Here are the questions we hear most from homeowners in Lafayette, Youngsville, Broussard, and the towns around them. Each answer gets to the point first. If your situation doesn’t fit any of these, call and describe it — that takes a few minutes and costs nothing.
Mildew is a common name for mold that stays flat and powdery on a surface — the gray film on a shower curtain or a window sill. Mold is the broader family, and it includes growth that gets into porous material instead of sitting on top. CDC treats all of it the same way: if you can see it, remove it and fix the moisture. The name matters less than what it’s growing on and how far it goes.
A dusty gray ring around a supply vent is usually condensation on the metal, which sweats whenever the vent gets colder than the room’s dew point — most Acadiana days from April through October. Wipe it and watch it. If it comes back dark and fuzzy, or the air smells musty when the system starts, the growth may be inside the duct or at the coil. EPA says a contaminated system can spread mold through the house. Call and tell us what the vent looks like.
Because the sill is where indoor moisture condenses first. Cold glass in a house running 72 degrees on a humid Lafayette morning collects water, and painted wood or drywall returns under the window stay damp long enough to grow. A leaking window frame or a north wall that takes rain does the same from the outside. Small spots on a hard sill can be cleaned; a soft sill or a stained wall below it is a removal job.
In an attic: dark or gray streaking on the underside of the roof decking, especially along the eaves and around vent pipes, and insulation that looks matted or stained under the air handler. In a crawl space: a musty smell that comes up through the floor, joists that look gray-black instead of tan, and insulation hanging loose and damp. LSU AgCenter says wood needs to be below 20 percent moisture before it should be closed up, and neither space gets there on its own.
CDC lists stuffy nose, sore throat, coughing, wheezing, burning eyes, and skin rash. The Louisiana Department of Health adds headaches and sneezing. People with asthma or mold allergies may react more strongly, and people with weakened immune systems face a higher risk of infection. CDC also says exposure may cause a variety of effects — or none at all. We can’t tell you what’s causing a symptom. We can remove the mold.
Mold is an allergen, and EPA says it can irritate the eyes, skin, nose, throat, and lungs of both allergic and non-allergic people. Reactions can be immediate or delayed. The 2004 Institute of Medicine review found sufficient evidence linking indoor mold and dampness to upper-respiratory symptoms, cough, and wheeze in otherwise healthy people. If someone in the house seems to feel better away from home, that’s worth mentioning when you call.
Often, yes. The work area is sealed in plastic and kept under negative pressure, so the rest of the house stays usable. For a single bathroom or bedroom, most families stay put. When the growth runs through several rooms or the duct system, or someone in the home is already reacting, staying elsewhere for a few days is sometimes the practical choice. We’ll talk that through before the job starts.
If someone is sick, the doctor comes first. Tell the doctor about the water damage or the smell in the house — it helps them. The mold company comes next, and it doesn’t need a diagnosis to act: CDC says visible mold should be removed regardless of who is reacting to it. Call and tell us what you see and who lives in the house.
It can, and it can also do nothing — CDC uses exactly that range. Damp and moldy homes are linked to stuffy nose, sore throat, cough, wheeze, and eye or skin irritation. A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory analysis attributed roughly one in five current U.S. asthma cases to home dampness and mold. That’s a population number, not a verdict on your house. The fix is the same either way: get the growth out.
Not long. EPA says to dry water-damaged materials within 24 to 48 hours, and CDC says anything wet longer than 48 hours will generally support visible and extensive growth. LSU AgCenter says new colonies can form in as little as three days. In a Lafayette wall cavity with the air conditioning running, the inside of the wall doesn’t get 48 dry hours. A weekend leak is already past the window.
Yes, and the house helps it. Spores ride on air moving through the return, through open doors, and on shoes and vacuum cleaners. EPA warns against running a contaminated air conditioning system and against fans on moldy material for that reason. It’s also why we wall off the work area in plastic before we touch anything. Growth in one room stays a one-room job when it’s handled early.
If the water got into the wall, the mold is already there — the wall cavity is where wet materials stay wet longest. Drywall, the paper on insulation, and the bottom plate can all support growth within a couple of days of getting wet, per EPA. What you see on the room side is usually the last place it shows up. Tell us when the water problem started and we’ll tell you what that likely means.
Most of our Lafayette jobs have nothing to do with 2016. A slow supply line under a kitchen sink, a shower pan in a 1970s slab ranch, a roof leak around a vent boot, a bath fan blowing into the attic, an air handler drain line that backed up over the summer — any of them will do it. One leak is enough. Mold cares about moisture, not flood maps.
For any job over $7,500, yes — Louisiana requires a state mold remediation license issued by the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors after board-approved training. Below that figure a general contractor is capped at twenty square feet of mold work. Given how far a wall job can run, most real removal work lands on the licensed side. Ask anyone you hire for the license number before work starts.
No. Under Louisiana law, the company that assesses a property for mold is barred from being the one that remediates it. That rule protects you from a firm that finds the problem it wants to be paid to fix. We are on the remediation side only — we don’t test, sample, or assess. If an assessor has already written a report on your house, have it handy when you call; it helps us scope the work.
