Question: I was recently cleaning out a bedroom closet that had been packed tightly with unused belongings that needed to be purged. This closet has two walls exposed to the outside and gets really cold in the winter. It is my guess that frost formed on the walls, there was no circulation and black mould formed. I asked a friend who is a drywall expert to look at it and his first comment was, "This is bad and get expert help." I called 311 and the only number (they) gave me was the health inspector’s office. They said they only work in low-cost housing developments. When I asked for a company a regular citizen could call, she said go online. I have mould allergies, so to do this myself would not be a good idea.
Do you have any suggestions?
— Barb P.
Answer: Finding a good source for help in determining how to remove the mould in your closet may be fairly easy, but calling the City of Winnipeg multi-purpose phone line is not the place to start. Checking with other levels of government, particularly in areas related to health and housing, should yield proper results.
While it may seem like the 311 number adopted by the City of Winnipeg will provide answers to issues such as the mould growth in your home, it does not. That type of helpline can provide the proper direction to various municipal departments, but was instituted to be more helpful in keeping costs down than for consumer advice. The benefit of the single phone exchange is not only to eliminate time wasted by Winnipeggers looking for the right departmental number, it also minimizes nuisance calls to civic departments for improper reasons. Unfortunately, health issues often fall more under provincial or federal government jurisdictions, so calling 311 is not the right answer.
While it may have seemed callous of the operator to direct you to the Internet for your solution, that is exactly the right advice. If you don’t have access, find a family member, friend or neighbour to help in your search. While you may have to wade through some bad websites or misinformation, going to the Government of Canada website is never a bad choice. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. is an institution supported by the federal government that provides a wealth of information for Canadian homeowners. There are numerous publications, printed and online (PDF format), that cover wide ranging topics related to homes and buildings. They can be contacted by phone or online to lead you in the right direction.
CMHC may also direct you to the Health Canada portion of the Government of Canada website for an excellent article about mould: "Addressing moisture and mould in your home" should provide a direct response to your exact question. This publication was found by going to Health Canada’s website, clicking indoor air quality and following the link to this specific page. In a nutshell, it breaks down specific mould formations into three categories, easily understood by homeowners and others.
A "small" mould growth is one that covers an area less than one square metre. This would normally be found in a bathroom, kitchen cupboard, ceiling or other area where an isolated moisture issue has occurred. It can normally be cleaned or removed by most homeowners and instructions for this type of job are included.
A "medium" mould formation is one that may cover up to three square metres in total. If the growth is spread out, or into a few small formations, the cumulative area of all these should not exceed this overall size to fall into this category. Health Canada suggests this still may be within your skill-set to attend to, but professionals should be called in if you have specific sensitivity to mould or are not physically capable of the cleanup.
Finally, a "large" mould issue is one greater than three square metres and should only be remediated by licensed professionals. Health Canada does not recommend an unqualified person clean up large areas of mould. You may need a professional assessment to determine why the mould is there in the first place and how to clean it up.
Since your mould issue occurred in a closet, I would suspect it would fall into either the small or medium category. Since you have sensitivity to mould, getting rid of this growth may still require professional remediation, which leads us directly to the main concern of your inquiry.
CMHC had a program to train indoor air-quality individuals for assessments, but I am not sure if it is still active. They did have the contact information for these people across Canada, so checking with them may be your next step.
Regardless of whether that yields results for someone to come and assess the situation, there are numerous companies that do environmental remediation for issues such as yours. Most have certifications from various organizations, but asking how many remediations such as yours they have dealt with and how long they have been in business, should yield the proper answers. Some of these companies have a tendency to oversell their services by fear mongering, so reading information from reliable sources beforehand should help prevent you from agreeing to do more than needed.
For example, Health Canada does not recommend testing the air for mould. They state that when a growth such as yours is spotted, you should find the source of the moisture, eliminate it and then clean or remove the mould.
Calling a help line, designed to navigate through various municipal departments, will do little to help you eliminate the mould problem in your home. Contacting federal or provincial health departments, such as Health Canada, either by phone, email or by searching their websites, should provide reliable information to help you get rid of the mould issue without unnecessary expense or angst.
Ari Marantz is the owner of Trained Eye Home Inspection Ltd. and the past president of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors — Manitoba (cahpi.mb.ca). Questions can be emailed to the address below. Ari can be reached at 204-291-5358 or check out his website at trainedeye.ca.
trainedeye@iname.com
