Mold Questions Answered for Gettysburg, PA Homes
These are the questions people ask us most about mold in Adams County homes. If your question isn't here, send it through and our local mold specialist will answer it.
Is it mold?
What does mold smell like?
Earthy and stale, like wet cardboard or a cellar that has been shut up all winter. In the older boroughs around Gettysburg it usually reaches you at the top of the basement stairs first, for the reasons old houses hold damp. Follow your nose and note where the smell is strongest.
How do I tell mold from dirt or staining?
Dirt wipes off and stays off. Mold comes back in the same place, often within weeks, and spreads in blotches rather than streaks. A patch that keeps returning after cleaning means the surface behind it is still wet.
What are the first signs of mold sickness?
A stuffy nose, cough, itchy eyes or wheezing that ease when you leave the house and come back when you do. Plenty of other things cause the same symptoms, so take it to your doctor rather than working it out from a website.
What to do first
I've just found mold. What should I do today?
Leave it alone rather than scrubbing at it, because disturbing a patch sends spores around the room. Take a photo, look for where the water is coming from, and get a dehumidifier going if you have one. Then read what an inspection covers or send us the details.
Do I have to move furniture and belongings out?
Small jobs need the area around the mold cleared, so furniture gets moved to the middle of the room and covered. Bigger jobs mean emptying the space. Soft things that have been sitting against a damp wall, like mattresses and cardboard boxes, often can't be saved.
What if I'm renting?
Put it to your landlord in writing, with photos and the date you first noticed it. No Pennsylvania law deals with mold directly, but every lease carries an implied warranty of habitability, and serious mold can breach it. Your renters policy may cover belongings, though most limit mold claims.
Cleaning it yourself
Does vinegar kill mold?
White vinegar kills about 82% of mold species and does better than bleach on wood and drywall, but it needs an hour to work, won't lift the staining and won't stop regrowth. EPA guidance is that detergent and water handle hard surfaces.
Is it safe to clean mold myself?
Anything under about 10 square feet is usually within reach, as long as you wear gloves, goggles and an N-95 mask. Leave it if anyone at home has asthma or a weak immune system, if it followed sewage or flooding, or if it keeps coming back after you clean it.
What kills mold permanently in a house?
Nothing you can buy in a bottle. Mold needs water, so the only lasting fix is finding the leak, the seepage or the humidity feeding it and dealing with that. Everything else buys you a few months.
What naturally kills mold in the air?
Air purifiers catch spores while they're floating, which helps during a clean-up, but they do nothing to what's growing on the wall. A dehumidifier holding the house between 30% and 50% does far more good.
During and after the work
Every job runs to its own clock, but the shape of it is much the same. A patch under about 10 square feet is usually a day or two. A room takes three to five days. Anything over 100 square feet, or mold that has got into the ductwork, runs a week or more.
What stretches those is how much has to come out, how long the wall or floor takes to read dry on a meter rather than just look dry, and whether you want air testing at the end, which adds a day. Putting the room back together afterwards, so new drywall and paint, is a separate job again.
How long should I stay out during mold remediation?
For a small job in a sealed-off room, most people stay put. Bigger work, or anything in the ductwork, usually means a day or two away. If someone at home has asthma or is recovering from illness, it's worth arranging somewhere else.
Can mold grow back after remediation?
Mold does come back when moisture is left behind, and that's nearly always the reason. In Adams County that means ground water through an old foundation, or summer humidity settling in a cool basement. Fix that and it stays gone, which is why a check afterward is worth having.
Will the musty smell go away?
The smell goes when the damp goes. If the smell hangs about after the mold has been cleared, something is still wet, whether that's a wall that hasn't finished drying or a spot nobody has found yet.
Does turning the AC off cause mold?
In a south-central Pennsylvania summer it can. Warm, damp air sits still and settles on cool surfaces, and a closed-up house can smell musty inside two weeks. Leave the system on a humidistat, or run a dehumidifier instead.
The Bigger Questions
Costs, insurance and testing need more explaining, so here's where to read about each one.
What will it cost?
Prices by room and size, what makes a job dearer, and a calculator for your own.
Mold remediation costsWill insurance pay?
What PA policies cover, what they leave out, and how to document a claim.
Insurance and mold in PADo I need an inspection?
When testing is worth paying for, what the report tells you and what it costs.
Mold inspection and testingThere's been a leak
What to dry, what to throw out and how quickly mold takes hold afterward.
Mold after water damageIs it black mold?
How to tell it from mildew, when you can clean it yourself and how it's removed.
Black mold removalDo you cover my town?
The Adams County towns covered, with ZIP codes and what's common in each.
Areas coveredSelling a house with mold
What you have to disclose, when to get it checked, and who ends up paying.
Mold inspection for a home saleChoosing a company
What Pennsylvania requires, what belongs in the contract and your three days to cancel.
Choosing a mold companyStill got a question? Ask away
Put your question in the box at the end of the form, along with what you've found and where. Our local mold specialist will come back to you the same day, whether it turns into a job or not.
Call now (223) 747-0678 Mold remediation in Gettysburg and Adams County