How to Choose a Mold Remediation Company in Cincinnati: 10 Questions to Ask Before You Hire

Why choosing carefully matters here

Neither Ohio nor Kentucky licenses mold remediation companies. There is no state exam, no state license number to look up and no state board to complain to. A handyman, a carpet cleaner or a painter can legally sell you "mold removal" tomorrow.

That means the checking is on you. The good news is that a real mold company is easy to tell apart once you know what to ask. The questions below are the ones we would ask if we were hiring someone to work in our own homes.

The 10 questions to ask any mold company

Ask every company you are considering the same questions, and compare the answers side by side.

• 1. Is your company IICRC certified, and do the people doing the work hold the mold remediation certification? The IICRC writes S520, the industry standard for professional mold remediation. Ask for the certificate, not just a logo on a van.
• 2. Are you insured for mold work specifically? General liability policies often exclude mold. Ask for a certificate of insurance that names pollution or mold coverage.
• 3. What is causing the mold, and will you fix it or tell me who can? Mold that is cleaned without fixing the moisture comes back. A good company starts with the leak, the humidity or the water coming through the foundation.
• 4. How will you contain the work area? You should hear plastic sheeting, a sealed doorway (often a zipper door) and closing off the heating and cooling returns so spores are not pulled through the house.
• 5. Will you run air scrubbers with HEPA filters? Disturbing mold puts spores in the air. HEPA air scrubbers during and after the work are standard practice.
• 6. What gets removed and what gets cleaned? Moldy drywall, insulation and carpet pad usually come out. Wood framing can almost always be cleaned. Be wary of a company that wants to tear out everything, or one that wants to remove nothing.
• 7. How do you clean the wood? The answer should be HEPA vacuuming, scrubbing with an antimicrobial cleaner, and HEPA vacuuming again. Not bleach. Bleach does not reach mold rooted in wood and the water in it can feed regrowth.
• 8. Do you test the air when the work is done, and who reads the samples? A post-remediation air test, with an inside sample compared to an outside sample, is how you know the job worked. The samples should go to an accredited third-party lab, and you should get the lab report.
• 9. What exactly is in the written estimate? Every area, every square foot and every step should be listed, so you can compare companies line for line.
• 10. What warranty do you give, and what does it cover? Ask for it in writing. A real warranty says what happens if mold comes back in a treated area, how long it lasts and whether it transfers if you sell the house.

Red flags: when to walk away

Any one of these is a reason to get another opinion:

• A price over the phone for a job nobody has looked at
• The plan is to "spray it and paint over it" with no containment and no removal
• Bleach as the main treatment
• Pressure to sign today, or scare talk about "toxic black mold" before anything has been tested
• No written estimate, or one line that just says "mold remediation"
• No air test at the end, or a test the company will not show you
• They will not say what caused the mold or how to keep it from coming back

Do you need separate testing before the work?

Not always. If you can see the mold and you know where the water came from, testing before the work rarely changes the plan. Testing first is worth it when you smell mold but cannot find it, when someone in the house has health problems you think are mold related, or when you are buying or selling a house and need it documented.

The test that always matters is the one at the end. Some homeowners hire a separate inspector for that clearance test, and a good remediation company will welcome it.

What a fair estimate should include

Put the estimates you collect side by side and check that each one spells out:

• Every room or area being treated, with square footage
• Containment: how much plastic, how many doorways, air scrubbers and for how long
• What is being removed (drywall height, insulation, flooring) and what is being cleaned
• The cleaning steps for the wood: HEPA vacuum, antimicrobial scrub, HEPA vacuum
• Whether the wood will be sealed with an antimicrobial encapsulant after cleaning
• The post-remediation air test and who analyzes it
• Whether putting back drywall, insulation and paint is included or quoted separately

What it costs in Cincinnati

Cost depends on how big the affected area is, whether drywall and insulation have to come out, and how hard the area is to reach (a crawl space or an attic costs more per square foot than an open basement). The box at the top of this page shows what our mold jobs in Greater Cincinnati actually came to this year, from our own invoices, so you have a real range to compare quotes against.

A quote far below everyone else usually means a step is missing. Check it against the list above before you take it.

How Dry Effect does it

Dry Effect is a family-owned company in Cincinnati that has been removing mold across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky since 2013. We are an IICRC certified firm, ACAC certified and A+ rated with the BBB.

Every job gets a written estimate with each area and step listed. The work follows IICRC S520: containment, HEPA air scrubbers, removal of what cannot be saved, HEPA vacuum and antimicrobial cleaning, and a clear antimicrobial encapsulant on the cleaned wood. We finish with an air test, inside and outside, analyzed by an accredited lab, and you get the results. Our Best mold package carries a written 5-year transferable warranty.

Because we also do the rebuilding, the same company puts back the drywall, insulation and paint after the mold is gone, and we work with your insurance company when the mold came from a covered water loss.