These are the questions we hear most from New Orleans homeowners. The answer comes first in every one. If yours isn’t here, call and describe what you’re seeing — that conversation takes a few minutes.
Earthy and stale — a wet cardboard box, a closet that was shut all summer, the back room of a house that took water. Health departments list a musty odor alongside visible growth and past water damage as a recognized sign of hidden mold. In New Orleans the smell often shows up before anything is visible, because the growth is under a floor or inside a wall. Call us and say which room smells worst.
Mildew is the everyday name for the flat, powdery gray or white growth on a shower curtain or a bathroom ceiling; mold is the broader family, and it can be green, black, brown, or fuzzy. The distinction doesn’t change the decision much. CDC says all molds should be handled the same way, and if it’s on drywall, wood, or a ceiling rather than a hard surface, it needs to come out.
Sometimes it’s condensation collecting dust on the grille; sometimes it’s growth inside the duct behind it. In New Orleans, a vent surface drops below the room’s dew point on most days, so sweating registers are common. The difference is whether the musty smell rides in on the airflow. EPA says a contaminated system can spread mold through the building. Describe it to us and we’ll tell you whether it sounds like a duct job.
In an attic: dark streaking on the underside of the roof deck, discolored rafters near a bathroom fan or the air handler, a stained ceiling in the room below. Under a raised house: a musty smell rising through the floor, soft spots in the subfloor, wet insulation hanging from the joists, standing water after rain. Most of the New Orleans housing stock sits on piers, so we hear the crawl space version often.
Stuffy nose, sore throat, coughing, wheezing, burning eyes, and skin rash make up CDC’s list. The Louisiana Department of Health puts headaches and sneezing on its list as well. CDC is also careful to say exposure may cause a variety of effects — or none at all — depending on the person. We won’t tell you whether your symptoms are the house. What we can do is take the mold out.
Yes. EPA says mold can irritate the eyes, skin, nose, throat, and lungs of both allergic and non-allergic people, and that allergic reactions can be immediate or delayed. The 2004 Institute of Medicine review found enough evidence to link indoor mold and dampness to upper-respiratory symptoms in otherwise healthy people. That’s the frame legitimate guidance uses — respiratory symptoms, not sensational claims.
If someone in the house is having trouble breathing, the doctor comes first and we come second. If the only symptom is a room that smells wrong or a wall that’s spotted, the call to us is the practical first step, because the growth has to be removed either way. Tell us who is in the house — children, older adults, anyone with asthma — because it changes how we sequence the work.
Not long. EPA says to dry wet materials within 24 to 48 hours, and CDC says anything wet for more than 48 hours will generally support visible and extensive mold. LSU AgCenter puts new colonies at three days. In New Orleans, where the air is about 88 percent humid every morning, a wall cavity doesn’t get the dry day it would need.
Yes, in two ways. Moisture moves — water wicks up a wall and along a floor, so growth follows it into the next room. And spores move on air, which is why disturbing a moldy wall without containment, or running fans on it, can seed other rooms. That’s the reason we seal the work area before anything comes off the wall.
If the water got behind the drywall, the growth usually starts there rather than on the painted face. EPA’s list of hiding places includes the back side of drywall, inside wall cavities around pipes, under carpet, and above ceiling tile. What you see on the surface often came from inside. If you’ve had a leak that ran for more than a couple of days, call before the affected area gets larger.
It can. EPA says running an HVAC system you suspect is contaminated may spread mold throughout the building, and that wet or moldy insulated ductwork can’t be effectively cleaned and should be replaced. Louisiana’s Department of Health said the same after Ida. If the smell gets stronger when the system runs, look at HVAC and duct mold remediation.
New Orleans is one of the twelve most humid cities in the country, with early-morning humidity around 88 percent. Much of the city sits below sea level with a high water table and a hundred-year-old housing stock on piers. Add Katrina, which flooded roughly 80 percent of the city, Ida in 2021, and air conditioning that sweats inside ducts nearly year-round. Wet building materials here don’t get many chances to dry.
For any job over $7,500, Louisiana requires a state mold remediation license issued by the State Licensing Board for Contractors after 24 hours of approved training. A general residential contractor without that license is limited to 20 square feet of mold work. Ask for the license number before anyone starts, from us or from anyone else.
No. Louisiana law requires that the company evaluating mold and the company removing it on the same property be different companies. We are on the remediation side only and don’t sell the evaluation side at all. If you already have a report from the company that evaluated the house, keep it by the phone when you call; it helps us scope the work.
Three things, mostly. A line of growth that keeps returning at the bottom of the same wall, which usually means the framing behind it never fully dried before the new sheetrock went on. A closet or back room that has always smelled shut, even with the door open. And a wall that feels cool to the hand on a hot afternoon. None of those proves anything on its own, but any one of them is reason to call and describe it. The rebuild history is the first thing we’ll ask about.
It can be. New Orleans runs about 88 percent morning humidity, and a shut house with the air conditioning off holds it. EPA’s guidance is to keep indoor humidity below 60 percent, and a closed house in August won’t get close. The usual signs are a musty smell when you open the door, a haze on wood furniture, and spots on closet ceilings. If you opened a place you own and found any of those, call and tell us what you saw. If the house was fine, you’ll know in a minute.
