Whole-Home Mold Remediation

A vacant property bought at auction with mold in nearly every room after a winter with the heat shut off.

About the project

A property bought at county auction, sight partly unseen. The previous occupant had left in the autumn and the heat had been shut off through a full Wisconsin winter with a bathroom pipe already leaking on the second floor.

By the time the new owner got the keys in spring, there was visible growth in every room on the first floor, across most of the second, and heavily in the basement.

The challenge

This was the largest residential job we handled that year. The question was not how to remediate it — that part was straightforward, just extensive — but whether remediation made financial sense against gutting the house to the studs.

We did a full assessment with the owner and a contractor present, room by room, and made an honest recommendation for each space: remediate here, demolish there.

The result

The answer was a mix. The second floor and the basement were taken back to framing — drywall, insulation, flooring and all millwork removed. The first floor was largely salvageable: plaster on lath had held up far better than modern drywall would have, and once cleaned and treated it tested clean.

Twenty-one days of work in total, with containment reconfigured four times as we moved through the house. Clearance testing was done in three zones separately.

The owner's total spend came in well under the gut-renovation estimate, and the house is now occupied.

More from this job