“Is it black mold?” is the first thing most people ask when they find a dark patch, and the honest answer is that the color doesn’t change what happens next. CDC’s position is that identifying the type isn’t necessary — all molds should be handled the same way and removed. The color doesn’t change the basic problem. We remove dark growth — and every other color — in Covington, Mandeville, and the Northshore.
The species people mean when they say black mold, Stachybotrys, is greenish-black and grows on material with a lot of cellulose — drywall, ceiling tile, paper, fiberboard — that has stayed wet for a long time. It needs constant moisture. So a dark patch is often a sign of a leak that ran for months rather than days: a shower pan, a slow supply line, a roof leak that only shows during afternoon storms. Several of the most common indoor molds are dark as well. None of that changes the removal.
The same as any other mold job. The work area is sealed and held under negative pressure. Drywall or ceiling with growth on it comes out, bagged inside the containment. Framing stays and gets cleaned, HEPA-vacuumed, and wiped. Nothing gets rebuilt until the wood reads dry. And because a dark patch usually means a long leak, we spend real time on where the water came from and tell you what has to change so it doesn’t restart.
Dark growth on the Northshore most often turns up on a bathroom ceiling under an attic air handler whose drain line backed up, along the bottom of a wall in an Old Mandeville cottage that took surge in 2005, or on the back of drywall in a newer house where a window or a door never got flashed right. If a stain has been getting darker rather than lighter, that’s a call.
Standing byDescribe the room, the smell, or the stain, and tell us whether anything got wet. 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.
Growth through several rooms after surge, a roof that leaked all summer, or a house that sat closed up wet. One sequenced plan, room by room, with one report at the end.
Staining on the roof deck above the air handler, a bath fan that ends in the attic, or a leak around a vent boot. Cleaned in place with the attic sealed off from the house below.
The ceiling over the shower, the wall behind the tub, the floor around the toilet. Small rooms that stay wet, and the removal that holds once the water is handled.