These are the questions we hear most from homeowners in Metairie, Kenner, and across the river. The answer comes first in every one. If yours isn’t here, call and describe what you’re seeing — it takes a few minutes.
Because the system is moving air across something wet. Cold coils, a drain pan that doesn’t drain, or insulated duct that got damp all sit in the airstream, and the smell rides the supply air into every room. In Metairie the cooling runs most of the year, so the smell never gets a season off. Call and tell us which vent it’s strongest at.
A dark ring on a vent grille is usually condensation plus dust plus growth, and it is worth attention. The grille itself wipes clean. The question is what is behind it: sweating duct, wet insulation, or a coil that stays dirty. EPA calls condensation near cooling coils a major factor in moisture contamination of duct systems. One musty vent deserves a call.
Earthy, damp, like a paper bag left in a wet garage. It is strongest in closed spaces — a closet, a cabinet, a bathroom with the door shut — and it often shows up before anything is visible. A musty odor is a recognized sign of hidden growth, which is why we take a smell as seriously as a stain. Smelled it before you saw it? Call and tell us where.
Mildew is a common name for the flat, powdery surface growth you see on grout, a shower curtain, or a window frame. It wipes off. Mold is the same family of organisms growing into a material — drywall paper, wood, insulation, carpet pad — where wiping changes the color and nothing else. CDC treats all of it the same way: find the moisture, remove the growth.
In an attic: dark streaks on the underside of the roof deck, staining on the rafters near a vent or a bathroom fan, and insulation that has gone gray or matted. In a crawl space: a musty smell coming up through the floor, soft spots in the subfloor, and insulation hanging loose from the joists. In Old Metairie and Harahan the raised houses are where we hear the second set.
Not long. EPA’s guidance is to dry anything water-damaged within 24 to 48 hours; past that 48-hour mark, CDC says wet materials will generally support visible and extensive growth. With 88 percent morning humidity, a wall cavity in Metairie does not dry on that schedule by itself. If it got wet last week, the clock has run.
It can. EPA says running an HVAC system you suspect is contaminated could spread mold throughout the building. That is why the first step on a musty-vent call is often to turn the system off until we have looked at the coil, the plenum, and the duct runs. HVAC and duct mold remediation explains what gets cleaned and what gets replaced.
Both, depending on the material. Hard metal duct, the air handler cabinet, and the plenum can be cleaned. Insulated flex duct and duct board that have gotten wet or moldy can’t be cleaned effectively — EPA says they get removed and replaced, and Louisiana’s Department of Health repeated that after Ida. We tell you which runs fall in which category before the work starts.
It might be. CDC lists a stuffy nose, sore throat, coughing, wheezing, burning eyes, and skin rash, and adds that some people have no reaction at all. EPA says mold can irritate the eyes, skin, nose, throat, and lungs of people who aren’t allergic to it. People with asthma, allergies, or weakened immune systems may react more strongly. We can’t tell you whether the house is the cause. We can remove the mold.
Dark mold gets handled the same as any other color. CDC says it isn’t necessary to identify the type, because all molds should be treated the same way and removed. The species people call black mold needs constant moisture and paper or drywall to grow on, so it shows up after long leaks. Black mold removal covers what a dark patch actually means for the job.
No. CDC’s position is that the type of mold doesn’t change the response: remove it and fix the moisture. Around New Orleans after Katrina, Aspergillus and Penicillium made up more than seventy percent of the spores found in flooded homes, and none of that changed what had to come out of the walls. Visible mold needs removal, not a nickname.
Yes. Whitened or not, dead mold is still an allergen, which is why killing it isn’t the goal — removing it is. A product that leaves the growth in place and changes its color has not solved anything for a person who reacts to it. Remediation means the material with mold in it leaves the house.
Usually, for a contained single-room job. The work area is sealed and under negative pressure, so the rest of the house stays in use. For growth across several rooms, work in the HVAC, or a household where someone is already reacting, staying elsewhere for a few days is sometimes the practical answer. Tell us who is in the house when you call and we’ll talk through it.
Bleach is not what EPA recommends as a routine way to clean up mold. On drywall or wood it lightens the surface, adds water to the material, and leaves the growth inside it. On a hard, non-porous surface like tile, detergent and water do the same job with less risk. Never mix bleach with ammonia. Bleach isn’t a plan for a moldy wall.
It looks fine for a while. Growth in a porous material is mostly below the surface, so scrubbing removes the visible part and leaves the rest, and the moisture that fed it is still there. EPA says porous materials that have been moldy usually need to be discarded. Musty again a month later? That’s the sign the surface wasn’t the problem.
