I'm Josh Jacobs, and most of the mold calls I get in town start the same way: "the basement smells musty, but I don't see anything." In Gettysburg that's not surprising. Almost half the homes in the borough were built before 1940, and a lot of them sit on fieldstone or rubble foundations with no vapor barrier at all.
Seven things to check before you call anyone
- 1.
Smell the corners. A musty odor that's strongest in one corner usually points to where the water is getting in.
- 2.
Look for white crust on the stone. That's efflorescence, mineral salt left behind when water moves through the wall. It isn't mold, but it tells you the wall is wet.
- 3.
Check the sill plate and the ends of the floor joists with a flashlight. Dark staining or soft wood there is the first place mold shows up.
- 4.
Put a cheap hygrometer down there for a week. If it reads above 60% humidity, mold has what it needs.
- 5.
Look behind anything stored against the walls: cardboard boxes, carpet remnants, old furniture.
- 6.
Walk the outside. Downspouts that dump right next to the foundation and soil that slopes toward the house feed a wet basement.
- 7.
If the basement is finished, check the bottom few inches of drywall and the carpet tack strip.
When it's a DIY job and when it isn't
The EPA's rule of thumb is 10 square feet. A small patch on a hard surface, with the moisture fixed, you can usually clean yourself. Mold inside a finished wall, across a whole section of foundation, or after a flood is a different job. Opening walls in an old house without containment spreads spores into the rest of the house.
If you're in that second group, here's how we handle mold remediation in Gettysburg, PA, from finding the water to clearance testing at the end. If you just want to know what a job like this usually costs before you call anyone, the price ranges are in our Gettysburg mold remediation cost guide.
Josh "Mold Man" Jacobs, Mold Remediation in Gettysburg, (717) 420-1964