Letting new people into your home isn’t the easiest thing to do. Especially someone you’ve never met and who will potentially be removing walls or flooring. You want to make sure the home you’ve spent so much time making your own and creating memories is also the home that keeps you and your family safe and healthy. We know finding mold in your home can be a nightmare. Finding the right company to care for your home the way you do throughout your mold remediation process is essential for your peace of mind. Master Restoration wants homeowners to feel comfortable and empowered when work is being done in your home. Our team of technicians treats your home as if it were their own.
Why Can’t I Remediate Myself?
Unfortunately, there are many times when we cannot offer a DIY (do-it-yourself option) to your mold remediation. This is simply because of the potential health concerns mold may cause. Calling a professional immediately is important to ensure the observed mold does proliferate and becomes an immediate threat to your family’s health and exacerbate damages to your home. Often homeowners will self-mitigate water damage to their home without seeing the hidden threats behind walls and cabinets. If water damage is not addressed thoroughly or sits too long, secondary damage may occur causing growth or elevated toxic air levels. A common home remedy is applying bleach on the mold. Bleach will not kill the spores, and it can actually worsen the problem. A free assessment by a professional can save you thousands of dollars and the health of your loved ones.
Where Do You Start?
To start, you want to search for a company that is certified in mold remediation, and make sure their technicians are also certified. The IICRC, or Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification hosts classes and testing nationally that allow anyone to learn how to take care of different types of damage. These companies will know the best way to handle your home from the beginning based on the standard of our industry. The care and remediation are imperative since mold can potentially cause health issues and other harm. We know you care about your home, it’s not just the place you get to go at the end of a long day. It’s where you hold your belongings and your memories. That’s why we care too, we want you to enjoy every birthday, holiday and every day in between worry-free.
How Do You Choose?
We suggest talking to the company and getting to know the people within and what makes both companies different. For example, signing an assignment of benefits may not be in your best interest. It is important to realize, not every company is an AOB company. Another possibility to consider is what happens if your claim is denied? What does that process look like for said chosen company? Will they simply send you the same bill they sent the insurance company? What are the payment options? Choose what works best for you. We also suggest finding a company that will walk you through their specific process as much as possible.
Asking questions and getting to know the company before you choose to have them remove the mold is the only way to truly know who you are working with. Some companies may take mold seriously but may use chemicals that aren’t safe for you, your children, or your pets. If it isn’t safe for you or your family how is the technician going to be working in it? Technicians should be wearing suits, or masks to prevent damage to their own bodies in unsafe conditions. Containment will allow your family to live in your home during the process – if possible. Avoiding going into containment at all costs is vital after it is placed.
How Does the Company Know What is Affected?
The company you choose or your insurance carrier may require air quality testing to be done by a hygienist before and after demo and cleaning are started. This is a pretty standard procedure to ensure the spores are out of your home. After all, the goal is to get your home back to a healthy environment. In our opinion, it’s important to make sure testing is done by a third party, this ensures that no one is biased in doing a pre or post-test. The pretest can establish a scope of work, it will show what areas are affected, and where containment will need to be placed. Containment will help stop any cross-contamination from taking place.
The hygienist testing is usually one appointment before and after remediation that can take a couple of hours to do. After the hygienist leaves your home, he will write a report of his findings and send it over to you or the company doing the work. This process can take up to a week. The company doing the mold remediation (meaning, reversing/removing mold damage) will review the protocol, and assign technicians to your specific loss. This is so important; we want everyone to be on the same page understanding exactly what needs to be done to stop and prevent any further damage.
When Should I File a Claim?
We know everyone likes to avoid filing claims if they can. It is important to know when a claim should be filed. Home damage is very situational, and it is important to understand your policy the best you can. Know if you have any limitations and what your coverage is. Remember your carrier and your deductible. If damage isn’t going to be as expensive as your deductible, it may not be worth it to notify your carrier. Your restoration company will be able to help you with this, we work with carriers daily so we can assist you based on our experience and costs. Master Restoration can walk you through the process, many of our technicians have helped file claims during their visits to assist the homeowner and carrier have a better understanding.
What’s Next?
The sooner you start to wonder what comes after remediation is complete, the better. The goal is to have your home back as quickly as possible, so the sooner a company is notified about the rebuild the better. This will allow for ample time for your carrier or you to approve of the estimate, go over choices and make final decisions. Unfortunately, this isn’t reality TV and we cannot put your home completely back together on the same day – if we can, we certainly will. This is just not a reality. Being as realistic as possible is best. Ask your general contractor what their timeline is, when will you begin choosing new flooring or paint colors. When is he able to begin work? And what is their process once remediation is complete? Asking questions is the best way to get to know the company you are working with and allow for a timeline to completion.
We hope you learned a little bit about the process of mold remediation and how to choose the best company for you. If you have any questions, please contact us via phone, email, or social media to further discuss your questions.