BY DAVID MYRICK, OWNER
I make it my mission to be the mold remediator in VA, MD, and DC that provides homeowners like you with all the facts. The good. The bad. The ugly. And, occasionally, the ultra-technical.
File this article under the last one.
In another article, I talked about why proper containment is critical during mold remediation. Today, I want to show you what proper containment actually looks like.
To do this, I’ve included a photo of one of our meticulously constructed containment barriers below… and a photo of a not-so-great containment barrier another mold company set up.
I’ve numbered the important parts of each image. Below the image, I explain what each of those numbers is showing.
Let’s get started…
The picture above is what our typical containment looks like from the inside. What you’re really looking at above is four separate containment barriers all seamed together to make one continuous barrier.
There is a very specific order in how we build containment (numbered in the image above):
The 1st barrier is 6mil plastic taped to the floor so mold spores can’t get into the carpet. The floor’s barrier has to go down first so the rest of the barriers can be sealed to this floor barrier.
The 2nd barrier is built over the door on the right.
First, we tape strong double-sided tape to the door’s frame and then wrap custom-trimmed 6mil plastic over it. The double-sided tape is very strong and makes a mold-tight seal so mold spores can’t escape into the room behind this door.
Next, we add two layers of blue tape to the top and sides of the door (because blue tape won’t tear the drywall) and two layers of duct tape to seal the gap at the bottom of the door.
The 3rd barrier is the doorway with the red zipper. This barrier is built the same way as #2 but it has a red, heavy-duty zipper to allow us to get in and out.
Notice how much wider our red zipper is compared to our competitor’s black zipper in the picture below. That’s because it has twice as much adhesive, so our zipper makes a much tighter seal and won’t come off the barrier.
The 4th barrier is a free-standing, 6mil plastic wall sealed to the ceiling, walls, and floor with 2 layers of tape on all 4 sides. To hold the barrier up, we use special tension poles that are made specifically for containment barriers.
We’re one of the few remediators who use this 5-foot foam rail to hold the containment barrier snugly to the ceiling. This is especially important on textured or popcorn ceilings as tape alone won’t seal the barrier to those surfaces.
Most remediators don’t use foam rails because the rails are expensive and require more tension poles. But the cost is worth it to ensure our containment barriers don’t fall down or sag.
This is an HVAC register we sealed up. We have to make sure no mold gets into the HVAC system while we’re tearing out mold.
The containment barrier—coupled with the Air Filtration Device we set up—prevents mold spores from escaping the contained area while we work. The result is a safer overall project for you and your family.
This is a containment barrier that another local mold remediator set up. There are quite a few mistakes, so it’s a great lesson in what NOT to do when setting up containment:
The company used duct tape on the drywall instead of blue tape. Duct tape tears the drywall and can add at least $200 extra to the rebuild costs.
Barely 10% of the containment barrier is taped to the ceiling. That means mold spores can escape over the top of 90% of the barrier.
The bottom of the barrier isn’t taped down at all, inviting mold spores to escape. Any slight wind is going to lift the whole bottom up.
There are only two pieces of tape sealing the barrier to the wall. Again, this allows mold spores to escape into other areas of your home.
None of their tension poles have foam rails. Within hours, this whole barrier will get saggier and saggier. Which area sags first? The area above the zipper, since it is being pulled up and down several times a day.
The black zipper is the cheap, flimsy model that breaks easily and loses its stickiness quickly. When the zipper comes off, there is nothing standing between the mold and the rest of your house.
This barrier has more holes than a slice of Swiss. Mold spores have dozens of gaps from which to escape the area and infiltrate the rest of your home.
Our painstakingly detailed containment is just one reason Northern CA, Central VA, Southern MD, and Washington DC homeowners choose us to remove their mold. Visit our Why Us page for more reasons why you want us in your corner to help you fight your mold problem.
After that, get in touch for a free estimate. It would be an honor to hear from you.
We remove mold the right way… and it would be an honor to hear from you.
Your home is in the best hands—our chemical-free remediation has the highest success rate in the industry.
You get the answers you need—our special mold testing provides 99% accurate results on the spot.
You can trust our process—we’ve performed over 300 successful projects since we opened in 2006.
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Valor Mold Removal is a certified and experienced mold testing and remediation company. We are fully insured and fully licensed. We also provide crawl space encapsulation, soda blasting, humidity control, and air quality cleaning.
