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How to Clean or Remove Toxic Mold in Buildings - A Homeowner's or Apartment Owner's Guide
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• Here is a step by step guide on what to do about mold in a building
• How to clean or remove mold properly
• Mold clearance inspections after cleanup

This document describes how toxic or allergenic mold is removed from buildings - mold cleanup, or mold remediation. This is a chapter of the Mold Action Guide, a document which provides an easy to understand step-by-step guide for dealing with toxic or allergenic indoor mold and other indoor contaminants: what to do about mold. The steps in this document will be sufficient for many building owners who want to do their own mold investigation, mold testing, mold cleanup, and mold prevention in their home or office.

© Copyright 2008 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

HOW TO CLEAN MOLD: How to Clean or Remove Mold, Moldy Debris, Other Indoor Environmental Contaminants - a Homeowner's Guide

Please see ACTION GUIDE - WHAT TO DO ABOUT INDOOR MOLD for a detailed procedure on mold cleanup in buildings. What follows below is a succinct guide to mold cleanup for homeowners or tenants. Renters may also want to see RENTERS & TENANTS GUIDE TO MOLD .

Protect the occupants and yourself from mold, demolition dust, debris, cleaning chemicals, etc. Where a large area of cleanup is involved (more than 30 sq.ft.) a professional is usually called to establish negative air in the work area and to install containment barriers of plastic or other material to protect cleaner areas of the building from cross-contamination during the cleanup. If you used a building environmental specialist to inspect and define the scope of work, you should have baseline mold test samples of both the work area and other building areas which will permit you to state definitively, at the end of the cleanup, whether or not the cleanup has caused cross-contamination of other building areas.

The spotless cleaning produced for the second photo above was obtained by using a professional who used media blasting to clean these surfaces. Such measures may be needed for large or complex surfaces, but quite often the necessary steps are less technical and less onerous, as we describe next.

Clean or remove mold and moldy debris: The most succinct Mold Remediation or Mold Cleanup Guidelines one could state would be this: the objective is not to sterilize your environment or "kill" mold, steps which are ineffective anyway - the operative words are "clean" or "remove" problem mold and then to correct its cause.

If the total square feet of moldy material is less than 30 sq.ft. it is reasonable to handle the mold cleanup as an ordinary building cleaning or renovation procedure - hiring experts to establish negative air, dust containment, etc. is not required, but you should still take steps to minimize cross contamination in the building and to protect yourself and other occupants from moldy dust and debris.

If the total contigouous square feet of moldy material is large (more than 30 sq.ft.) then you should consult a professional to inspect the building, find all of the problem mold areas, and to prepare a mold cleanup or mold remediation plan which will guide the mold remediation company (who should be a totally independent contractor in order to avoid conflicts of interest). The mold consultant should also advise on the steps needed to prevent future mold growth - fix the causes of mold contamination. If the mold cleanup is a costly project you should have the indepenent mold consultant perform a thorough visual and physical inspection of the building after the mold cleanup to assure that it was effective.

Remove or dispose of certain moldy items: Moldy drywall, paneling, trim, carpets, boxes, junk, are removed and disposed-of as construction debris or trash. Be sure to remove insulation that has been wet or smells moldy or has been exposed to high levels of airborne mold.

Usually moldy drywall and other debris can be disposed-of as ordinary construction debris or trash.

Scrubbing moldy surfaces - no sprays, no ozone, no sterilization: We're talking about scrubbing here. It's the physical removal of moldy or allergenic debris that's important, not the surface sterilization. The second we permit someone to "spray for mold" we can count on them to fail to do an adequate cleanup.

What to use to clean off mold from all of the exposed hard, cleanable surfaces: to clean off a moldy surface, you could use simple clean water, soapy water, spray cleaners, or if you prefer, a commercial biocide (follow their directions) or a dilute bleach cleaning solution.

How to Use Bleach to Clean Up a Moldy Surface

Bleaching or "killing" mold is not the objective. Bleach will not kill all of the mold anyway - we can tease viable spores out of lots of "bleached mold" samples we see in the lab.

