Matt Kelly advises on flood recovery: dry wet materials within 24-48 hours before mold starts, and replace anything saturated by floodwater like drywall and insulation. Don't let contractors cover over damp materials, which traps moisture and causes hidden mold problems later.
Between 24 and 48 hours.
All right, Helen's asking. Brisbane was flooded in February with houses underwater. What do you recommend? I heard about the flooding and I'm sorry. And I know this is going to create so many health problems for people. And the fact that, you know, this is a big plus because you can help yourself, you can help those around you because people just don't know, especially doctors, how much damage mold and specifically mycotoxins can do. So rule number one, when anything gets wet is dry it out as fast as possible. You know, it takes between 24, 48 hours for mold to grow when something gets wet. But when houses are flooded, I mean, everything just gets saturated. And it's not a matter of, you know, a spilled glass of water and you wipe it up quick. It's a matter of removing all that damaged water damaged material. So hopefully you have companies coming in that know to remove that. And even if they come in, and this is, this is for any area like down in Florida's flooding right now. And I just watched a video today of a lady walking through the water in her flooded house in Fort Lauderdale. It's not just removing that drywall, but everything behind it that you can't remove. All those studs, the bottom plates, the walls, the subfloor, everything needs to be dried thoroughly and as fast as possible. And sometimes it's just you can't get it dry quick enough. Okay. And if that's the case, those materials should be replaced because otherwise it's just going to be a problem coming in later. Now, it may look fine at the start, right? Like say you have half inch plywood or OSB for subfloor and the top gets dry and the bottom gets dry, but in the middle, because of the saturation, because of the flood and there's still moisture in the middle. And companies are always going as fast as they can because that's how they make their money. So if they see this looks dry and they're just going to put the new flooring over top and you just sealed it and trapped that moisture in the middle, which is slowly working its way out and going to mold. So unfortunately, when there's flooding, it comes down to really trying to get all material that was saturated replaced. And I know that's easy for me to say and companies and insurance don't want to go that far, but you definitely have to put up a fight for fighting for replacing all material that you can because wood just gets saturated and holds it. Like I said, worst case is the outside gets dry, you know, of a 2x4 studded interior wall and then they put the new drywall on, but there's still moisture there and you just screwed paper to wood that has too high of a moisture content. You couldn't do anything worse for mold besides screw mold food to damp wood that's going to start molding. So I'm sorry you're going through that. I'm sorry for everyone there. And down in Florida, the flooding's awful, and I know it's going to make all kinds of people mold sick. But I'm thankful for people like you that can that know what it can do and can help those around them. All right, Good luck. Helen.
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