HEPA Vacuums and Mold

9/1/2021 (Permalink)

For those that have been adversely affected by mold effects, it is important that your living environment be maintained as a safe place where you will not be exposed to potentially harmful organisms such as mold spores which are small enough to float in the air indoors and out. One tool to help you in this goal is a HEPA vacuum. In an ideal world, we would all have built-in central vacuums that exhausted directly to the outside. Since this is not an option for many people, the next best thing is to find the best HEPA vacuum for their situation.

WHAT IS HEPA?

A HEPA or high efficiency particulate air filter is a filter that removes 99.97% of particles that are 0.3 microns or larger. This high degree of filtration is important since there are many more very small mold spore fragments found than whole mold spores. The use of HEPA filtration helps ensure that these small particulates or fragments as well as the larger intact spores can be safely removed from the indoor environment. Although many vacuums may claim to have HEPA-like filtration, very few vacuums actually meet the rigid criteria to be called a HEPA vacuum. True HEPA vacuums not only have a HEPA filter but are also specially sealed so that no air is able to escape before passing through the filter. This means that the particles you vacuum up actually remain in the vacuum rather than being dispersed into the air that you breathe. HEPA filtration is also important for people that suffer with allergies to dust mites, pets, pollen, or other environmental allergens.

Roof Leak in Clovis CA

6/21/2019 (Permalink)

Employee working at Mold Mitigation job

This shows a standard procedure for our employees to get rid of heavy mold appropriately. The affected area was from a roof that leaked in from the bathroom and ran down the walls which had affected the corner of one of the office closet ceiling and walls. Heavy rains will cause this to happen but it can also happen from a pipe leaking slowly. SERVPRO of Fresno Northeast/Shaver Lake was called in and we immediately got to work. We cleanly cut the affected ceiling and drywall after testing the areas. It was very wet outside so we carefully laid plastic on the floor to track in more water and dirt. Containment is also done so that mold is not spread from area to area. 

Mold Mitigation

6/18/2019 (Permalink)

Mold in Kitchen Fresno, CA

Here at SERVPRO of Fresno Northeast/Shaver Lake we deal with a lot of mold mitigation. Our staff is highly trained in removing mold safely and has been trained and IICRC certified. Mold is very dangerous and we want to ensure that we appropriately remove it all. In this situation, we went out to a customer's house that had a dishwater flow over the course of a day. This resulted in water moving up the wall, damaging the floors, and mold growing behind the counters. We tested floor to ceiling and surrounding walls for traces of mold. Our professional staff removed the affected areas and even did the reconstruction including restoring. Their kitchen looked amazing after and they were very happy with the results. The customer even contacted their insurance company to let them know.

Example Of Our Mold Job

6/11/2019 (Permalink)

Water damage in bathroom wall

Water damage from a cooper pipe that broke in the wall and due to the length of time that it sat without the home owners knowledge it caused major dry rot and mold damage. This is an exterior wall so we had to remove the dry rot paneling and studs then replace them with new ones. Once that was finished, we were able to put the shingles to the outside of the house back on. 

The homeowners were very appreciative of our timeliness and professionalism. They personally thanked up for our hard work and even work a personal letter thanking everyone involved including the Operations Manager and two crew members. We explained everything we were doing prior to starting work and got out of there "Like it never even happened."