The mold remediation - Day One

8:00am – I locked up my two cats in a bedroom as far away from the basement/kitchen area as possible, in expectation of the mold remediator's arrival (henceforth known simply as "contractor" and/or "crew") as promised at 8:30am. Contractor had advised me they wouldn't be affected by the work but I did it anyway.

9:30am – Contractor called to advise they were running late on another job and it would be another hour or so before they could arrive to start work.

1:20pm – Contractor and crew finally arrived - five hours later than scheduled. Demolition in the basement began. Contractor put up a "containment area" of plastic sheeting no thicker than my Dollar Store shower curtain (I have a sample) between the basement door and the door to the outside. A great amount of wall, floor and other space was left unprotected, yet this was the area that all the debris would be taken out of the home through. Although I questioned this, Contractor advised me he knows his business and I have nothing to worry about they would thoroughly clean up after themselves. I had to point out several openings in the containment where they’d forgotten to tape.

1:30pm – Contractor set up a "negative air" machine in my living room. It was loud and blew dust and papers all over the room. It ran all day in the same spot. Contractor advised that it would clean the air in the entire house five times over". My home is a Cape Cod converted into a two-story with many doors, a small hallway and a finished attic. The location it was placed was the living room, which is nowhere near the basement or kitchen where the work was taking place. In the image below you can see the entrance to the attic, and the hallway to its right. To the left (not pictured) is a door to the kitchen.



2:20pm – Contractor's crew left for lunch
2:30pm – I decided to take some pictures of what they'd done so far but didn't go into the basement because of all the heavy demolition and debris.

The "containment area" @ 2:30pm:





3:10pm – Crew returned from lunch
3:40pm – Crew left for day. The basement light was left on though I didn’t notice till it got dark.
9:10pm – Found that the "containment area" of plastic sheeting had fallen down, and the basement door was left ajar, potentially exposing the house to excessive amounts of disturbed/airborne mold spores. You can also see (in the second image) the leftover residue from the duct tape on the ceiling where it pulled away.





The kitchen reeked of mold.

9:15pm – I left a message for the contractor

9:40pm – Received a response from the contractor that they would arrive first thing in the morning to fix the containment and that I had nothing to worry about. basement.

The basement light remained on because I didn't want to go down there myself.

I left the cats locked up and ran for my bedroom upstairs.

It got worse from there.