The Top 4 Reasons Mold Treatments Fail

The Pure Maintenance VaPURE treatment is a terrific way of ridding a home of mold, spores, and associated mycotoxins. It is amazing to know that in just a few hours a home can return from potentially toxic to healthy. Although it is amazing, it is not magic. Treatments do fail. Along with this, treatments can be successful, but the after tests fail. This is an important distinction that should be made. The following are the top three reasons a treatment or an after test can fail, and what can be done to reduce them.

1. Something in the house is still wet! This is likely the number one reason and also accounts for 75 percent of all retreats. It is critically important to be able to identify potential water issues and ensure that said water issues have been corrected, and that adequate time and measures have taken place to ensure that the area is dry. A great example of this is a foundation in a basement being saturated. As we all know, wet wants to wick to dry. If the foundation is saturated, so is the wood against the foundation walls. As this wood is saturated, so is the paper on the sheetrock that is next to the wood. If the inside of the sheetrock paper is saturated, the visible side of the sheetrock will be wet. This is typically where we see the mold accumulation. Not because the water from the outside brought the mold in, but rather; the indoor mold load was elevated enough for mold to find the moisture. Ensuring that the visible area of the sheetrock is dry is only half of the issue. What often happens is the homeowner will put a fan on the area, and the visible side of the sheetrock will indeed dry out. However, this does not mean that the foundation or the two by fours are dry. Along with this scenario, the underside of the carpet padding could still be wet. Literally any moisture or saturated materials in the home can skew the test results. All of this needs to be investigated to avoid a retreat. It is often the

better business decision to wait another week to ensure that everything is dry. I would much rather do that, than risk a poor test result and inconvenience the customer, and hinder productivity of my business by doing repeat jobs. .

2. HVAC is harboring moisture! This is extremely common in high humidity locations throughout the country. One of the first steps of the very detailed step by step procedures is to turn the “fan only” on in order to allow the coils to dry. This may or may not be enough. It is important during the bid process that the technician asks the right questions. One great question is, “Do you feel like the mold problem is worse when the HVAC system is on?”. Adjustments to the step by step can be made based on this information. It would not be inappropriate to increase the 10 minutes per thousand square feet (which is the baseline recommendation on the step by step) to 15 or 20 minutes per square feet. Or, another option would be 10 minutes per square feet before the home is fogged, and 10 minutes per square feet after the home has been fogged.

3. The drains or drainage system in the home is not functioning

like it should. This can be caused by one or more dried out P-traps, open drain lines, or even missing toilets and sinks in which the drain have not been covered or

sealed. The drainage system in each home is designed, through the use of p-traps, for the water in said p-traps to seal the sewer from the home. If this is not the case, the InstaPURE process irritates what is essentially the municipal sewer system, and spores will fly. I have seen this many times. Ensure that all p-traps are filled, treat each sink during the treatment, and ensure all drains are sealed.

4. Not adjusting the settings of the EverPURE process. If the EverPURE process is completed at 90 to 100 psi, the air pressure will stir up all dead spores,

sending them airborne, resulting in compromising the after tests. Make sure to lower your air pressure regulators to around 60 to 70 psi, in order for the Goldshield to land lightly on each surface.

Honorable Mention - Window sills, and window tracks not being cleaned out properly- Although peracetic acid vapor is one of the few antimicrobials that will fight through soil load, as mentioned earlier, it is not magic. Mold on top of dirt, on top of mold, on top of dirt is asking the vapor to do a lot of work. We can assist the process by cleaning out the window tracks and sills. This does two things. 1. Addresses the bottom layer of mold, and ensures that the fog gets to everything, and; 2. Gives the Trihydroxy Il Dimethyl Propyl Octadecyl (i.e. Goldshield5) a nice clean surface to establish the covalent bond. This will give long term protection in problem areas such as the window tracks.