Get the water out and the wet material open as fast as you safely can, but don’t start scrubbing walls yourself once growth is visible. After Katrina, CDC found that 69 percent of homeowners who cleaned mold themselves didn’t consistently wear a proper respirator. Louisiana’s Department of Health says to clean up mold only after every pathway for moisture has been closed. Found mold after a storm? Call.
Pull the company’s record at lacontractor.org, or phone the State Licensing Board for Contractors at 1-800-256-1392 and ask. The board also says advertising mold remediation without the license is illegal. Ask for the license number, a certificate of insurance, and a written scope before work begins — that goes for us too.
Not for the decision. According to CDC, naming the type isn’t necessary — every mold gets handled the same way, and that way is removal. The most common indoor molds are Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Aspergillus; after Katrina, Aspergillus and Penicillium made up more than 70 percent of the spores found in flooded New Orleans homes. None of that changes what happens to the wall. No need to guess the species.
EPA’s line is about ten square feet — a three-foot-by-three-foot area — on a hard surface. Past that, or anywhere the growth is on drywall, insulation, carpet, or inside a cabinet, EPA says to bring in a professional. Louisiana’s Department of Health adds two more triggers: mold in the HVAC system, or water that was contaminated or sewage.
A general residential contractor in Louisiana can legally do at most 20 square feet of mold work without a mold remediation license, and any job over $7,500 requires the license outright. A handyman with a shop vac and a jug of bleach is neither. If it’s a small patch on a hard surface, you can do it yourself; if it’s bigger, it needs the license.
It looks better for a while. Surface cleaning isn’t always removal: if the growth is in the paper face of the drywall or the insulation behind it, wiping the wall takes off the part you can see and leaves the rest. Dead mold on the surface is still an allergen, and the moisture that fed it is still there. If it returned, keep looking for moisture — and call and tell us where.
It depends on things a phone call can’t settle: how far the growth has spread, whether it’s inside walls, insulation, or the HVAC, how many rooms are involved, and whether it’s a home or a commercial space. Prices vary widely for that reason. The real number comes from a visit, or from an evaluator’s report if one has already laid out the findings. What we can say is that it doesn’t get cheaper by waiting — one wet sheet of drywall becomes a wall.
Sometimes. Homeowners policies generally cover mold that follows a sudden, covered event and exclude mold from slow leaks, humidity, or neglect — and a roof that has been dripping for a season reads as the second kind. Many policies also cap mold payouts. How much your policy actually pays is a question for you and your insurer, not for us. What we do is photograph, log, and itemize everything we remove so your adjuster has a record to work from.
It can, and the effect can outlast the removal. One appraisal study found that a large share of buyers wouldn’t bid on a home with a mold history even after remediation. The protection that lasts is a documented job: a written report showing what came out, from where, and why, kept with the house. That’s a very different conversation with a buyer than a stain that was painted over.
No. There’s no charge to call and describe what you’re seeing, and no obligation comes with it. If we can pick up, you’re connected right then; if we’re mid-job you get a callback time and the number it will come from. Not sure how serious it is? Call.
Containment means sealing the work area in plastic sheeting and running it under negative pressure so air moves into the sealed room, not out of it. EPA’s remediation guidance calls for it so spores disturbed during removal stay where the work is. Without it, taking a moldy wall apart can spread the problem through the house — which is the main reason DIY removal of anything past a small patch goes wrong.
If it has been wet and moldy, usually yes. Drywall is paper and gypsum, and mold grows into the paper. EPA and CDC say porous materials that have been wet and moldy generally need to be discarded rather than cleaned. The cut line often runs well above the visible stain, because water wicks up inside a wall. Framing, brick, and slab stay and get cleaned in place.
Carpet and pad that got wet and moldy come out; they can’t be cleaned the way a hard surface can. Upholstered furniture that sat in water is usually a loss. Solid wood, metal, glass, and sealed surfaces can generally be cleaned and kept. We go through it item by item on site and tell you which is which.
Bare sheet-metal duct can be cleaned. Flexible insulated duct and duct board that have gotten wet or moldy can’t be effectively cleaned, according to EPA, and get replaced; Louisiana’s Department of Health repeated that after Ida. We also clean the coil, the plenum, and the platform the air handler sits on, since condensation there is usually where the trouble started.
Yes. The Louisiana Real Estate Commission’s property disclosure form asks directly about mold, water intrusion, and flooding. A seller who hides a known problem can face rescission and damages claims after the sale. A problem that was removed and documented is a much easier line to fill in. If you’re listing soon, tell us when you call — we write the report with that in mind.
We answer at any hour. Tell us where you see or smell it, what got wet, and whether it has come back after cleaning. Leave us a callback number and your ZIP code. If we’re available, you’ll be connected right away with the person who does the work. If we’re on a job, you’ll get a scheduled callback, and we’ll tell you which number to watch for so you know it’s us. Call and describe what you’re seeing.