Have you had water damage from leaks from the rains?
By Charles Colby Ph.D.
Managing Director
SOS Mold & Environmental www.sosmold.com .
In Southern California where I live, we have been deluged of late with rain. Although I have yet to find any of my clients gathering animal species it twos, it has seemed as if the rain is relentless. Certainly something we have not seen since the El Nino condition of some years past.
Outside of the obvious things, if these rains have caused water intrusion or water damage in your home or business there is an unforeseen consequence which you may be unaware of; Mold. Thats right.. The dreaded M word. Dont fear or panic. However I strongly urge you to deal with it correctly.
Here are some quick facts:
If water damage has occurred and you have not sufficiently dried it out within approximately 48 hours of the event, you likely have mold growth. Even if you cant see it..! Dont discover it later.
You must take action to stop leaks, they dont stop themselves.
Not all leaks are covered by insurance! Be careful before calling your insurance company as it may result in a negative mark on your record.
If you have mold that has grown and you dont remove it, it will not go away and it could even provide a foundation for further mold growth!
So what to do? Do I call an emergency response company..?
There are a number of water dry down, emergency response water damage companies that exist for these reasons. Note that these companies charge based on something called a blue book (not the Kelly Blue Book for cars). This is a rate schedule they refer to that insurance companies have previously agreed to. The thing is unless the company can guarantee you they can dry down the area before 48 hours have elapsed, your VERY expensive efforts are for naught typically. Drywall and surfaces should be under 15% moisture content (a complex issue actually, but for now just assume dry) or you have failed to get to it in time. Thats not 48 hours from when the company got there, thats 48 hours from when the leak started..! Unless a company shows up with something called desiccant drying system that is housed literally in a truck, forget it. Typically this is impossible for most people and companies. So you end up spending a fortune on for water dry-down emergency response which isnt an emergency. That isnt to say you just leave it wet, its only to say that paying emergency rates to dry down a problem is usually a waste of money. Emergency water response rates are typically 4-10 times greater than normal rates for dealing with the same issues. I can hear the water dry down companies screaming now..! Sorry guys. Truth be told, you can save yourself a lot of money having your contractor, handyman or by doing it yourself with as good or better results..!
This picture was taken at one of our clients home (a condo) in Los Angeles. The picture is of a wall where previously a built-in desk unit was. Our clients condo had suffered a water loss stemming from the upstairs unit and the insurance company called the emergency water restoration company to dry down the area inside of our clients unit. The emergency services company removed drywall where they felt applicable and put in dehumidifiers to dry down the premises. The wood area of the photo below is where the drywall was removed in between the built in desk drawers. The emergency services company then billed over $10,000 dollars for their work. Told our client that the area in her unit was dry, all impacted materials had been removed and that there was definitely NO mold.
Our client decided to remodel her kitchen about 3 months after the event. In so doing she removed her desk to find what we saw in the photo. Not to mention what was behind the entire kitchen cabinets..! So dont rely upon an emergency services team to tell you the see nothing and its all dry. You could find yourself in the middle of a big mess just like our client did.
How can I do it myself and save lots of money?
1)First off your local neighborhood equipment rental company likely has dehumidifiers for rent. I rented one recently at Hertz equipment rentals for $70 dollars for the week. Emergency services typically charges $140 dollars a DAY or more to rent these machines..! you will need one machine for about every 200-400 square feet of area you are dealing with. A lot depends upon the ceiling heights, the amount of water etc.
2)Get yourself a moisture meter. It doesnt have to be a fancy one. Try to get one that has pins which you can insert into the surface of the drywall and materials. You can find them as cheaply as $20 dollars on ebay. Hope depot sells one for $49 dollars that works fine. Here is a link to that one
home depot $49 moisture meter.
Ok so with moisture meter in hand and before you start the drying process, poke your meter into a non-affected similarly situated wall to the ones in which you are dealing with. E.G. if you are trying to evaluate an interior wall which you believe is wet, pick an interior wall you know is not wet. Take a reading on your meter of the non-impacted wall and then compare it to the readings you are getting on the impacted walls. Stick the meter directly into the drywall at the lowest point possible (water travels typically downhill). If the reading in the impacted area is greater than the non impacted area, you can conclude it is wet.
3)Ok so if you believe you can get it dried down before 48 hours (which is really difficult), then start your dehumidifier(s) and dry down the areas. As a rule of thumb, if drywall is wet, remove it. That is unless you have an expensive faux finish or wallpaper on it. Otherwise just remove as much of the wet drywall and insulation as you can. If water gets in and behind a cabinet, then you should try to (if possible) remove the toe kick from under the cabinet and try removing the drywall under the cabinet on the wall below to the extent you can.
4)Once the area is dry, it is best to make sure you dont have any mold that has grown, but you are unaware of. I personally had a circumstance where a home had a water sprinkler head was broken by an electrician. The emergency services company came out and removed a substantial portion of the drywall that was wet and the remaining drywall, even though it had become wet was dry. So they claimed. In fact some of the remaining drywall had been impacted by the water loss, but was dry within a short time (according to the emergency services company). We examined the drywall and tested it with our ATP rapid assay analysis which told us that something was present. Even though it was undetectable to the naked eye. The laboratory samples came back with over 25 million spores per square inch on the sample. I was told by the emergency services company I was crazy and he could eat off that drywall. The point is you dont know without testing it. You cant always see what is present. As our once
In summary, if drywall becomes wet, remove it to the extent you can. If you are in doubt, hire a professional to assist you to make sure mold hasnt grown. Dont rely on visual representations and send some samples to a lab to confirm. Or you may find yourself in a real pickle as one of our other clients did.
