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Costs Associated with Mold and Mildew Removal
Below is a question that we received from a customer on how companies charge for removing mold and mildew
Question: Hi I am Ben and I was wondering how companies charge for mold and mildew removal. I have called several companies and getting all different price levels. Please explain why different companies charge different prices for the same mold and mildew project"
Answer: Ben, mold and mildew removal costs have been a major issue for the last few years. Many mold and mildew removal contractors have been charging prices for cleaning services from $ 500.00 to $ 10,000 for the same project.
The question is who do you trust will remove the mold correctly, safely, preventing health issues and legal issues like getting sued. To answer this question we need to answer each pricing level, so let's start by discussing the $500.00 jobs. It doesn't matter if you have attic mildew, carpet mildew, basement mildew, roof mildew, or mildew in your shower, kitchen, bathroom, office or anywhere else the mildew should be professionally removed. $500.00 jobs may sound like a lot for mold and mildew removal , but surprisingly you receive very little.
Here's what you get for $500.00:
1. A non-certified technician, that most likely is not uniformed.
2. He/she will cut out the mold effected wall and/or wipe down the walls.
3. No protection equipment for their personal safety
4. No IICRC S520 detailed containment with negative air pressure to prevent mold spores from escaping into your home and effecting humans and animals.
5. No commercial liability insurance including pollution control insurance which should be mandatory on any mold and mildew removal project.
Now let's review the 5 items listed.
A non-certified technician that most likely is not uniformed. Most serious and professional mold and mildew removal companies have all their technicians certified by a major mold remediation school ran by an Industrial Hygienist firm.
No protection equipment for their personal safety For $ 500.00, the costs could not cover the correct protection equipment including OSHA standard full face mask and other protection equipment. You may ask yourself why would the protection of a worker worry me as a homeowner. The answer is very simple, if any worker in your home is not covered by workman's compensation insurance and they get hurt in your home, they have the legal right to sue you.
No IICRC S520 detailed containment with negative air pressure to prevent mold spores from escaping into your home and effecting humans and animals. Without creating a plastic barrier with correct negative air around the work area, mold colonies will spread their mold spores as they are being attacked ( cleaning and cutting ). When the spores have been released in the air new mold colonies will grow. At this point, the $500.00 spent was wasted.
No commercial liability insurance including pollution control, mandatory on any mold and mildew removal project. Most mold and mildew removal companies are unaware or hiding the fact that they don't carry the correct insurance when servicing your home. Even if the company coming to your home has actual commercial liability insurance, none of those insurance companies will cover mold removal in their policies. So what does that mean to you? Well let's say that the company removed the mold or mildew from your home and a month later it comes back again. You have it inspected by a mold inspector to find out that the mold was not correctly removed the first time. It happens also that a relative is visiting and now claims that the mold in your home has been effecting their health and also has accumulated a major amount of health bills. You of course go back to the $ 500.00 mold removal contractor and find out that their insurance does not cover the health bills, because their insurance covers everything except mold related issues.
At this point you are probably asking yourself how much would it cost to hire a contractor that would follow all the requirements mentioned in the scenario above. The answer to your question will depend on what part of the country you are in and the size of the job. It has been my experience that to correctly mitigate ( clean up and remove) mold and mildew you are looking at a figure between $2,000 to $6,000. Yes, you can pay less, but if the correct procedures are not done correctly, you may as well do it yourself!