My client is looking at a home that once had a flooded basement. The basement is finished....he is going to tear everything down to the studs and have a company come in and remove the rest of the mold....problem is we can't even get an idea how much it will be to see if we are in the ballpark we want to be in before putting a contract in. Could someone point me in the right direction??
Chicago area
Basement is about 700 sq feet
Thank you so much!

Christie

Hi Christie,
I am not sure about Chicago area since I am in New Jersey. But if there is that much mold then your client should probably just have the company do all of the work. It is important to remember that if you don't treat the mold properly prior to ripping down the walls then you will bring it throughout the entire house by way of dust.
We just did a bid on a house that needed the first floor and basement ripped down and treated. The bid was almost $25k.
Hope this helps.
Rich

Yeah mold remediation can be pretty steep I had a basement done for 15K. There must be some companies by you that can give you a quote?

Here in Virginia - had a client that bought a house with about 900 sq.ft. basement. I want to say it was several thousand dollars. Buyer himself gutted most of the basement (it was ugly cheap panelling anyway). He also had an interior french drain put in. He claims the whole bill was around $8k (I never saw the bill).

Last year we had a number of closed up houses that flooded and developed black discoloration on the lower portion of the basement walls. I don't call it mold until I have a mold report in hand. In any event we cut out the bottom 3 feet of drywall, wash it with swimming pool shock (bleach on steroids) 3-4 times 3-4 days apart. then we paint it with Kilz, and then replace the drywall with waterproof drywall and cover with wainscotting. No problems. The swimming pool shock was what a professional mold mediation company used on a 25K gut job. He mentioned chemically treating with something that sounded like the cure for leprosy. But the common name is swimming pool shock. Mixed with water and applied with a floor mop. Wear a ventilator, keep the windows open and a fan running, the fumes are nasty. Also, avoid any amonia near bleach. When mixed they form Chlorine Gas, outlawed by the Geneva Convention. Nasty stuff.
Now if the discoloration is such that it pops the wall board off the studs, or is inside the cabinets and such. I.e permeated the entire dwelling, hire a professional (not an arsonist) since that's beyond bleach treatment.
There are those that will disagree, but the methods I've laid out were as taught to me by the mitigation companies. Yup...I pay attention.

Thanks everyone....my client is still on the fence as we still haven't gotten a quote of any kind The house went down another $5000 today so we are going to put this back up on the table. I will let you know what we figure out

I'm from Kansas City and had some bad mold damage at the entrance of the basement and between the doorways leading up to the first floor. It ran around 12.5K because of how embedded the mold was. Don't know the exact square footage, otherwise it might be a ballpark figure for your Chicago burb.

Hello Shannon:

You were ripped off. Sorry.

See: http://www.forensic-applications.com/moulds/remediation.html

Cheers!

Caoimhín P. Connell
Forensic Industrial Hygienist
www.forensic-applications.com

(The opinions expressed here are exclusively my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect my professional opinion, opinion of my employer, agency, peers, or professional affiliates. The above post is for information only and does not reflect professional advice and is not intended to supercede the professional advice of others.)

AMDG

THAT was interesting reading! Thanks!

Nice info. Thanks