don't controlhumidity and remove the mold
first, you're going to have aproblem.
It may be 10 years down theroad, but why didn't they do it
right 10 years earlier.
That would have been the bestthing to do.

(04:16):
We consider that a myth toaddress structural damage in a
crawl space without addressingthe mold and humidity first.
Today we're going to cover themyth the dehumidifier killing
mold.
So we hear this a lot.
Mr Homeowner, if you install adehumidifier, it's going to kill
all the mold in your crawlspace.
It's going to make it godormant.
Well, which is it?
Does it kill it or does it makeit go dormant?

(04:37):
Well, guess what?
Nobody knows.
Even the microbiologists I'vetalked to don't know if mold
actually goes dormant by puttingin a dehumidifier.
They say it's possible, butsince there's so many different
thousands of types of mold outthere, they can't really tell
which molds will go dormant andwhich molds won't.
But even if a dehumidifier didmake mold go dormant and it

(04:59):
certainly does slow theprogression or the growth rate
of the mold, because if you takethe humidity and the moisture
out, the mold isn't going togrow as rampant as it would
before but even if it does makeit go dormant, just think of a
groundhog.
When a groundhog hibernates orgoes dormant, they're still
alive.
So would you rather have livemold down there and it be in

(05:22):
dormancy waiting for moisture,or would you rather just go
ahead and kill it?
We're going to leave that up toyou, but we call that a myth.
If a person tells you that thedehumidifier kills mold, that is
a myth.
I'm Michael Church Crawl SpaceNinja.
We hope you make it a happy andblessed day and we'll see you
later.
Thank you.