Once it’s safe, get the wet material out fast: carpet, pad, and soaked drywall. Open the house up. Don’t run the air conditioning if you think the ducts got wet — EPA says a contaminated system spreads mold. Louisiana’s health department says cleanup only holds after every path for moisture is closed. Photograph everything for your claim. Then call and tell us what got wet and how high the water came.
Look the company up at lacontractor.org, or call the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors at 1-800-256-1392. Ask for the license number, a certificate of insurance, and a written scope before anyone starts work. The board also says advertising mold remediation without the license is illegal, so a company that can’t produce a number is telling you something.
An assessment is a licensed assessor’s written evaluation of a property — where the growth is, what caused it, and what should be done. Louisiana requires the assessor and the remediator to be different companies. We don’t do assessments. You don’t need one to call us about visible mold: CDC does not recommend testing, and the Louisiana Department of Health says if you can see it, sampling is unnecessary.
You can, and if you do, Louisiana law requires it to come from a company other than the one that did the removal. We don’t test, so we can’t sell you that. What you will get from us is a written report of what came out and why, which is what the state requires and what a buyer or adjuster will ask for. Many homeowners find the report is enough.
Not for what has to happen next. CDC says there’s no need to identify the type, since every mold gets handled the same way — removed. The most common indoor molds — Cladosporium, Penicillium, Aspergillus — grow on the same wet drywall and wood as the one people call black mold. The color doesn’t change the basic problem.
EPA’s line is about ten square feet — a three-by-three patch on a hard surface. Beyond that, or anywhere on drywall, insulation, carpet, or inside a cabinet, EPA says hire a professional. Louisiana’s health department adds two more triggers: mold in the air conditioning system, and any job involving sewage or contaminated water. Not sure whether it’s enough to worry about? Call.
Only a little. Louisiana lets a general contractor do at most twenty square feet of mold work without the state mold remediation license, and any job over $7,500 requires the license outright. A handyman scrubbing a wall isn’t following containment, isn’t removing the wet material behind it, and isn’t giving you the written report the law requires. Ask for the license number first.
The surface looks better for a while. The growth inside the drywall or under the paint keeps going, because cleaning didn’t reach it and the moisture that fed it is still there. Scrubbing without containment also puts spores into the air. EPA doesn’t recommend bleach as a routine practice and says not to paint or caulk over mold. Covering it doesn’t remove it.
It depends, and a phone call can’t settle it: how far the growth has spread, whether it reached inside walls, insulation, or the duct system, how many rooms are involved, and whether it’s a home or a commercial building. Prices vary widely for that reason. The real number comes from a visit, or from an assessor’s report if one has already been written. What we can say is that the affected area doesn’t get smaller by waiting.
Sometimes. Homeowners policies generally cover mold that follows a sudden, covered event — a storm tearing shingles off — and exclude mold from a roof that leaked slowly for a year. Most policies also cap mold payouts, often between $1,000 and $10,000. What your policy pays is between you and your insurer. What we do is document the job so your adjuster has something to work with.
We document. Photographs before, during, and after; a log of what came out and from where; and the written report Louisiana law requires. That’s what an adjuster needs. We don’t promise coverage, and we don’t negotiate with your insurer for you. If you’re inside a claim window now — the National Flood Insurance Program excludes mold the owner could have avoided, so speed matters — say so when you call.
It can, and the history can matter as much as the growth. One appraisal study found that 42 percent of buyers wouldn’t bid on a home with a mold history even after remediation, and estimated a value discount of 20 to 37 percent where problems were known. Louisiana’s disclosure form asks about mold and water intrusion by name. Removed and documented is a much stronger position than discovered later.
Yes. The call costs nothing and doesn’t commit you to anything. Tell us where you see it or smell it, what got wet, and when. If it sounds like a job, we’ll say so and set up a visit. If it sounds like something you can handle yourself, we’ll tell you that too. Call and tell us what you found.
Containment first: the work area gets sealed in plastic and held under negative pressure. Then removal: wet drywall, insulation, carpet pad, and trim come out, bagged before they leave the room. Framing and masonry are cleaned in place and HEPA-vacuumed. Nothing closes back up until the wood reads dry. Along the way we find where the water came from and tell you what has to change. You get a written report at the end.
Containment is the plastic wall and negative-pressure setup around the work area. Cutting out moldy drywall throws spores into the air; containment keeps them in the room we’re working in and pulls that air out through a filter instead of letting it drift into the rest of the house. EPA’s remediation guidance calls for it on anything beyond a small patch. It’s the difference between fixing one room and contaminating four.
If the drywall got wet and grew mold, usually yes. Drywall is paper over gypsum, and paper is what mold eats — scrubbing the face doesn’t reach the back or the insulation behind it. EPA and CDC both say porous materials that have been wet and moldy generally need to be discarded. We cut to the extent of the moisture, not the whole wall, and the studs behind it usually stay and get cleaned.
Both, depending on the duct. Sheet-metal duct and the plenum can be cleaned. Insulated flex duct that got wet or grew mold can’t be — EPA says it should be replaced, and the Louisiana Department of Health repeated that after Hurricane Ida. The coil and drain pan get cleaned. Whatever wet it in the first place has to be stopped or the system will grow it again. HVAC and duct mold remediation covers the details.
The phone is answered around the clock. Say what you see or smell, where it is, and what got wet. Give us 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 when the phone rings. Call and tell us what you found.