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Discussion Forum

Mold Remediation: Scam?

MojoMan | Posted in General Discussion on November 14, 2003 02:20am

A customer of mine had a leaky washing machine, and the water damaged the first-floor laundry room and leaked down into the 2-car garage below, making a mess of the blueboard and plaster. Working with their insurance company, a crew came in and gutted the laundry room, the entire garage and walls into adjacent rooms. They stripped out the drywall, plaster, insulation and a chunk of plywood subfloor. Then they painted what looks like Kilz or Bin in the stud cavities. In the demolition process, they spent zero time thinking how things might be put back together (Such as cutting the laundry room subfloor back to the plates). Cuts were made on the basis of where staining was, not where there might be some framing to patch back to. Then they collected what I imagine was a very healthy check from the insurance company and walked away leaving the homeowner to put his house back together.

Somehow, this has left me scratching my head. These guys didn’t do anything any contractor wouldn’t have done (Except the Kilz, maybe), and they did it with a lot less finesse, but something tells me that because they were fighting this new and mysterious plague of the affluent suburbanite – mold and mildew – the were very well paid, indeed. Is this a legitimate business, or some kind of lawsuit-driven over-reaction?

Can someone provide a perspective on this?

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Replies

  1. JohnSprung | Nov 14, 2003 02:31am | #1

    I'd go with opinion #2.  ;-)

    -- J.S.

  2. User avater
    BillHartmann | Nov 14, 2003 02:56am | #2

    I agree with John.

    But I see a BIG problem here.

    Typically insurance will pay for damage from water, but not the source of water it'self. For example if a water pipe burst they would not pay for fixing the pipe. But they would pay for all of the resultant damage.

    The insurance company should be paying for putting the house back together again.

  3. RW | Nov 14, 2003 03:52am | #3

    I'd love to give you my two cents. Mold remediation is the new hot topic, and there have been enough "wow" media cases to justify some attention. I get a decent amount of work anymore being the put back together guy for a mold company here. So here's my thoughts:

    What you're describing is legal but morally low. If their interest is only in "Okay, I'll show up and take out mold, where's the check, see you later" that's bad mojo. They're leaving the homeowner to wrangle with the insurance on their own to try and get it back together, and neither the HO nor the insurance knows ahead of time what the damage is going to be.

    I'd like to say what we've worked out, because I believe it solved some early issues with the co-operative effort and makes the life of all concerned much better. The cleaning/mold company comes in and first priority is get water out. Second priority, close behind, is removing damaged materials. We've consulted on this enough that their guys know what they can and can't remove (from my perspective) and if in doubt, they call and I'll drop by and look at things. I'm coming over to give a price on putting it all back together anyway. The drywall they snap a line 24 1/4" off the floor and remove. This makes repair easier. It's still all butt joints, but at least I'm only cutting each sheet once. If the wood is damaged enough, they leave it to the carpenter (me). They coordinate with the insurance and the homeowner. When I arrive the place has been gutted and cleaned and dehumidified, the wood framing checked with a moisture meter, and the kilz or similar treatment is on and dry. We're now to the point they save samples of trim details and drywall squares for paint matches. Digital cameras record before and after of their work in the event an adjuster decides after the fact they should have made a trip to the house after all. The homeowner deals with one person, the insurance deals with one person. It really works well for all involved.

    "The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb "      lyrics by Roger Waters

  4. csnow | Nov 14, 2003 03:56am | #4

    This mold scam is 'self curing' to some extent, as insurers in many states are excluding mold damage from their policies.

  5. chriscal | Nov 14, 2003 05:45am | #5

    I work for a restoration company that specializes in mold,fire and water damage. We have all in house certified mold remediation people along with construction people (I'm one of the carpenters) and sometimes they still butcher it up. It will take me twice as long to cleanup there bad cuts then fix the repairs. We have some customers that say just clean it and fix the wall then we get the people that move out, complain house bad it smells, how sick they were before the problem was found. We never just seal over the problem but bleach and a good wire brush do a much better job. I have heard of many laws suits that someone will open up a wall then spot mold, well the HO has seen this and freaks. Its mostly overblown but a real problem for some asthmatic people. Our company does go in behind other remediation companies and that's even worse. We use all tyvek suits, negative air hepa filtered machines and 6 mil plastic with ducktape.

    1. marv | Nov 14, 2003 07:31pm | #6

      My question is - How harmful is mold? What percentage of people are affected by it? If a healthy person is exposed to mold, what are the chances that he/she will get sick?You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.

      Marv

      1. csnow | Nov 14, 2003 08:54pm | #7

        The latest I heard was that the negative health effect claims were debunked.

        Good stuff on mold at JLC:

        http://www.jlconline.com/cgi-bin/jlconline.storefront/3fb514670066d531271a401e1d290630/UserTemplate/82?s=3fb514670066d531271a401e1d290630&c=fda1fd31c8356da5514a8d25c50dd1b2&p=1

      2. csnow | Nov 14, 2003 09:03pm | #8

        No, wait!  This article is even more interesting!

        I love this part:

        Fraud ring nailed. Insurance industry groups say Ballard's widely publicized success has inspired an explosion of mold claims in Texas -- including some clearly documented cases of out-and-out fraud. In October, Texas prosecutors working with FBI investigators and investigators from the Texas Department of Insurance won a half-dozen guilty pleas and one conviction against a ring of con artists who were buying homes and intentionally wetting and "baking" them to cultivate massive mold growths before submitting false and inflated claims to insurance companies. "The defendants served as homeowners, independent subcontractors, vendors, and service providers in filing claims, repairing the damage, and selling the homes to each other to repeat the process," said a Texas Department of Insurance news release. "Some homes were flooded more than once."

        Full story:

        http://www.jlconline.com/cgi-bin/jlconline.storefront/3fb514670066d531271a401e1d290630/UserTemplate/82?s=3fb514670066d531271a401e1d290630&c=6ac567491e782e1910d61ca9c001ed18&p=1

        1. marv | Nov 14, 2003 10:27pm | #9

          very interesting.You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.

          Marv

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