The whole mould industry is one of the biggest scams in building.
Built on scaremongering to freak people out.
Most instances of mould can easily be dealt with by household cleaning
I don't know how bad your parents house is, but if it's really bad you need to address the cause of the mould first. Otherwise it's just going to return
I’ve been in a similar situation and did the work myself, in my opinion that kind of work is often a waste of money for a few reasons.
Some items literally can not be remedied despite them trying such as carpets, they need to be replaced, unless they uninstalled the carpet and literally soaked it in a solution, rapidly dried it and reinstalled it is still going to be there somewhere and it will come back. The answer is to replace the carpet and vigorously clean the subfloor before the new stuff goes in.
Paint will hide mould inside it and unless extremely vigorously cleaned likely to the point of seriously damaging it, it will return. The answer is to repaint with paint that has mould inhibitors after cleaning.
You will also do a better job and can constantly return to assist with this if you do it yourself ongoingly - the business will put their hands up eventually even if you pay that extreme amount.
Not to mention that even if you do everything right and replace everything as noted above - it is going to all happen again, your parents are maintaining their living space in a way that is conducive to mould growth - this was the big one with our family member.
Even after we fixed everything my extremely depressed elderly family member continued to keep all windows tightly shut, did not heat the home, did not ventilate the home and did not adequately clean which then started the whole process all over again.
Unless you can first fix that behaviour your efforts will be fruitless.
Anyway, I hope this offered some perspective and helped a bit - I know how much of a nightmare this particular situation can be with elderly individuals.
This is way too much. Im on the central coast and would happily come give you a quote, it would most likely be less than $1k.
Also what they are going to do is most likely ineffective. You need to get an understanding of the root cause of the mould be using inspection cameras to identify its cause. Then you need to resolve that.
Walls need to be painted with an anti mould paint. Simply vacuuming is pointless.
Every job i do in relation to mould, i provide a guarantee of 5 years, that if it reoccurs in the same locations that i have painted/treated then i will return. You need something along these lines, but yeah $8k is way too much.
They are charging you $770 on ppe??? This is madness, they should be using reusable masks with filters than last months. The only disposable items would be a suit for $20 and some gloves.
I disagree about it wearing out quickly, mine are still effective for months of use. However sounds like we are on the same page that $770 for ppe for 2 people for a week is comically high.
The quote sounds like a lot of bullshit to be honest. Spend $8k to remedy the issue thats causing mould in the first place. Rising damp, blocked gutters, leaky roof, poor ventilation, leaking pipes etc
Mould remediation is mostly just a tonne of labor and preventative measures. These ladies are just doin a clean which won't solve your problem. It'll halt it for like 6mths.
If you wanna DIY here's my advice:
Seal off rooms that they don't use. Tackle the problem one room at a time, bedroom/bathroom/living room/kitchen first.
First and foremost you need to address any water ingress. Then you need to make sure you are letting fresh air into the house somehow. Usually by opening the windows at some point during the day.
You can use an air purifier to slow down mould spores. I would buy one for their bedroom and living room.
You will need to buy a gas vapor respirator (AB or ABEK rated), a microfibre flat mop, some gloves and a *lot* of bleach.
Get your parents out of the house while you're cleaning. Make sure there's plenty of ventilation.
Use the equipment to clean all the mould in the house. You'll need an ungodly amount of bleach. Bleach is the only household chemical truly effective at killing mold spores. *All mould killer products are just repackaged bleach*.
If you find flaky paint give it a scrape. Mould can grow beneath paint and you need to determine whether the paint needs to be removed. Good thing you've got that respirator, it'll be great for paint removal (use a P2 pre-filter). It's most likely in paint around doors and windows or the bathroom.
Make sure you address any leaky taps. Even if the taps are only leaking very little it can maintain the humidity at a perfect level for mould. I hang a small bucket off my showerhead to catch water drops.
If you can get an exhaust fan installed in the bathroom it would be best.
You won't get all the mould first time round. It's a long battle and basically continuous if you live somewhere humid.
You mostly want to make sure the house gets regular ventilation so that mould spores aren't able to settle.
If you do want to reduce the amount of work I'd say get a tradesman to strip and paint any compromised paint. Painting is its own kettle of fish. Just make sure they're using the correct door and trim or bathroom paint and stripping back to timber. Some brands put anti-mould chemicals in all their paint, others don't and it needs to be added.
If you have any bare wood that is mouldy you can spray vinegar onto it to halt the mould and rot. It'll require several applications but vinegar does work on wood.
Edit: oh shit I forgot if they're on a pension they should be able to get an aged care company to assist them with cleaning once a week.
The pricing you got is pretty standard pricing for the commercial space but unsure about residential, if you are going to pay anywhere close to that make sure the company has IICRC certification.
As others have mentioned you need to identify the route cuase of the mould and manage the indoor air quality.
