Water intrusion and mold after a Florida storm: the first 48 hours

What should you do in the first 24 hours after water gets in?

Suppose a section of roof peels back during a storm at 2 in the morning, and by sunrise water has come through the ceiling of a second-floor unit and run down the wall into the unit below. The order of the next few hours matters more than the speed of any single step.

1. 1Make it safe. Ready.gov warns of the risk of electrocution and says not to touch electrical equipment if it is wet or if you are standing in water, and to turn off the electricity only if it is safe to do so. The same page says people with asthma or other lung conditions, or with immune suppression, should not enter buildings with indoor water leaks or mold growth that can be seen or smelled, and that children should not take part in disaster cleanup.
2. 2Stop the source. Tarp the roof opening, close the valve on a broken line or clear the drain that backed up. Drying a room that is still getting wet is labor spent twice.
3. 3Photograph before anything moves. Ready.gov's hurricane guidance says to document property damage with photographs and contact the insurance company. Shoot the ceiling stain, the waterline on the drywall and every damaged item before it goes to the curb.
4. 4Decide what kind of water it is. The EPA's water damage cleanup table is written for clean water. If the water is known or suspected to carry sewage or chemical or biological pollutants, the EPA notes that OSHA requires protective equipment and containment, and it says not to use fans until you have determined the water is clean. Ready.gov adds that floodwater can be contaminated, so rising water from outside is a different problem from a roof leak.
5. 5Get the water out and the air moving. For clean water, the EPA's table calls for a water extraction vacuum on carpet, dehumidifiers to bring down humidity and fans to speed drying.
6. 6Leave the air conditioning off if you suspect mold in it. The EPA says not to run an HVAC system you know or suspect is contaminated with mold, because it could spread mold throughout the building, and to call a professional experienced with contaminated water when sewage caused the damage.

Why do the first 24 to 48 hours matter so much?

The number comes from the EPA, which hedges it with some care. Its home guide says that if wet or damp materials are dried 24 to 48 hours after a leak or spill, in most cases mold will not grow. A footnote to its commercial-buildings table adds two caveats: materials dried within 48 hours may already have grown mold, and mold will not always grow after 48 hours, because the figure is only a guideline.

The window, then, marks where the odds turn. It is not a guarantee in either direction.

Florida's summer air adds a complication. After a storm the power may be out, which means no air conditioning pulling moisture from the air while the building tries to dry. The EPA recommends keeping indoor relative humidity below 60 percent, ideally between 30 and 50 percent, and notes that a humidity meter costs about $10 to $50 at many hardware stores. A meter in each affected unit turns the question of whether a room is dry from a guess into a reading.

Which wet materials can be dried, and which have to go?

The EPA's guide Mold Remediation in Schools and Commercial Buildings includes a table of water-damaged materials and what to do with each within the first 24 to 48 hours. For the materials in a typical rental unit, it says:

• Ceiling tiles: discard and replace.
• Cellulose and fiberglass insulation: discard and replace.
• Wallboard: may be dried in place if there is no obvious swelling and the seams are intact. If not, remove, discard and replace it, and ventilate the wall cavity if possible.
• Carpet and backing: dry within 24 to 48 hours with a water extraction vacuum, a dehumidifier and fans. The subfloor underneath must be cleaned and dried too.
• Vinyl, linoleum and ceramic tile: vacuum or damp wipe with water and mild detergent, then make sure the underflooring is dry.
• Upholstered furniture: extract the water and dry with dehumidifiers, fans or heaters, though the EPA notes it may be difficult to dry completely within 48 hours.
• Wood: remove moisture immediately and dry with dehumidifiers, gentle heat and fans. Pry wet paneling away from the wall.

Once mold has actually grown, the arithmetic for porous materials gets harsher. The EPA's home guide says absorbent or porous materials, such as ceiling tiles and carpet, may have to be thrown away if they become moldy, because mold can grow into the empty spaces and crevices of the material and be difficult or impossible to remove completely. It also says not to paint or caulk moldy surfaces, since paint applied over mold is likely to peel.

When is a mold problem too big to handle in-house?

The EPA draws the line at about 10 square feet, roughly a 3-foot by 3-foot patch. Below that size, its home guide says, you can in most cases handle the job yourself. Above it, or wherever there has been a lot of water damage, the agency points to its Mold Remediation in Schools and Commercial Buildings guide, which it describes as applicable to other building types as well. If you hire a contractor, the EPA advises choosing one with experience cleaning up mold and checking references.

For maintenance staff handling the small jobs, the EPA lists gloves, goggles and an N-95 respirator as the protective gear, and it notes that OSHA requires respirators to be fit tested when they are used in an occupational setting. A maintenance technician cleaning a tenant's closet is in an occupational setting.

Does Florida require a license for mold assessment and remediation?

Above that same 10 square feet, generally yes. Part XVI of chapter 468 of the Florida Statutes creates a licensing program for mold-related services, and the Department of Business and Professional Regulation licenses two kinds of professional: mold assessors and mold remediators. Section 468.8411 defines mold assessment as sampling and evaluation to identify the origin, identity, location and extent of mold growth of greater than 10 square feet, and defines mold remediation as the removal, cleaning, sanitizing, demolition or other treatment of mold or mold-contaminated matter of greater than 10 square feet.

The state and the EPA, in other words, drew their lines in the same place.

Section 468.8419 bars performing or offering mold assessment or mold remediation without complying with part XVI, and bars using titles such as "mold assessor" or "mold remediator" without doing so. It also keeps the two jobs apart: a mold assessor may not remediate a structure on which the assessor or the assessor's company provided a mold assessment within the last 12 months, and a remediator may not assess a structure it remediated within the last 12 months. Certified Division I contractors are excepted from that rule. A first violation is a second-degree misdemeanor.

The part sets insurance floors as well. Under section 468.8421, a mold assessor must carry general liability and errors and omissions coverage of at least $1 million, and a mold remediator must carry general liability of at least $1 million that specifically covers mold-related claims. Section 468.8422 requires a contract for either service to be a document or electronic record signed or otherwise authenticated by the parties.

Not everyone needs the license. Section 468.841 exempts a residential property owner working on his or her own property, and a person working on property that the person's employer, or an affiliate under common ownership, owns, leases, operates or manages. That second exemption does not apply if the person, employer or affiliate is in the business of performing the work for the public. The section also exempts people acting within the scope of certain other licenses, including those under chapter 489, unless they hold themselves out for hire to the public under a mold assessor or mold remediator title.

The 12-month rule has a plain logic. The person who measures the problem may not be the person paid to fix it.

Where does Florida landlord-tenant law come in?

Residents will ask two things: whether it is safe to stay, and what happens next. Two sections of Florida's landlord-tenant law frame those conversations. Section 83.51 sets out the landlord's obligation to maintain the premises, covered in the guide to Florida landlord repair obligations, and section 83.63 governs what a tenant may do when casualty damage substantially impairs the unit, which the hurricane season checklist walks through.

If water is still coming in, 1Stop treats it as an Emergency on the request form, and HQ calls back to say whether 1Stop can cover it, because emergencies have no published response target yet. Lake and Polk take scheduled work only, and the coverage page shows the rest of the region's counties, which are taking vendors but have no response target yet.

The EPA's home guide, for all its tables and caveats, keeps returning to the same two words: "act quickly."