The object of mold removal is to clean the surface, to remove loose moldy material, not to try to sterilize the surface. Certain mold-contaminated materials that cannot be cleaned (drywall, carpeting, curtains) should be discarded. Clothing and bedding linens or towels can be washed or dry-cleaned.

Keep that in mind. If you want to use bleach as a cleaning agent instead of other cleaners (that would work just fine) here are some mold cleanup suggestions for homeowners from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation CMHC.

• Dilute bleach with one part household bleach to four parts of clean water (do not add other cleaners to this solution as you may accidentally cause the release dangerous chlorine gas)
• Ventilate the work area
• Wear rubber gloves and eye protection
• After physically cleaning and removing all loose mold, dirt, debris, from the surface being cleaned, let the solution stand on the surface for 10-15 minutes.
• Rinse the cleaned surface thoroughly
• Be sure that the cleaned surfaces are totally dry before restoring any building insulation, drywall, etc.
• Discard moldy fabrics or other similar materials that cannot be surface-cleaned.

Here are the Details on How to Clean Up or Remove Toxic or Allergenic Mold in Buildings

Mold Cleaning Procedures & Mold Remediation Standards Guidelines

• How to Clean Moldy Wood Framing & Sheathing How to clean/seal mold from/on exposed lumber or plywood subfloor or roof sheathing indoors - some suggestions based on our field and laboratory research
• Mold Cleaning, Remediation, & Clearance Testing Standards
• Building Floods - Steps to Clean and Prevent Mold Home Page - Advice on Cleaning Mold and Preventing Future Mold after a building flood
list of links to documents including other States: California Mold Cleanup Standards, Texas Mold Cleanup Standards, Pennsylvania Mold Cleanup Standards, EPA, CDC, and other U.S. state, federal, and world mold standards
• How to Find and Test For Mold in Buildings A 'how to' photo and text primer on finding and choosing the right spots to test for mold in buildings
• Media Blasting: Mold Removal by Media Blasting - A test report (complete article, with illustrations) on the effectiveness of baking soda media blasting for cleaning fungal contamination in buildings, Daniel Friedman, Dennis Melandro, originally published in Indoor Environment Connections, Rockville MD, June 2003
• Mold spores in the Home - a Photo ID Library for detection and identification of mold allergens.
• Stuff that is not mold but is often mistaken for it - things you may not want to test. Also, not all "black mold" is toxic - here are examples of harmless black mold.
• MN University of Minnesota - Fungal Abatement Safe Operating Procedure
• NY New York City Mold Remediation Guidelines - Assessment and Remediation of Fungi in Indoor Environments

Technical Reviewers & References

Particular thanks are due to experts and also consumers who read these articles and suggest corrections, changes, and additions to the material. Content suggestions, technical corrections and content critique are invited for any of the content at our website.

• Daniel Friedman - principal author/editor of the InspectAPedia ^TM Website
• Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, CMHC, "Moisture and Air, problems and remedies, Householders Guide," NHA 5968, 1989, reprinted to 1995 cmhc-schl.gc.ca 800-668-2642. Cette publication est aussi disponible en francasi sus le tire: L'air et l'humidite - LNH 5969.
• Critique, contributions wanted: Contact Us to suggest text changes and additions and, if you wish, to receive online listing and credit for that contribution.

Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

More expert information on this topic

More Information on Building Diagnostic Inspections and Repairs

THE MOLD ACTION GUIDE
MOLD DOCTOR?
MOLD EXPERT, WHEN TO HIRE
DO IT YOURSELF MOLD CLEANUP
HOW TO FIND MOLD
MOLD CLEANUP GUIDE
MOLD KILLING GUIDE
MOLD CLEARANCE INSPECTIONS
ACCEPTABLE MOLD LEVEL
AFTER THE MOLD CLEANUP
MOLD PREVENTION GUIDE
OTHER IAQ ISSUES
More Information

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