Air quality testing in Gettysburg, PA

Mold in Gettysburg homes

Gettysburg sits on a mix of limestone and shale with a high water table in the low-lying parts of the borough and along Rock Creek and Marsh Creek. Older homes in the borough have stone or block foundations and dirt or partial crawl spaces; newer subdivisions to the east and south have poured basements that still take on water in a wet spring. Either way, the pattern is the same: moisture gets in, stays, and mold follows.

Most calls are about one of four things:

• Basement mold after a wet season or a sump pump failure.
• Bathroom and attic mold from poor ventilation.
• Post-leak mold behind drywall after a plumbing or roof leak.
• Mold found during a home sale, where the buyer's inspector flags it and a remediation quote is needed fast.

What "mold remediation" means here

Pennsylvania has no state licence for mold work, so any contractor can call themselves a remediator. The companies listed on this site fall into three groups. Restoration contractors (the franchises and the larger independents) handle water damage, drying and mold as one job and can rebuild afterwards. Mold specialists do inspection, testing and remediation and nothing else. Testing-only firms sample the air and surfaces and write a report but do not remove anything, which is what you want when you need an independent opinion.

Whoever you call, the job should follow the IICRC S520 standard: find and stop the moisture source, contain the area, remove porous materials that cannot be cleaned, clean and dry what remains, and verify the result. A quote that skips the first step is not a remediation quote.