Mold Remediation in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Walls dried from the room side after April 2023
can still have mold behind them.
Fans dry the painted face of a flooded wall in days. The back of the drywall, the insulation and the wood plate along the floor can stay wet much longer. That hidden side is where mold grows. We find it, remove it under containment and close off the water that fed it.
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Does homeowners insurance pay for mold removal in Florida?
Sometimes. A policy usually pays when the mold grew from a sudden covered loss such as a burst supply line. Many policies also cap what they pay for mold. Mold from a slow leak or from floodwater usually falls outside standard cover. Your adjuster makes the final call.
Was your wall dried from the room side? Four checks
FEMA and EPA flood guidance spells out what should come out of a wall that stood in floodwater. If any of these fit your house, get a moisture reading behind the baseboard.
The drywall below the water line stayed up
FEMA guidance says drywall soaked by contaminated floodwater should come out. Where the water stood less than two and a half feet deep, it calls for opening the wall to four feet so full sheets of drywall can go back.
The insulation behind it never came out
The same FEMA guidance says fiberglass and other fibrous insulation soaked by floodwater should come out completely. Foam board can stay in place and dry.
Paint went on before the wall dried inside
The EPA says not to seal or paint any surface that got wet until the material is completely dry on the inside. Fresh paint low on a wall can hide a cavity that never dried.
Nobody put a meter on the studs
FEMA treats wood framing as dry at 15 percent moisture or less on a pin-type meter. A reading logged before the wall closed up shows the wood got there.
Sources: FEMA, Initial Restoration for Flooded Buildings. EPA, Flood Cleanup to Protect Indoor Air and Your Health.
Mold in Fort Lauderdale Homes
Where mold hides in a Fort Lauderdale house
The April 2023 flash flood was by far the most significant flood of that year in South Florida, says the NWS Miami 2023 weather summary. It put water inside homes across Edgewood, where Local10 found families still living with the damage three years later.
Mold from a flood like that rarely shows up all at once. It turns up months later behind baseboards, under vanities and inside closets on outside walls, in the places nobody opened up while the house was drying.
Dead Mold Still Has to Come Out
A wall that dried out after 2023 can still hold growth that stopped when the water did. The EPA notes that dead mold can still cause allergic reactions in some people, so it has to come out of the wall.
Florida Rooms on Their Own Slab
Plenty of 1950s and 1960s Fort Lauderdale houses have a back porch that someone later closed in as a Florida room, often on a separate slab a step below the house. The seam between the two slabs lets groundwater through. Carpet or laminate laid over that seam keeps it damp and out of sight.
Bleach on a Stained Wall
Spraying bleach on a stained wall fades the stain. On drywall and wood the growth runs below the surface where bleach does not reach, so the mold keeps going. Our guide on whether bleach kills mold goes through why.
Mold Remediation Questions From Fort Lauderdale
What is the average cost of mold remediation in Florida?
My house flooded in April 2023. Could there still be mold in the walls?
How urgent is mold remediation?
What if you can't afford mold remediation?
Can I just paint over mold?
Our Process
How we remove mold in Fort Lauderdale
- 1
Find the Moisture
We walk the whole house with a moisture meter, including the rooms you did not call about. Mold grows where water sits, so we find the water before we cut anything out.
In a Fort Lauderdale house we start with the slab edge along outside walls and any step-down where an addition meets the original floor.
- 2
Contain the Area
We seal the work area with plastic sheeting and keep it under negative air through HEPA filters. Spores stay inside the work zone and out of the rest of the house.
- 3
Remove Damaged Material
We cut out moldy drywall, insulation and carpet and bag it inside the containment before it leaves the room. We clean the hard surfaces worth keeping instead of replacing them.
- 4
Treat and Fog
We treat every exposed surface with an antifungal and fog the AC ducts to reach spores the air handler has carried through the house. A new AC filter goes in before we leave.
- 5
Stop the Water
If the water came through the foundation, we waterproof the block in the same job. A roof, a pipe or a sweating AC duct needs another trade, so we show you where it is and name who to call before the walls go back up.
If you want clearance testing at the end, it comes from an independent licensed mold assessor. Florida law bars a remediator or its company from assessing a structure it remediated in the past 12 months (s. 468.8419).
Our mold work runs under Florida mold remediator license MRSR5565. Our foundation waterproofing carries a lifetime warranty against water coming through the section we treat.
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