Heating the moldy materials to kill the colony.

Some remediation companies will tell you that apply intense heat to an area or to the entire structure will actually kill off mold colonies. This is absolutely false. Though, at very, very high temperatures, heat will kill colonies and spores, mold is extraordinarily resistant to heat, especially the kind of heat that unscrupulous contractors will try to apply to your property in order to get rid of the mold.

It is important to note here that remediating mold is not necessarily the same thing as killing the mold. Unless the mold has actually been removed from your property, proper remediation has not been done. The mold is still alive and well in your house if it has not been physically removed. Thought it is nice to hear that the mold in your house is dead, that does not mean that the spores will not harm you. Dead mold spores are just as dangerous as live mold spores. There is absolutely zero research that supports the claim that heat remediation works. It does very little to fight mold growing inside the walls of the house and almost nothing to fight visible mold colonies.

The only benefit of a heat treatment is to speed up drying processes. As material dry, the growth of their mold slows down, as long as there is enough fresh air to actually get rid of the water that evaporates off of the surfaces. Better than heat treatments are dehumidifiers and ventilation, which will dry out and keep the building dried out, slowing the progress of mold. Heat treatments can actually be very dangerous, damaging the building, negating any actually good these treatments could do.

 

Avoid It: Insist that your remediation company focus on physically removing the mold from your building, not trying to kill it. If it is not actually removed, then you are still at risk, both for developing new colonies of mold and for developing serious health risks in relation to the mold spores, both alive and dead, that are still in the air. The best way to avoid this scam is to use a remediation company that uses removal as its first and foremost remediation tool.

 

For more information about mold inspections and removal processes, call us today (406) 755-5322.   We pride ourselves on being an authority on all things mold. If you have a question about this topic, do not hesitate to contact us today.