Here is what Covington and Mandeville homeowners ask us most, answered in the order people tend to ask. If your question isn’t here, call and describe what you’re seeing — the conversation is short.
A dark ring or fuzz on a supply vent means the vent surface is dropping below the room’s dew point and staying wet, which in south Louisiana happens most days of summer. The vent cover itself wipes clean. The concern is what’s upstream: EPA says condensation near cooling coils is a major factor in moisture contamination of duct systems. If the smell is strongest when the system starts, call and tell us where the smell is strongest.
Mildew is a common name for surface mold — the flat gray or white film on a shower wall or a window frame. Mold is the broader group, and it can grow into porous material rather than just on it. The practical distinction is depth: a film on tile wipes off; growth on drywall or wood is inside the material. CDC says the type doesn’t change the handling — visible growth gets removed.
Cool glass meets warm humid air and condensation runs down onto the sill every day the AC is on. In newer Northshore homes with tight windows, that water has nowhere to go but the paint and the wood. Wipe the sill dry; if the growth keeps returning or the drywall under the window is soft, the moisture has gotten past the surface.
In an attic: dark staining on the underside of the roof deck, especially around the air handler or above a bathroom, and insulation that looks matted or damp. Under a raised house: a musty smell coming up through the floor, soft spots near a bathroom, and dark joists. If a roofer, an AC tech, or a plumber said the wood didn’t look right, that’s the sign — call and describe what they found.
CDC lists stuffy nose, sore throat, coughing, wheezing, burning eyes, and skin rash, and Louisiana’s Department of Health adds headaches and sneezing. CDC also says exposure may cause a variety of effects — or none at all. People with asthma, allergies, or weakened immune systems tend to react more. We can’t tell you whether a symptom is the house; we can remove the mold so the question goes away.
Usually not. For a single contained room, the work area is sealed in plastic and kept under negative pressure so spores don’t move into the rest of the house, and you stay out of that room until it’s cleared. Whole-home work, or growth in the HVAC, sometimes means a few nights elsewhere. Tell us who lives in the house when you call and we’ll say which it is.
It still matters. Dead mold is still an allergen, which is why the standard the industry works to is removal rather than killing. A product that kills the growth and leaves it on the wall leaves the thing people react to right where it was. That is also why drying alone doesn’t finish the job.
EPA says to dry water-damaged materials within 24 to 48 hours, and CDC says materials wet for more than 48 hours will generally support visible and extensive growth. LSU AgCenter says new colonies can form in as little as three days. A Northshore house with the AC running and the windows shut doesn’t dry a wall cavity in that window.
It can, three ways: spores carried on the air, especially through the duct system; water that travels inside a wall or along a slab from the room where the leak is to the room next to it; and moldy material carried through the house during a cleanup that wasn’t contained. That last one is avoidable, and it’s why we seal the work area before touching anything.
If the water got into the wall, the mold is already there — it starts on the back of the drywall and the paper facing before anything shows on the painted side. What you see on the surface is the late stage. A stain that keeps spreading, a wall that feels cool or soft, or a baseboard that has pulled away are the outside signs. Open up a wall and find mold? Call.
Three of the twelve most humid cities in the country are in Louisiana, and early-morning humidity across the south of the state averages near 88 percent. Air conditioning runs most of the year, which makes condensation inside walls and ducts. Add hurricane season and a high water table. On the Northshore the housing is newer than New Orleans or Baton Rouge, but the air is the same.
For anything over $7,500, yes — Louisiana requires a state mold remediation license from the State Licensing Board for Contractors, issued after twenty-four hours of approved training. A general contractor without that license is limited to twenty square feet of mold work. A handyman quoting a whole bathroom is outside the law.
Not the same company. Louisiana law requires the company that assesses a property for mold and the company that remediates it to be different companies. We are on the removal side only. If you have already paid for an assessor’s report, keep it handy when you call — it tells us the scope before we arrive.
Earthy and damp — a wet cardboard box, a tent that got put away wet. Health departments list a musty odor alongside staining and past water damage as the recognized signs of hidden growth. In a newer house the smell often lives in one closet or one bedroom and gets stronger when the AC has been off. Call and tell us where the smell is strongest.
Get the water out and the wet materials out fast, because the 48-hour clock started when the water came in. Louisiana’s Department of Health said after Ida to clean up mold only after every pathway for moisture into the house has been closed. Photograph everything before it leaves. Don’t run the AC if the ducts got wet. If more than about ten square feet is involved, call — that is where LDH says to hire a professional.
Look the company up at lacontractor.org or call the State Licensing Board for Contractors at 1-800-256-1392. Ask for the license number, a certificate of insurance, and a written scope before work starts. That applies to us as much as anyone.