For a small patch on a hard surface, anyone can. Beyond that, Louisiana law caps a general contractor without a mold license at twenty square feet of mold work, and any remediation job over $7,500 requires a state mold remediation license from the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors. Advertising mold remediation without that license is illegal in Louisiana.
For any job over $7,500, yes — Louisiana requires a state mold remediation license, which takes twenty-four hours of board-approved training to hold. Below that threshold the license isn’t required, but the work is the same: containment, removal of what can’t be saved, cleaning, drying, and a written report. Ask whoever you hire, us included, what they follow and why.
No. Under Louisiana law, whoever assesses a property for mold is barred from remediating that same property. That separation exists so nobody is writing a report that creates their own work. We are on the removal side only. If you want an independent look before or after the job, it has to come from a separate company — and that’s how the law wants it.
No. Testing, sampling, and assessing aren’t things we do or sell. CDC doesn’t recommend mold testing for homeowners, and Louisiana’s Department of Health says that when visible mold is present, sampling isn’t necessary. If you already have an assessor’s report, keep it nearby when you call — it helps us scope the work.
Look the company up at lacontractor.org or call the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors at 1-800-256-1392. Before anyone starts work, get three things in hand: the license number, a certificate of insurance, and a written scope. That goes for us as much as anyone. If someone can’t produce those three things, keep calling around.
It depends on things a phone call can’t settle: how far the growth has spread, whether it has reached inside walls, insulation, or the HVAC system, how many rooms are involved, and whether it’s a home or a commercial property. Prices vary widely because of that. The real number comes from a visit — or from an assessor’s report, if one already lays out the findings. What is true in every case is that waiting doesn’t make it cheaper.
Sometimes, within limits. Policies generally cover mold that follows a sudden, covered event — a burst supply line or a failed water heater like yours — and exclude mold from long-term leaks, humidity, or neglect. Many policies also cap mold payouts at a modest amount. We can’t tell you what your policy will do. What we do is photograph, log, and itemize the work so your adjuster has a clear record.
Get the house opened and drying, keep kids out of the cleanup, and don’t run fans or the AC across moldy material. Louisiana’s Department of Health says to hire a professional if growth covers more than ten square feet, if the HVAC has mold, or if sewage or contaminated water came in. The National Flood Insurance Program excludes mold that could have been avoided, so speed protects a claim. Call and tell us what came in and when.
Yes. The Louisiana Real Estate Commission’s property disclosure form asks about mold, mildew, water intrusion, and flooding, and a known problem that isn’t disclosed can come back as a rescission or damages claim after closing. A problem that has been removed and written up is a far easier box to check. If you’re listing in Jefferson Parish soon, say so when you call.
Don’t paint over it and don’t start pulling drywall. Note which room, whether the smell is stronger near the floor or the ceiling, and whether it changes when the air conditioning runs. CDC’s guidance is that a moldy smell is reason enough to act, even when nothing is visible yet. Then call and describe it. If it turns out to be a bathroom ceiling that was painted before the sale, that’s a small job caught early — much better than finding it during your first hurricane season.
We pick up at any hour. Say where the growth or the smell is, what got wet, and about how long ago it started. Have your ZIP code ready, along with a number where we can reach you back. 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 when it rings.
We seal the work area in plastic and put it under negative pressure. Wet, moldy porous material — drywall, insulation, carpet pad, ceiling tile — comes out and is bagged inside the containment. Framing, masonry, and slab get cleaned in place, HEPA-vacuumed, and dried. We tell you where the water came from and what has to change. Then you get the written report.
Containment is the plastic and the negative-air setup that keeps the work area sealed from the rest of the house. Pulling moldy drywall releases spores; without containment they move through the open door and into the return air. EPA’s remediation guidance calls for sealing the area and keeping it under negative pressure so spores stay where the work is happening.
Porous items that got wet and moldy usually do — carpet pad, upholstered pieces that soaked up water, mattresses, cardboard. Solid wood, metal, glass, and plastic can generally be cleaned. Carpet itself sometimes survives if it dried fast and the pad is replaced, but that is a case-by-case call we make on the visit, not a rule.
No. We remove mold. The moisture does have to be stopped for the removal to hold — EPA and Louisiana’s Department of Health both say to fix the water problem first — so we find where it is coming from and tell you what has to change. We’ll walk through that on the call.
Only if the water does. A removal done after the moisture is stopped is a lasting job. A removal with the same leak, the same sweating duct, or the same backed-up drain still running is a repeat job, and neither of us wants that. If you can’t tell whether the spot you found is worth worrying over, call anyway.