The Challenge
Our customer noticed a foul odor lingering in his home and then discovered what he believed was mold on his ceilings. Due to his ceilings reaching up to 30 feet in some places, he was unable to remove or clean them, let alone figure out why the black spots were spreading across his ceiling. As a previous customer, he was familiar with the quality and detail of BioSweep Southeast’s restoration work, and reached out for us to get to the bottom of the issue.
Our Strategy
Initially we inspected the area with a thermal imaging camera which revealed several areas with little to no insulation behind the drywall. This gave some insight but not the entire picture of why the mold was appearing and growing across the ceiling.
We needed to find the source of the problem, rather than do a quick cover up job that would later lead to new or additional problems. We knew in order to discover the cause of the mold, we would have to open up the walls to see what was on the other side.
The Complications
The height of the ceilings was a particular challenge in this home. Our team had to use scaffolding in order to access all the hard-to-reach areas. When we opened the drywall, we discovered there had in fact been a bat infestation. Bats had deposited droppings throughout the space which caused the smell permeating the home. Their damage to the insulation and drywall allowed moisture to accumulate and cause mold to grow on the ceiling surfaces.
Our Solutions
With the source of the mold identified, we removed all the damaged drywall and insulation and thoroughly cleaned the mold from the home’s wood framing. Thankfully the bats were no longer present, as was confirmed by the pest control company. We sealed off any possible intrusion points from the outside as well as on the inside to prevent any future infestations. We then rebuilt the area with new drywall and insulation and painted the area to make it look brand new again.
Additionally we gassed the entire home with our proprietary and state-of-the-art BioSweep machines that utilize hydrogen peroxide to remove any odors and also kill any remaining mold spores and odor-causing bacteria.
The Results
The customer is very happy with the results and the place looks and smells much better!
BioSweep Southeast’s customers know we don’t simply paint or clean the exterior surface. We identify the source of the problem and take care of that first. In this case it was bats and the consequence of them nesting in the homeowner’s rafters. This customer had used us in the past for another project so he knew how detail oriented we are on every project and was confident we would solve his mold problem as well.
Identifying the source of the problem, fixing it, and restoring your space to ‘brand new’, that’s our specialty.