EPA’s line is about ten square feet, a three-by-three area, on a hard surface. Louisiana’s Department of Health uses the same number and adds two more triggers: growth in the HVAC, or water that involved sewage. Past any of those, or any growth on drywall, insulation, or carpet, the cleanup becomes a removal.
Up to twenty square feet, a general residential contractor may — and a punch-list crew is bound by the same limit. Past that, Louisiana requires the state mold remediation license, and advertising mold remediation without it is illegal. The other problem is method: a handyman scrubbing a wall without containment spreads spores through the house. Ask anyone who quotes the job for their license number.
The wall looks fine for a few weeks. If the material is porous — drywall, wood trim, the paper on insulation — the growth is inside it, and surface cleaning wets the material without reaching it. The moisture that fed it is still there too. The stain comes back in the same spot, often bigger, because you added water.
Repeated mold points back to a moisture problem that never got solved. The leak is still leaking, the vent is still sweating, the closet wall still backs up to a sweating pipe. Cleaning treats the symptom. The fix is to stop the water, remove the material that has growth inside it, and clean what stays. Call and describe what you’re seeing — tell us how many times it has come back.
No. CDC’s guidance is that the type doesn’t need identifying — every mold gets handled the same way and removed. Green, black, gray, white, pink, orange — the color doesn’t change the basic problem. The dark species people call black mold needs constant moisture, so it usually means a leak that ran a while. Black mold removal covers that case.
It depends, and a phone call can’t settle it: how far the growth has spread, whether it reached inside walls, insulation, or the HVAC, how many rooms are involved, and whether the property is a home or a business. Prices vary widely for those reasons. The real number comes from a visit, or from an assessor’s report if you already have one. What we can say is that a small area now costs less than the same area after another season.
We document. Every job gets photographed, the removed material gets logged, and the report itemizes what came out and why, which is what an adjuster needs. We don’t promise what a policy will pay — homeowners policies may cover mold when the cause was sudden, and they generally exclude slow leaks, humidity, and flood. Tell us a claim is open when you call.
It can, even after it’s gone. One appraisal study found that a large share of buyers won’t bid on a house with a mold history at all, and buyers can pull insurance-claim histories that show water damage. The counter is a removed, documented problem: a report that says what came out, from where, and that the moisture was addressed. That is a very different conversation than a stain the buyer’s agent found.
Yes. The Louisiana Real Estate Commission’s property disclosure form asks about mold, mildew, water intrusion, and flooding by name. Concealing a known problem exposes a seller to rescission and damages claims after closing. A problem that was removed and documented is a checkbox and an attachment. If you’re listing this year, say so when you call — ready to get it removed? Call.
Yes. Tell us what you’re seeing or smelling and where, and we’ll tell you whether it sounds like a removal job, a cleanup you can handle yourself, or something to watch. No forms, no packages, no upsell. Start with a conversation.
Five steps. Seal the work area in plastic and put it under negative pressure. Remove the porous material that has growth in it — drywall, insulation, carpet pad, ceiling tile — and bag it inside the containment. Clean the framing and hard surfaces that stay, then HEPA-vacuum and wipe everything down. Let the wood dry until it reads below twenty percent moisture, the level LSU AgCenter gives before closing a wall. Write the report.
Containment is the plastic wall and the negative-pressure machine that turn the work area into its own room with its own air. Disturbing moldy material throws spores into the air; without containment they ride the AC into every other room. EPA’s remediation guidance calls for containment on anything beyond a small patch. It is the difference between a mold room and a mold house.
If the growth is on it, that section comes out. Drywall is paper-faced gypsum, and mold grows into the paper, so cleaning the painted side doesn’t reach it. The cut usually runs past the visible stain, because water wicks inside the wall further than it shows. Framing behind the drywall stays and gets cleaned. We show you the boundary before we cut.
Carpet and pad that got wet and moldy generally come out; they can’t be cleaned the way a hard surface can. Upholstered furniture that sat in water is usually the same story. Solid wood, metal, glass, and sealed surfaces can be cleaned. Books and paper that got wet are a judgment call. Tell us what was in the room and we’ll go through it with you.
Both, depending on the duct. Metal trunk line and the cabinet around the air handler can be cleaned in place. Insulated flex duct that has gotten wet or moldy can’t be effectively cleaned — EPA says it gets replaced, and Louisiana’s Department of Health repeated that after Ida. Most Northshore homes built since 2000 run flex duct through a hot attic. HVAC and duct mold remediation has the details.
We answer at any hour. Tell us where you see or smell it, what got wet, and roughly when. Leave a callback number and your ZIP code. If we’re available you’ll be connected right away; if we’re on a job you’ll get a scheduled callback, and we’ll tell you which number to watch for so you know it’s us. Call and describe what you’re seeing.