Mold in Tyler homes
Tyler is in East Texas, and the air here carries a lot of water for much of the year. Mold needs three things: moisture, a mild temperature and something to feed on, such as drywall paper, wood or dust. A Tyler house offers the last two all the time. The moisture is what changes, and it usually arrives from a roof leak after a storm, a slow plumbing drip, an air conditioner that sweats into a wall, or a crawlspace that never dries out.
Texas regulates this work, so the first thing to understand is how the state divides it.
Two jobs, two license types
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation licenses mold assessors, who inspect and test for mold, and mold remediators, who clean it up; contractors doing either work in Texas must hold a TDLR mold license, and the same license holder may not do both the assessment and the remediation on one project.
In practice, a mold job in Tyler often involves two separate companies:
- The assessor looks at the house, finds where mold is growing, looks for the moisture source and sets out what needs to be removed.
- The remediator does the cleanup: sets up containment, removes and cleans materials, and dries the space.
One effect of the split: the company paid to do the cleanup isn't the one that decided how large it needed to be. When you get calls back, ask each company which role it is offering, and look its license up on TDLR's search before you sign anything.
Why it grows so readily here
NOAA's engineering weather data for Tyler counts about 1,918 hours in an average year with the wet-bulb temperature at 73°F or higher. The 1% summer design point is 97°F with a mean coincident wet-bulb of 76°F. That is hot air holding a great deal of moisture. When it slips into a cooler space, such as a wall cavity behind an air-conditioned room, the top of a duct, or the underside of a floor, the water comes out of the air and settles on the surface.
Rain adds to it. NOAA lists a 100-year rainfall rate of 4.0 inches per hour for Tyler. A downpour like that tests every roof valley, window flashing and gutter on the house, and the materials that get wet behind them may not show it until mold appears weeks later.
Signs worth calling about
- a musty smell that comes back after cleaning;
- staining or bubbling paint on ceilings below a bathroom or attic;
- dark growth along baseboards, behind furniture on outside walls, or around air vents;
- warped flooring or soft drywall;
- condensation dripping from ducts or the air handler in summer.
Moisture comes first
No remediation lasts if the water keeps coming. Before you compare quotes, the assessment should tell you:
- where the moisture came from;
- whether it has been stopped, and who is fixing it;
- how wet the materials are now, and how that was measured.
A plan that removes mold without naming the source is a plan for a second job.
What a sound remediation looks like
- Containment. The work area is sealed with plastic and kept under negative air pressure, so spores don't drift into the rest of the house.
- Removal. Moldy porous materials, such as drywall, insulation and carpet pad, are usually cut out and bagged inside the containment.
- Cleaning. Framing and other hard surfaces are cleaned rather than replaced.
- Drying. Dehumidifiers run until readings reach the target the plan set in advance. Opening windows in Tyler's summer air adds moisture rather than removing it.
- The air system. If the air handler or ducts are involved, they are part of the scope.
Insurance questions
Mold that follows a sudden leak or storm often ends up in an insurance claim. If you and the insurer disagree, the Texas Department of Insurance suggests asking for an appraisal or hiring a public adjuster, and it takes complaints online or through its Help Line at 800-252-3439, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time, Monday through Friday. Keep the assessor's report, photos and moisture readings; they are the record the claim rests on.
Comparing quotes
Line the quotes up item by item:
- the assessment it follows, and who wrote it;
- square feet of each material to be removed;
- containment and air filtration;
- drying equipment and how dryness is measured;
- the air system, if included;
- whether the rebuild is included or separate;
- how the company will show the area is clear at the end.