How fast can mold start growing?

**wesdawg67** · 03-11-2010, 11:46 AM

Just like the title says.

One of my janitorial accounts had a flood about 36 hours ago. A fresh water pipe broke.

It's in a two story commercial building and pipe that broke was on the second floor. Everything was soaked on the first floor where my custy's office is, ceiling tiles(what are left), walls, carpet (CGD), etc.

The company that actually owns the building just brought in their own people to do the clean up. All they had thought was a shop vac and some air movers.

Now, early this morning I went to do my rounds at this office and the pipe has burst again, this time even worse. Even more area flooded this time.

So is there anything that my client should worry about. I've never done any water restoration yet so I'll leave it up to you experts.

**aspenedelen** · 03-11-2010, 11:51 AM

Get a drying company that has heated drying trailer within the next 24 hours. It is critical you do not pass the 72/90 hour mark without some sort of drying going on. Call insurance company and ask them who them recommend and let them make the call with who to use for a freshwater loss. There is still a great chance at saving most of materials if you get to drying within the next 24 hours. Your in Colorado so you should have low RH outside. If RH outside is lower than inside open all windows until RH inside balances out. That will help out tremondously with drying too.

**wesdawg67** · 03-11-2010, 11:58 AM

What about outside temperature? It's still gets pretty cold here during the night, we dropped below freezing last night.

But the RH is something that I'm worried about. When I got in this morning, most of the windows on the first floor were completely fogged up because of all the moisture in the air. It would seem their air movers just blew around the new flood water.

**aspenedelen** · 03-11-2010, 12:37 PM

the outside temp doesn't matter as long as it isn't below freezing. If your inside RH is way above the outside you can open windows during the day to create a open drying system. At night when the temp falls then just close the windows. If no dehumidification is present then air movers will just blow around wet air to dry materials. Wet always goes to dry. If you have a closed environment and have a wet wall and you put a air mover to that wet wall the moisture collected from the wall in the air has to go somewhere. The least resistance is a dry material. If your guys keep this up the whole building will become one soggy mess. Can you get me the cubic feet of the area that is affected? I can then figure out how much dehumidification you need in pints to dry building.

**aspenedelen** · 03-11-2010, 12:38 PM

that way I can tell you how many LGR dehu's you need

**wesdawg67** · 03-11-2010, 12:50 PM

I would say around 9-11,000 cubic ft. It's two large offices, a front lobby area, mailroom, and a wide hallway.

Ceilings are about 8' high.

So it sounds like they're not going to be able to dry it like they were before with just air movers? I just want to make sure so I know what to tell my custy. They originally ask my to deal with it, but when buckets literally falling from the sky I can't take on a job like that without the proper equipment.

**aspenedelen** · 03-11-2010, 02:39 PM

You need a minimum of 2 LGR dehu's on the jobsite but with walls, celing, floor, carpet and pad there is a lot of bound moisture present. I would bring in at least three if not four Phoenix 200's just to take out as much as much water vapor as possible then they can start pulling the bound moisture from walls, floor, ceiling, etc. This is going to take a while to dry since nothing has been done to start the drying way. If you have any questions give me a call. My office number is 605.624.2485. My name is Anthony and I run a successful carpet cleaning and disaster mitigation firm herein S.E South Dakota.

**Scott W** · 03-11-2010, 02:59 PM

Mold that was pre-existing can be revived pretty quickly. but new mold will not get a start for 4 days or so.. Usually longer, but time will vary with temperature and how much food source is present.

As posted above - DO NOT ATTEMPT TO HAVE THIS DRIED WITH AIR MOVERS ONLY. This just moves moisture in the air around until it reaches 100% and condenses somewhere else like the windows or is absorbed by porous surfaces like papers, painting, photos, particle board, sheet rock, etc.

Wet air must get outside and drier air brought in if this drier air is available. Otherwise they need several LGR dehumidifiers or TES or E-TES units. They also need some meters to know how much moisture is already in the walls, floors and other hidden places. If not checked and dried properly mold will show up later, maybe much later, because some areas where not dried.

**aspenedelen** · 03-11-2010, 03:04 PM

Take Scott's advice! He is a pro at this and has many more years experience than I do (I only have 10 yrs restoration wise).

**wesdawg67** · 03-11-2010, 03:56 PM

Ok, guys, thanks a lot for the info. I'll let my client know that the land lord is in over his head here.

Anthony, I'll keep info close if I need to talk to someone right away.

Thanks again.

**Frank DiGi** · 03-11-2010, 07:33 PM

Check here for mold info: http://www.epa.gov/mold/moldcourse/

**PaulDavisBrunswickGeorgia** · 03-11-2010, 08:33 PM

it needs professional help and NOW.

Insurance companies can and will deny a claim if a loss of this size is ignored causing significant secondary damage.

Call someone now, not tomorrow

**aspenedelen** · 03-11-2010, 10:49 PM

agreed

**Frank DiGi** · 03-11-2010, 10:54 PM

I would call someone to handle it right away..

**wesdawg67** · 03-12-2010, 11:27 AM

Well I dropped in to check on the office this morning. They only had a single dehumidifier(175 Phoenix I believe) and a mess more air movers going. They only other piece of equipment they had working was an Injectidry unit running on only one of the several walls that got wet.

There was still a few places where the carpet was wet, and obviously wicking problems everywhere.

But at least the pipe didn't burst again over night.

I guess we'll see how everything looks over the weekend.

**PaulDavisBrunswickGeorgia** · 03-12-2010, 10:14 PM

too many air movers can still cause secondary damge without the proper level of dehumdification...it can even amplify it

**aspenedelen** · 03-13-2010, 07:15 AM

absolutely agree with above statement. Too many air movers are just going to move wet air to dry surfaces which are then in turn going to get wet themselves. if they just have a small 175 that is nowhere enough dehumidification due to the fact floors, ceiling, walls, carpet, pad, etc are wet. Since seconday damage has occured and or starting to occur the owners are going to realize soon enough that not doing enough in the short term is going to cost them a lot in the long run (due to replacing damaged trim, drywall, ceiling tiles, etc) Good Luck though as the time progresses

**wesdawg67** · 03-13-2010, 06:38 PM

Thanks for the info guys. In the event that there is damage brewing, what sure I be looking for exactly? I've seen some jobs with obvious mold spores growing on the outside of walls an such, but what should I be looking for exactly?

**aspenedelen** · 03-13-2010, 07:47 PM

I think the Paul Davis guy should chime in here as he does a lot more more than I do

**PaulDavisBrunswickGeorgia** · 03-13-2010, 11:48 PM

First what is the temperature and relative humidity?

Second what is the moisture content of the wet areas?

A single 175 is not going to dry that area in a timely fashion, it needs more dehumidification

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