Ok, so we have some mold in our basement and I am afraid of it! I don't want to be around the mold or the stuff you use to clean it up until everything is taken care of. I have been trying to keep it dry down there and to address the drainage problem on one side of the house, but I would like professionals to clean up the mold and prevent future outbreaks. Has anyone done this and how much did it cost?

I did...but fortunately for us we got some of it paid for by previuos owners. We had mold in two bathrooms. First off we paid a mold tester to test for what kind of mold. He was very costly...like $300 a time and up. You would have to get an initial testing to find out if remediation took care of the levels that were there. You will always have levels of mold indoors and out. The remediation itself (which for us was removing the wood that had toxic mold on it, general clean up, running of big air cleaners and cleaning of carpets) cost us about $10,000. Crazy. They really make a killing from it. There is no way you can remediate if you still have an ongoing problem. If it was me I would try to address the drainage problem which I know is difficult in a basement. I would test the house and the basement to see where the level of toxicity lies. I have a couple of wild kids that need me today....sorry...feel free to pm me....unfortunately I know a little about.

Texas has strick regulations, the only state that does, and it really helps control the costs.

Mold remediation is one of the things I manage in my job doing environmental work. If you have questions or want to discuss your problems PM me.

I just did a home test kit on my mom's house, b/c I get sick every time I'm there. I'm waiting on the lab results. It's from Professional Labs, I picked it up at Lowe's for >$9. It was a Petri dish set up deal, then I mailed the dish to the lab for anaylsis $30. You only mail it in for anaylsis if mold grows on the dish.

My mom's house had at least 7 different types of mold growing on the dish. I left it in a room for 1 hour.

You can also get this same mold test kit on-line at a variety of places. The kit came with a swap in the event you were testing active mold spores on a surface.

Photo of Mold Petri Dish (http://lunceford.shutterfly.com/action/)

I hope you can see this, it's really sick to think when we go there we are all breathing this. Oh, and my Mom and Dad think I'm nuts...

forgiv eme if you've tried this already or it sounds ridiculous, but have you tried just using some tto on it?