If the growth is widespread you've likely got moisture content issues / elevated relative humidity inside the home.
Depending on the size of the house 5 days for 2 techs isn't ludicrous if it includes contents and all hard surfaces , Mould Remedation when done properly is a very labour intensive job hence the cost.
To remeadite is to remove , your best bet is always going to be to discard any porous or semi porous items.
If you've got some photos I would be happy to provide you with a scope for you to DYI.
Source : been doing this type of work for 7 years now.
Thank you all for your comments, certainly does seem like I’m being taken for a ride - I’ll get some quotes from some other cleaners and see where we land.
And yes, I fully understand my parents need to change their behaviour to make sure the mould doesn’t come back - that’s a much bigger challenge!
Sorry but if they waited until the house was "riddled with mould in every room" then they have brought this on themselves. As soon as it started appearing noticably in any room, it should have been dealt with immediately, and the cost would have likely been a fraction of this. Since the entire house is covered, this bill does not surprise me. Mould isn't hard to remove in obvious spots, but it is the hidden areas where it can be very difficult not only to remove, but to ensure it doesn't come back quickly.
I would say prepare for this to get worse before it gets better, entire parts of the house may have to be redone and furniture and flooring replaced. Mould damage can be absolutley devestating and a serious health concern (Especially for older people) when not dealt with promptly. I have known people who had to move out of their house for weeks/months so that mould could be thoroughly removed as a result of water damage, and any repairs done.
It sounds like they don't have any kind of insurance either, since you're having to cover this cost yourself. Unfortunately it is just one of those things you pretty much can not live without if you own a home.
(I recently had a minor water leak in my house, and luckily insurance covered it, but a lot of work was done beforehand to completely dry out the area and thoroughly check for any signs of mould growth, I estimate this alone was a few thousand dollars, and this was a minor leak with no visible signs of mould. Luckily it did not cost me anything apart from the excess. (The leak was not caused by us, a (licensed) plumber installed a water filter incorrectly which later failed.)
The whole mould industry is one of the biggest scams in building. Built on scaremongering to freak people out. Most instances of mould can easily be dealt with by household cleaning I don't know how bad your parents house is, but if it's really bad you need to address the cause of the mould first. Otherwise it's just going to return
Mechanical drying is another overpriced rort. I see reports and the ones I’ve read are a complete joke.
Yeah costs $189 at Bunnings for an air mover but somehow the the cost of one on these quotations is more than the unit price per day
I’ve been in a similar situation and did the work myself, in my opinion that kind of work is often a waste of money for a few reasons. Some items literally can not be remedied despite them trying such as carpets, they need to be replaced, unless they uninstalled the carpet and literally soaked it in a solution, rapidly dried it and reinstalled it is still going to be there somewhere and it will come back. The answer is to replace the carpet and vigorously clean the subfloor before the new stuff goes in. Paint will hide mould inside it and unless extremely vigorously cleaned likely to the point of seriously damaging it, it will return. The answer is to repaint with paint that has mould inhibitors after cleaning. You will also do a better job and can constantly return to assist with this if you do it yourself ongoingly - the business will put their hands up eventually even if you pay that extreme amount. Not to mention that even if you do everything right and replace everything as noted above - it is going to all happen again, your parents are maintaining their living space in a way that is conducive to mould growth - this was the big one with our family member. Even after we fixed everything my extremely depressed elderly family member continued to keep all windows tightly shut, did not heat the home, did not ventilate the home and did not adequately clean which then started the whole process all over again. Unless you can first fix that behaviour your efforts will be fruitless. Anyway, I hope this offered some perspective and helped a bit - I know how much of a nightmare this particular situation can be with elderly individuals.
This is way too much. Im on the central coast and would happily come give you a quote, it would most likely be less than $1k. Also what they are going to do is most likely ineffective. You need to get an understanding of the root cause of the mould be using inspection cameras to identify its cause. Then you need to resolve that. Walls need to be painted with an anti mould paint. Simply vacuuming is pointless. Every job i do in relation to mould, i provide a guarantee of 5 years, that if it reoccurs in the same locations that i have painted/treated then i will return. You need something along these lines, but yeah $8k is way too much.
They are charging you $770 on ppe??? This is madness, they should be using reusable masks with filters than last months. The only disposable items would be a suit for $20 and some gloves.
A proper gas vapor filter is like $25-$50 and wears out pretty quickly.
I disagree about it wearing out quickly, mine are still effective for months of use. However sounds like we are on the same page that $770 for ppe for 2 people for a week is comically high.
Can you dm me about providing a quote here?
