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Realtors, Real Estate Agents,
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       Q. I am a Real Estate Agent in Michigan, and a home that I showed was found to have toxic mold in the basement mostly, and some upstairs. My client would like to buy the house "As Is" and do all the mold remediation with his own contractors. There are a difference of opinions in what all the Mold removal companies say needs to be done. Question: #1 With mold remediation/removal, is it necessary to replace the furnace and all the duct work? Or, is there a way to just clean the duct work and is this always done in homes with toxic mold. Question #2 If there are several sources of the water problem (bad roof with no venting, poor grading around foundation, poor foundation, etc), do mold removal/remediation contractors usually attack the source of the problem too? So would this possibly need a new roof w/ venting, grading etc to make sure the mold does not come back? Or is it safe for Mold removal contractors to just remove the mold and not really correct the source?  [May 14, 2003]
       A. Only about 70% of the surface areas inside hvac equipment can be reached by mold cleaning and decontamination, leaving a serious pocket of possible mold infestation to re-contaminate a home. As to the duct work, if it is sheet metal with no insulation INSIDE the ducts, it is possible to clean and disinfect such duct work. Because the hvac equipment and ducts easily get contaminated if there is a serious mold problem in a building, and because hvac mold contamination can re-infect a house with a big mold problem, mold remediation needs to simultaneously take care of the building's overall mold problem AND the hvac equipment and ducts mold problem. The standard of care for effective mold remediation is to replace with new all hvac equipment and ducts. As to your second problem, mold remediation companies are not trained and licensed to fix water intrusion problems such as roof leaks and water leaks. The appropriate licensed and trained contractors need to fix such water intrusion problems BEFORE the mold problems are taken care of. Otherwise, the mold remediation efforts are wasted due to fresh water entry into building materials.