Handling Mold Correctly in a Commercial Enviroment

5/10/2021 (Permalink)

What are the most important things to focus on when handling a mold occurrence in your commercial area? If mold is discovered, do you know the next steps that you should take?

You arrive at work one sunny Monday Morning at 8am, and decide to finally pull out the fridge and retrieve your favorite pen that dropped between the fridge and counter 4 months ago. You use your massive muscles and move the fridge easily…those lifting sessions are really paying off!...but then, you see it! Behind the fridge, in a place that last had boring beige colored drywall, is now a large area of MOLD.

You start to think about what to do about it, you inspect it further, you think about the rest of your team coming in at 9am, especially Mrs. Zellner with the asthmatic episodes. You think about grabbing a bottle of bleach and going to work…but then you stop, and decide to look up mold removal. Up pops SERVPRO! You see that the brand it nationally known and certified in mold remediation, you also see that their mold remediation services prevent cross contamination, and they can also determine what is causing the mold (if there is no obvious reason present).

You call the number and schedule a tech to come out within the next 2 hours. In the meantime, you call your team and let them know the situation and that you are having it looked at this morning. You give Mrs. Zellner the option to remotely work since she is worried about exposure. You mention that you are having a certified company come out who will prevent cross contamination when they remediate the mold.

A few employees choose to stay out of office in the morning hours, the SERVPRO technician arrives before 10am and inspects the mold. She lets you know that the growth was due to a very tiny crease leak in the supply line to the fridge (That explains why the mold is so low to the floor, you look closely and see water impressions on a few places on the vinyl. You turn off the water supply to the fridge to stop further damage. The SERVPRO technician gives you a verbal working estimate and the option of a Not-to-exceed agreed upon price of remediation. You two talk about insurance, your deductible is more than the quoted amount the SERVPRO tech just gave you, so you opt to pay out of pocket and are thrilled when the SERVPRO tech says that they can do the work today!

Another team member shows up and you pay the bill upfront, they set containment and get to work. By the end of the day, you have the refrigerator repair man lined up to come out the next morning. And you now have that boring beige drywall again behind the fridge.

Best of all though, you have Mrs. Zellner coming back tomorrow morning with cookies of appreciation baked just for you!