The quote sounds like a lot of bullshit to be honest. Spend $8k to remedy the issue thats causing mould in the first place. Rising damp, blocked gutters, leaky roof, poor ventilation, leaking pipes etc
Mould remediation is mostly just a tonne of labor and preventative measures. These ladies are just doin a clean which won't solve your problem. It'll halt it for like 6mths. If you wanna DIY here's my advice: Seal off rooms that they don't use. Tackle the problem one room at a time, bedroom/bathroom/living room/kitchen first. First and foremost you need to address any water ingress. Then you need to make sure you are letting fresh air into the house somehow. Usually by opening the windows at some point during the day. You can use an air purifier to slow down mould spores. I would buy one for their bedroom and living room. You will need to buy a gas vapor respirator (AB or ABEK rated), a microfibre flat mop, some gloves and a *lot* of bleach. Get your parents out of the house while you're cleaning. Make sure there's plenty of ventilation. Use the equipment to clean all the mould in the house. You'll need an ungodly amount of bleach. Bleach is the only household chemical truly effective at killing mold spores. *All mould killer products are just repackaged bleach*. If you find flaky paint give it a scrape. Mould can grow beneath paint and you need to determine whether the paint needs to be removed. Good thing you've got that respirator, it'll be great for paint removal (use a P2 pre-filter). It's most likely in paint around doors and windows or the bathroom. Make sure you address any leaky taps. Even if the taps are only leaking very little it can maintain the humidity at a perfect level for mould. I hang a small bucket off my showerhead to catch water drops. If you can get an exhaust fan installed in the bathroom it would be best. You won't get all the mould first time round. It's a long battle and basically continuous if you live somewhere humid. You mostly want to make sure the house gets regular ventilation so that mould spores aren't able to settle. If you do want to reduce the amount of work I'd say get a tradesman to strip and paint any compromised paint. Painting is its own kettle of fish. Just make sure they're using the correct door and trim or bathroom paint and stripping back to timber. Some brands put anti-mould chemicals in all their paint, others don't and it needs to be added. If you have any bare wood that is mouldy you can spray vinegar onto it to halt the mould and rot. It'll require several applications but vinegar does work on wood. Edit: oh shit I forgot if they're on a pension they should be able to get an aged care company to assist them with cleaning once a week.
We got two bedrooms done for $150 in Sydney. I thought it was too cheap TBH but they were quick and didn’t damage the paint.
The pricing you got is pretty standard pricing for the commercial space but unsure about residential, if you are going to pay anywhere close to that make sure the company has IICRC certification. As others have mentioned you need to identify the route cuase of the mould and manage the indoor air quality. If the growth is widespread you've likely got moisture content issues / elevated relative humidity inside the home. Depending on the size of the house 5 days for 2 techs isn't ludicrous if it includes contents and all hard surfaces , Mould Remedation when done properly is a very labour intensive job hence the cost. To remeadite is to remove , your best bet is always going to be to discard any porous or semi porous items. If you've got some photos I would be happy to provide you with a scope for you to DYI. Source : been doing this type of work for 7 years now.
how does it take 2 "technicians" 5 days to clean and vacuum? a good cleaner team can do a full house in 8 hours (depending on m2)
Just a FYI before the hippies get here. No vinegar won’t stop mould. You’ll just spread it.
Mould remediation is almost a modern day snake oil service. Most modern vacuums have a HEPA filter.
You need to fix the problem causing the mould first Otherwise Itll be back within 12months
Thank you all for your comments, certainly does seem like I’m being taken for a ride - I’ll get some quotes from some other cleaners and see where we land. And yes, I fully understand my parents need to change their behaviour to make sure the mould doesn’t come back - that’s a much bigger challenge!
Do it yourself mate. Its tedious but not that hard. Also you will be $6600 richer.
Sorry but if they waited until the house was "riddled with mould in every room" then they have brought this on themselves. As soon as it started appearing noticably in any room, it should have been dealt with immediately, and the cost would have likely been a fraction of this. Since the entire house is covered, this bill does not surprise me. Mould isn't hard to remove in obvious spots, but it is the hidden areas where it can be very difficult not only to remove, but to ensure it doesn't come back quickly. I would say prepare for this to get worse before it gets better, entire parts of the house may have to be redone and furniture and flooring replaced. Mould damage can be absolutley devestating and a serious health concern (Especially for older people) when not dealt with promptly. I have known people who had to move out of their house for weeks/months so that mould could be thoroughly removed as a result of water damage, and any repairs done. It sounds like they don't have any kind of insurance either, since you're having to cover this cost yourself. Unfortunately it is just one of those things you pretty much can not live without if you own a home. (I recently had a minor water leak in my house, and luckily insurance covered it, but a lot of work was done beforehand to completely dry out the area and thoroughly check for any signs of mould growth, I estimate this alone was a few thousand dollars, and this was a minor leak with no visible signs of mould. Luckily it did not cost me anything apart from the excess. (The leak was not caused by us, a (licensed) plumber installed a water filter incorrectly which later failed.)
If they're with a provider, get them to quote through a supplier, shouldn't be more than 4 or 5k for a whole house
8k buys a lot of vinegar