Found Mold After a Leak in Florida? Who to Call First

You pulled the baseboard after a leak, or you noticed dark spots on the drywall under the sink, and now there’s mold. The next question is who to call, and the order matters. Call the wrong company first and you can end up paying for work you don’t need, or with one company checking its own work.

Here’s the order we walk Brevard County homeowners through.

1. Stop the water

Mold needs moisture. As the EPA’s mold guide puts it, controlling mold starts with controlling moisture. Until the leak is stopped, any cleanup is temporary.

• Plumbing leak: shut the water off at the valve for that fixture or at the main, and call a plumber.
• AC leak: turn the system off. A clogged condensate line is a common culprit.
• Roof leak: call a roofer, and catch the water inside with buckets and plastic in the meantime.

If there’s standing water or soaked drywall, that has to be dried too. That’s the water damage restoration side of what we do.

2. Don’t disturb the mold

It’s tempting to scrub it or spray it with bleach. Hold off. Scrubbing it or tearing out moldy drywall without containment can spread spores to the rest of the house, and bleach doesn’t dry out the wet material behind the wall. Close the door to the room if you can, and don’t aim fans at the area.

3. Take photos

Photograph the leak, the stains and any growth you can see, with something in the frame for scale. Photos help us understand the job before we arrive, and they belong in your records if you file an insurance claim.

4. Call for a mold inspection

This is where we come in. Our free mold inspection is done under Florida mold remediator license MRSR3317. We look at the spot you’re worried about and the places mold usually hides nearby, and we take moisture readings to find where the water went. It’s often farther than the stain on the wall.

If work is needed, you get a written scope with a price before anything starts. If you don’t need us, we’ll tell you that too.

5. If you need lab results, an independent assessor handles that

We don’t do air sampling or lab work. In Florida, mold assessment and mold remediation are separately licensed, and the same company isn’t allowed to assess and remediate the same job. That conflict-of-interest rule protects you: the company that writes the protocol isn’t the one that gets paid to do the work.

If your situation calls for sampling, such as a real estate transaction or a landlord dispute, we’ll say so and refer you to an independent licensed mold assessor.

6. Licensed mold remediation

The removal itself is done by a Florida-licensed mold remediator. Ours is license MRSR3317, and you can look it up on the Florida DBPR website. On our jobs, mold remediation follows the same sequence every time:

• Confirm the leak has been repaired by a plumber, roofer or HVAC company before we start.
• Set up containment with negative air so spores don’t spread through the house.
• Remove the materials the mold has grown into.
• HEPA-vacuum and clean what stays.
• Dry the structure.

Our mold work follows the IICRC S520 standard.

7. Independent clearance

When the work is done, an independent licensed mold assessor comes back for clearance. That’s your third-party confirmation the job is finished. We never clear our own work.

8. Then the rebuild

We don’t do rebuild, so there’s no incentive for us to tear out more than necessary. Once the area is clean and dry, a separate contractor or your own handyman puts the drywall and trim back. We can refer you to contractors we work with.

How long does mold remediation take?

A typical mold remediation project takes about 10 days from start to finish, including the independent assessor’s clearance.

What about insurance?

Whether mold is covered depends on your policy and on what caused it. A sudden pipe burst is usually treated differently from a slow leak that went on for months, and your policy and your adjuster decide coverage. We work directly for you, not the insurance company. When the mold came from a sudden water event, we document the job so your adjuster can tie it to the covered loss. More on that on our insurance claim documentation page.

Why Brevard homeowners call us

The owner, Daniel Ryan Townsend, holds both Florida mold licenses: mold remediator (MRSR3317) and mold assessor (MRSA3762). Because Florida keeps the two roles separate on any one job, we only do the remediation, and clearance on every job we do goes to an independent assessor.

Found mold after a leak? Call Affordable Water and Mold Removal at (321) 890-2512, Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, for a free mold inspection. We serve all of Brevard County, from Mims to Palm Bay and the beaches.

About the author: Daniel Ryan Townsend grew up in Port St. John and has spent 15+ years in the restoration field, starting in his early twenties as a helper for a Brevard County restoration company. He worked his way up from technician to lead tech, supervisor, and management, then opened Affordable Water and Mold Removal in March 2018. He has been IICRC certified for 10+ years and holds the WRT (water damage restoration) and AMRT (mold remediation) certifications, plus Florida mold remediator license MRSR3317.