We have covered this before – and now I speak of the issues surrounding – to add depth to what you already have . .
I will add in what I wrote to do so later – here is the day’s story . .
What you may need to do to help dry out/mold proof your life
What to do?
Start all over elsewhere. .
This is why nomads often torched their tents – we are too susceptible to fungi/mycoplasms.
Environmental becomes internal.
Damp/mould – how to remove it. Also see this page (CLICK). How to get rid of mold naturally? (CLICK)
Maybe . . Mix one teaspoon of baking soda along with two cups of water and shake in a spray bottle. When thoroughly dissolved spray the solution onto the mold and scrub with a brush. Repeat if necessary. Once cleaned, wipe the area with a wet, clean cloth to remove the solution.
HOWEVER – what if the entire place is mold??
That is when nomads took to the road – and fired their tents. . .
Impossible.
SEMINAR TRANSCRIPT (CLICK)
(Preventing Mold After Floods and Extreme Weather with Nicole Bijlsma)
FLOOD CLAIM TIP: CONTAMINATION & MOULD
A flood event such as this one does more than merely fill properties with water. All too often, the entire sewage system in the area also overflows, contaminating the water that flowed through your homes in recent days. Dead animals and a wide range of other contaminants would have been collected by the passing waters, and all of this works together to cause serious health hazards to the homes and businesses affected. Bacteria and other nasties can soak through wall linings, skirting boards and floors.
Particularly in a situation in which flood-waters sit in a property for hours or days before receding, you can be confident that all of the “nooks and crannies” of your property will likely be contaminated.Any good restoration or remediation company will tell you that floodwaters in an event like this are considered “Category 3 Water”, or “Black Water”.Sewage Cleaning Australia notes that “Black water poses a very significant threat to human health as it can carry a wide variety of pathogens and allergens. The severity of the health threat depends on the degree and extent of penetration into the building environment.” In essence, everything that has been inundated with black water will likely need to be replaced, unless your insurer can provide you with a guarantee (and I would request full swab tests and laboratory test results from a qualified mycologist or microbiologist before accepting such a guarantee) that an item has been fully inspected and tested and is clear of any bacteria or contaminants. Areas that I have seen become “battle-grounds” with insurers include:
1. Floor tiles – many assessors or builders may try to argue that floor tiles are water-tight and don’t need to be removed. What they should tell you, though, is that the grout between the floor tiles is NOT necessarily water-tight, and contaminants can get underneath the tiles through the often-porous grout. An insurance company would have to test the flooring underneath each tile to be able to confirm no contamination, which clearly is not feasible without replacing the floor tiles. DO NOT allow yourself to be bullied on this point. Expect, and request, that floor tiles will be removed and replaced to allow full de-contamination of your property if they have been covered with contaminated floodwaters for any length of time. In all likelihood, the flooring itself may also require replacement if any water has seeped into the floor (which may be some type of composite-board such as “yellow-tongue”).
2. Some assessors or builders may try to tell you that they only need to strip out wall linings 20cm or 30cm above the water line. This is NOT correct, and all product documentation for the various gyprock or plasterboard type linings that I have seen note that whole sheets need to be replaced, and not merely cut & patched. There is usually a join at 1.2m or 1.35m above the floor height (if the wall sheets are fixed horizontally), and the wall can be stripped out to the join at that height, but NOT any lower. Again, do not be bullied into accepting a reduced scope of works simply to save the insurer money. If the water line in your home was higher than the 1.2m join in wall lining sheets, the entire wall lining will need to be stripped out and replaced. In this instance, the cornice also needs to be replaced, and therefore the ceiling will need to be repainted.
3. Some assessors or builders might try to tell you that they won’t need to strip out wet areas such as bathrooms or laundries. Again, this is mostly NOT correct in my opinion. They have to be able to access and expose EVERY wall cavity, so unless all four wall cavities around a wet area can be accessed from the other side, they will need to strip out that wet area too. Mostly, bathrooms adjoin the external wall of a house, so the only way to access all 4 wall cavities would be to actually remove the external brick-work or cladding. I have too often seen an insurer only access 2 or 3 wall cavities in a bathroom and just assume the other cavity is fine. This is because a full strip out will cost them a significant amount of money due to waterproofing requirements and possible upgrades.
4. If the water level was only 5cm or so, and they want to try to just replace kickboards in kitchens and bathrooms etc (rather than all of the cabinetry), insist that your insurer engage a mycologist or microbiologist to test the cabinetry to ensure no contaminants at the very least. Further, in the cleaning process, often water will damage those cabinets, and if there has been any splashing of contaminated product, there is a strong chance that the cabinets will be affected. Remember, it is up to your insurer to PROVE that anything they don’t want to replace is actually clear of contaminants, not just to assume, and to try to convince you that “it’ll be fine – don’t worry about it”.
