Mold and Water Damage with Eric Blanco from Dry Guys
Welcome to Episode 264 of The Homeowner Show! Join Kevin Hackett and Craig Williams as they discuss their recent camping trip and get ready to welcome Eric Blanco from Dry Guys.
Homeowner guide
Mold and Water Damage in Your House
Why bleach does not fix mold, what remediation really involves, and how humidity plus a slow leak turns into a much bigger bill.
What the show has actually said
Mold is a water problem wearing a different name. Every episode here comes back to the same order of operations: find the water, stop the water, then deal with what grew.
Eric Blanco of Dry Guys is the one to start with, because he does remediation for a living. His flattest correction is about bleach: it kills the color so the spot looks gone, and bleach is almost ninety percent water, which is one of the three things mold needs. That episode also covers slow leaks, a nail driven through a pipe inside a wall, whole home dehumidifiers, and how much of the water damage work he sees comes off air conditioning.
Caroline Blazovsky works the prevention side: humidity control, house pressurization, HRV and ERV ventilation, and stopping mold before remediation is on the table at all. The spray foam episode covers what an encapsulated attic does to that balance and the mold question that comes with sealing an attic up.
Two more pieces. Rikki Neel and Jim Greene cover the inspection and cleanup end, including attic antimicrobial treatment and mold free certificates. And the Notion sensor review is the cheap version of all of it: a leak sensor that catches water while it is still only water, which is why Craig's insurance company handed him one.
The episodes behind this guide
Caroline Blazovsky - America’s Healthy Home Expert
In this episode, Craig and Kevin talk with Caroline Blazovsky, America’s Healthy Home Expert. Covid has made all of us hyper-aware of the air that we breathe and the germs that we live with on a daily basis.
LIVE! Home Inspections and Biohazard Cleanup with Rikki Neel & Jim Greene
We join a live gathering of Real Estate Professionals to get the latest from our friend Rikki Neel from Pink Flamingo Inspections and Jim Greene from Greene Air Tech and Houston Clean Response a Biohazard and crime scene cleaning service.
Controversial New Spray Foam Laws and Roofing Licensing
New Spray Foam Laws and Roofing Licensing In this episode Craig and Kevin discuss a couple of controversial new proposed laws for spray foam insulation, and new roofing licensing that is taking place, all in Texas. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of opinions surrounding each of these things.
Notion Smart Home Review
In this episode Craig and Kevin review the Notion Smart Home device. Craig received the device from his insurance company in exchange for a lowered premium.
Common questions
Does bleach kill mold?
No. Eric Blanco of Dry Guys is direct about it: bleach kills the color so the spot looks gone, and bleach is almost ninety percent water, which is one of the three things mold needs to grow. The stain disappears and the problem does not.
What causes most household mold?
A slow leak nobody found. Eric Blanco described the jobs he actually gets, including a nail driven through a pipe inside a wall, and the water damage that comes off air conditioning. Caroline Blazovsky adds the other half: a house that stays humid does not need a leak to grow something.
Can I prevent mold without a remediation crew?
Mostly, and that is Caroline Blazovsky's argument. She covers humidity control, house pressurization and HRV and ERV ventilation as the things that keep conditions wrong for mold in the first place. Whole home dehumidifiers come up on the Dry Guys episode as the hardware version of the same idea.
What is a mold free certificate?
It comes up on the live episode with inspector Rikki Neel and Jim Greene, alongside attic antimicrobial treatment and the biohazard cleanup end of that business. Worth hearing what is behind one before you treat it as proof.
There is a lot more where that came from.
The archive runs to hundreds of episodes on roofs, HVAC, pests, hiring, insurance and everything else a house throws at you. New ones every week.