Darren Halm

Well, this is not making me feel good about this situation. The thing is, there's no evidence of dampness anywhere. When we moved into the house 5 years ago, there was obvious water damage to the wall and inside the front hall closet, and a neighbor told me there was a flood 2 owners previous (so that could be anywhere from 7 years or older). When contractors redid our upstairs bathroom there was rotting wood around the toilet, all since replaced. However, we have never seen signs of dampness or mold growth. Mold testing is just something my wife and I wanted to get done because we knew of previous water damage. Now I don't know what to do. We've contacted our plumber about doing leak testing, and he didn't seem helpful.

I recently had a mold test at my house, and we found 19000 spores/m3 of Stachybotrys and 7,900 Penicillium/Aspergillus. The mold is behind a wall at the entry of the house, between the front coat closet, the back bathroom behind it, the upstairs bathroom above it, and the stairs going upstairs. (From the report): "The lab report did detect extremely elevated levels of Stachybotrys (black mold) mold spores present at the inside air sample taken at the front hallwall cavity as compared to the outside air sample taken at time of inspection. The Lab report did detect extremely elevated levels of Chaetomium and Penicillium/Aspergillius mold spores present at the inside air sample taken at the front hall wall cavity as compared to the outside air sample taken at time of inspection." We have had 4 people come through and give us estimates. These are all relatively in the same price range ($2000-3500) for the demo and remediation. One guy will do restoration of drywall as well. The thing is, the time to do the work has varied from a single day to 5-7 days. We plan on leaving the house during the process. What would seem to be a more realistic time for remediation?