Six Steps We Take Inside A Lafayette House, And Why Each Matters To You
| What we do |
Why it matters to you |
| Plastic containment around the work area, held under negative pressure |
The dust and spores we stir up stay in the room we’re working in, not in the kids’ bedroom down the hall |
| Wet drywall, insulation, carpet pad, and trim come out; studs, slab, and masonry get cleaned where they stand |
Material that can’t be saved leaves; the structure that can be saved stays |
| Everything we remove is bagged inside the containment before it moves |
Moldy debris doesn’t get carried through the kitchen on the way to the trailer |
| Framing and hard surfaces are HEPA-vacuumed and wiped down, then left open until they read dry |
Nobody hangs new drywall over damp wood |
| We find where the water got in and tell you what has to change before the wall closes |
Removal without stopping the moisture is a job we’d be back to redo, and neither of us wants that |
| You get a written report of what came out, from where, and why |
Louisiana law requires it, and it’s the paper a buyer or an adjuster will ask to see |
Why We Ask About The Leak Before We Ask About The Mold
Mold is a moisture problem with a fungal symptom. EPA’s guidance is to dry wet materials within 24 to 48 hours, and CDC says anything that stays wet longer than 48 hours will generally support visible and extensive growth. In Acadiana that window closes fast. A wall cavity that took water on Saturday afternoon, sealed behind paint and vapor barrier with the air conditioning running, is still wet on Wednesday.
That is why the removal always starts with the same question: what got wet, and is it still getting wet? If the answer is a roof leak, a supply line, a shower pan, or a drain line off the air handler, the water has to be stopped for the removal to hold. We tell you what has to change. Then we take out what can’t be saved, clean what can, and let it dry before anything closes back up.
What 2016 Left Inside Lafayette And Youngsville Walls
Acadiana knows rain. What it doesn’t always know is what stayed wet. In August 2016 the rain came down for days, the Vermilion River and the coulees that feed it came up out of their banks, and water went into homes across Lafayette and Youngsville that had never flooded before — a lot of them slab houses in subdivisions that were less than ten years old. People pulled the carpet, ran fans, cut the drywall at two feet or didn’t, and got back in as fast as they could. Ten years later, some of those houses still have a room that smells wrong every time it rains.
The housing here has a shape. Raised cottages from the 1920s and 30s in Freetown-Port Rico, the Saint Streets, and Sterling Grove sit over crawl spaces that never see sun. Slab ranches from the 1950s through the 70s off Johnston Street and in Broadmoor carry original bathroom plumbing inside the walls. The newer subdivisions rolling south toward Youngsville, Broussard, and Milton are built tight, with the air handler in the attic and the lowest ground in the parish under them. Newer home, same moisture rules.
Roof. Crawl space. Attic. Walls. Water finds a path, and it doesn’t always leave a stain where you can see it. EPA lists where it hides: the back side of drywall and wallpaper, under carpet and pad, around pipes inside walls, above ceiling tile, inside ductwork. A musty smell in one room, or a wall that feels cool and soft, is often the first thing a homeowner notices. Tell us where you see it — or where you smell it.
When The Stain Is On Drywall, The Sheet Comes Out
Drywall is paper glued to gypsum, and paper is what mold eats. Once growth is on a sheet — a spreading gray-green stain low on a wall, a soft spot behind a baseboard, a ceiling under a bathroom that keeps discoloring — scrubbing the face of it doesn’t reach the back, and EPA says not to paint or caulk over it. That sheet, and usually the insulation behind it, comes out. Mold removal walks through what that looks like in a single room. When it runs through several rooms after a flood or a long leak, it becomes whole-home mold remediation. If the smell is strongest when the air conditioning starts, look at HVAC and duct mold remediation instead — the growth may be in the system rather than the wall.
“It’s only a little.” For now. Water started it, and time can spread it. Call before the affected area gets larger.
Back From A Hitch Offshore?
A lot of Acadiana houses sit closed for two weeks at a time, with the thermostat pushed up to save on the bill. That is the normal rhythm here, and most of the time it’s fine. But a slow leak under a sink or a condensate line that backed up has fourteen days of warm, still air to work with before anyone opens the door. If you came home and the house smelled different, or a spot on a ceiling wasn’t there when you left, call and tell us what you saw. Two weeks is enough time for a small problem to become a visible one.
Selling In Acadiana?
The Louisiana Real Estate Commission’s property disclosure form asks sellers, in plain words, about mold, mildew, water intrusion, and flooding. After 2016, buyers in Lafayette Parish read that section closely. Old water damage that was dried and forgotten can matter again the week the house goes on the market. A problem that was removed, with a report in the folder, is one line on the form. A problem a buyer finds later is a very different conversation. If you’re listing soon, say so when you call.
Call Us Now — We Cover Lafayette And All Of Acadiana
The phone is answered around the clock. Say where you see it or smell it, what got wet, and when the water problem started. If we’re available you’re connected while you’re on the line; if we’re working, you get a callback slot and the number to watch for.
We take calls from Lafayette, Broussard, Youngsville, Carencro, Scott, Duson, and Milton, and from the ring of towns twenty miles out — Breaux Bridge, St. Martinville, New Iberia, Abbeville, Maurice, Crowley, Rayne, Church Point, Sunset, Grand Coteau, and Opelousas. The areas page names every town.
Wondering if what you found is worth a call? It is.