5. One tip – if your insurer uses a remediator or hygienist (rather than a mycologist or microbiologist), pay specific attention to the type of ‘testing’ they do to confirm that the contaminants or mould have been addressed. Often, in my experience, they will simply measure moisture levels and if the area is dry, they will say there is no problem. The fact that an area has dried out does NOT mean the mould or contaminants have necessarily been removed. And if they show a report that says they completed ‘visual’ and ‘olfactory’ testing, this simply means they had a look (visual testing) and they had a smell (olfactory testing). I don’t know about you, but if my house had been contaminated, it would not be good enough to have a look and a sniff, and declare that ‘she’ll be right mate, it’s all fine now’. I would absolutely insist on air monitoring, surface swab testing, and a full mould and contamination count to see what little nasties might still be present, before agreeing for the insurer to commence repair works.
6. Another ‘remediation’ tip. Once mould or contaminants have supposedly been removed, the technician should complete PRV (Post Remediation Verification) testing. Pay careful attention to how they do this. Some remediators do their own PRV, which in my opinion is a significant conflict of interest. It should always be someone totally independent from the remediator who completes the PRV testing. Other remediators simply get a hygienist on the phone for a quick ‘remote inspection’ where they show the hygienist certain parts of the property and the hygienist declares it to be okay. This is NOT okay, and once again is far from best practice. Always, always, ALWAYS insist that the remediator includes on-site PRV testing that includes surface swabs and laboratory testing, by a totally independent and qualified mould expert. This is one of the big areas in which I have seen many insurers cut corners in past events. On this note, too, it is NOT okay to simply cut holes in the wall and apply some sort of ‘fogging’ treatment. According to the IICRC mould standards, fogging is not appropriate in place of proper remediation. It is fine as an initial ‘make-safe’ option to minimise existing mould until you can properly remediate and remove the mould, but it is not a permanent solution. I can’t stress strongly enough how important it is for you to make particular note of how the remediation is done by your insurer, because this will become the biggest issue of the entire event, if it is not done properly, and will exponentially increase the extent of damage to your home.
7. Your insurer may try to “clean” your contents items rather than replacing them. Many contents items cannot be fully cleaned and restored, and again, it is up to your insurer to be able to prove that items are not contaminated. Proper testing will often cost $50 or more per item, so they may try to “sample test” 1 item in 10 or something similar. Again, do not accept this, because these are your goods and you need to be absolutely certain that your goods are not contaminated. When I get involved in arguments with insurance people over these sorts of issues, I challenge them with the question, “Would you be happy to leave this item in YOUR house?”
8. Many insurers will use ‘restorers’, ‘cleaners’ or ‘remediators’ to remediate the contaminants, dirt, mould etc from your property. This may be fine, but you really need to know what actual qualifications and experience the people attending your property have – don’t assume that because your insurer is sending someone out, they must be properly qualified to do what they have come to do. ALWAYS ask for the person’s name, ID, qualifications and position, and make a note of it. Better still, get a business card. Some companies will send one person out, and then a different person (who has never seen your property) will write and sign the report. This is not necessarily a problem as long as BOTH of those people are properly qualified, but if a company sends someone unqualified, and then a qualified person writes the report, that does become a major problem in my view. It may seem in this post that I am encouraging you to be difficult with your insurance company in the coming days. Nothing could be further from the truth. If your insurer genuinely acts in your interest, they will do the above things without you having to challenge them at all. If, on the other hand, you see corners being cut such as those I have noted above, that is a “red flag” that your insurer (or their assessors/builders) might be trying to minimise the damage, at your expense. You pay significant insurance premiums each year, and you have a right to expect that you will be fully indemnified in an event such as this, without having to accept ongoing contamination or other issues. Believe me, some of our clients in the Whitsundays and Townsville ended up with houses being totally stripped back to framework, when issues of contamination and mould were not properly addressed in the months immediately following Cyclone Debbie and the Townsville floods.
Following the above steps will reduce the chance that you will have to endure the 3-4 year nightmare some of the folks in North Qld have endured from past events that were poorly handled by insurers and their service providers. I hope this is helpful information for you, as you begin to navigate the long, arduous process of your insurance claim. If you do it right in the first place, your experience will be far better than the alternative, believe me!(NOTE – photo sourced from Titan Restoration via Google)