cross contamination prevention

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

We have moved into a new space, had it checked out by a local building

biology consultant who says we won't find better & no mold--it was only

completed last October....

He in turn referred us to another guy who does mold remediation but also

cleans people's stuff so they can take it to their new space w/o cross

contamination concerns... I asked him if his customers are generally

able to tolerate their possessions after his cleaning service and he

said yes, even those who are so sensitive that they can't enter the

contaminated space w/o reacting, I haven't done any reference checks yet

though...

This is what he advised us:

1) none of our stuff has mold growing on it, just mold fragments may

have landed on our stuff from the contaminated crawl space and HVAC, so

he says we aren't bringing growing mold w/us...so since my son doesn't

seem to be hypersensitive (or if he is he doesn't know it), even if we

bring some with us it will dissipate over time (and for sure we are

bringing some with us as we go back and forth to the old house, clearing

it out and getting it ready for remediation, I don't know how it would

be possible to avoid all cross contamination), good news in our new

place is it's got lots of windows and we air it out every day, when it

gets cold at night, the air filters go on...

2) ok to bring hard furniture and other hard things that can be wiped/

washed clean, take it out of the contaminated space and wash/wipe clean

before bringing into the new space (I am pretty confident about this,

Dr. Thrasher and Dr. Rea said this was ok to do)

3) ok to bring clothing but first wash three times (Dr. Rea says this

is ok to do)

4) don't bring mattresses, upholstered furniture, comforters, pillows,

anything quilted including quilted clothing (I get it, mold fragments

can be less than 1 micron and 1 micron is the smallest pore size I could

find on mattress encasings in my online search)

5) many nonwashable items can be cleaned with a commercial HEPA vacuum,

using a protocol of vacuuming three different directions, so I am

thinking of having them do this with a few things like expensive guitars

and cases, some lamps, etc.

6) framed art work with glass in front can be taken to the framers and

have a new paper backing sealed on the back, wipe the rest clean; oil

paintings can be vacuumed

7) wool throw carpets can be beaten, washed after a 72 hour submersion

in water

8) cushions must be left behind but things like needlepoint covers can

be washed and then stuffed with new cushions

So my question to the experts on is do you agree with this

protocol, or is it flawed? And if so, why?

Also, this service is pretty expensive, can anyone recommend a

commercial HEPA vacuum so I could do it myself and then I would have an

awesome vacuum to clean with...

Thanks, Sue Vican