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The size question

About ten square feet. Below that, EPA says most people manage it.

EPA puts the line at roughly 10 sq ft: below it, in most cases a homeowner cleans it up themselves. Above it the work becomes containment and filtered air under negative pressure, because disturbing a larger area without those moves it through the rest of the house.

  1. 00Measure it, do not estimatePeople read low on a ceiling and high on a wall. Ten square feet is about three feet by three.
  2. 01Ask where the water came fromIf it came from inside the structure, the visible patch is an indicator rather than the extent.
  3. 02Stop the moisture firstCleaning without fixing the source returns the growth on its original timetable, at any size.
  4. 03Put the bleach downOn porous material it wets the substrate and leaves the roots, which is why the patch comes back in the same place.
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What changes above the line

The area is sealed off, air is filtered and held at negative pressure so it flows inward, porous material that cannot be cleaned through is cut out and bagged, and what remains is HEPA vacuumed and wiped rather than sprayed. EPA publishes the detailed version of this method, and it is the same method in a house at a smaller scale.

A sagging brown-ringed patch on a ceiling with a bucket beneath it
Growth fed from inside a ceiling is bigger than the stain. The measurement that matters is taken after it is opened.

Doing it yourself, properly

Below the line and with the moisture fixed: ventilate the room, wear gloves and eye protection, clean hard surfaces with detergent and water, and dry them completely. Porous material that soaked through — ceiling tiles, carpet, soft furnishing — is discarded rather than cleaned.

If you have asthma, a lung condition or a compromised immune system, this is a job to hand over regardless of size. That is a medical question and it belongs with a doctor rather than with a contractor or a website.

Why testing rarely earns its cost first

CDC states plainly that it does not recommend mould testing, and EPA takes the same view where growth is visible. A sample names what is present; it does not change the decision, which is to remove it and fix the water either way.

The sampling that usually is worth paying for comes after the work rather than before it, and from someone with no interest in the remediation.

Yours to clean or not

Size is only half of it. The other half is whose building it is.

  1. 01You own and live hereMeasure, find the water, then decide honestly which side of the line you are on.
    Ask them: how did you establish the size, and did you open anything to check?
  2. 02You own and let it outDeal with the moisture source first and record the date you were told. Health complaints move faster than building work.
  3. 03You rentReport it in writing with a photograph and a measured size. Scrubbing it with bleach is what you will later be told you did wrong.
  4. 04You are sellingA cleaned patch with no record looks worse to a buyer than a documented remediation. Keep the invoice and any verification.
(888) 217-5329 Talk to a contractor

Goes to an independent contractor. Nothing is booked until you say so. Calls may be recorded.

Where these figures come from

Published by someone other than us. Each link goes to their own words rather than to our summary of them.

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