How Property Owners Must Deal with Mold in Condo Buildings

mold in condo buildings

Be it a result of water damage, high moisture levels or spore contamination, dealing with mold is a serious issue for condominium building managers and property owners. The presence of mold itself is a hazard on many fronts – from harming the health of your tenants, damaging your brand and, in the end, leaving you with very expensive mold remediation costs.

Upon finding mold, your first response should be to call on a credible environmental contractor to inspect the affected site and proceed with safely and fully removing the mold.

However, your mold management strategy should ideally begin with preventative measures, i.e. keeping moisture levels low in your condo and ensuring that vulnerable areas are dry.

Understanding Mold in Condo Buildings

Mold (or mould) is a fungus that’s commonly found outdoors, especially in damp areas such as forests. It plays a key role in breaking down dead organic matter, but mold spores can also enter our living spaces and infect our homes, offices and stores.

You’ll typically find mold growing in damp and moist areas such as basements, bathrooms, kitchens and other places where moisture levels can be high. Common forms of indoor mold include the following: alternaria, aspergillus, fusarium, memnoniella and trichoderma.

Mold could form in your drywalls, ceiling, tiles (including floor, bathtub/shower and wall), drapery and/or carpets. It’s a major problem for several reasons.

First, mold is strongly correlated with a number of health problems, including respiratory problems and irritation to the skin and eyes, to name a few.

Second, mold infections cause serious damage. By infecting the drywall, tiles and other critical areas, they add to the risk of further water damage (and mold). Large-scale mold infections could require costly reconstruction work, which makes prevention – or at least early detection – a critical need.

Third, the health risks and damaged by mold can have indirect consequences on your condominium. Not only will it push your tenants to leave, but being known for having a mold outbreak could affect your building’s reputation among home buyers and renters.

These issues make dealing with mold – ideally before a mold outbreak can occur – a necessity for condominium management, homeowners and residents.

How to Deal with Mold in Condos

You should deal with mold as a multi-step strategy that starts with prevention. In the end, mold is a result of factors that you – the building owner – can immediately manage to prevent tenant complaints, health issues and expensive structural damage down the line.

Prevention

Consider including the following areas as part of your mold prevention strategy. It’s important to note that while there are areas you can directly control, such as managing moisture in common areas, you need buy-in from the entire condo to maximize effectiveness.

Who is Responsible For Mold in Condo Buildings?

You should start by getting the support of every stakeholder in your condominium. From you (the property owner and/or building management) to homeowners, tenants and their board of directors, the entire community should be onboard with the mold prevention strategy.

While building management is responsible for certain areas, such as ensuring that the plumbing is not at risk of leaks, drying common areas (such as gym or swimming pool change rooms) and controlling moisture levels where it has control, each residential unit is responsible too.

Increased moisture and/or water damage can occur from frequent showering, cooking, cleaning and other daily tasks. If residents fail to reduce moisture (by using exhaust fans) or keep areas dry, then their units would be at higher risk of mold outbreaks. If unchecked, mold could spread into the building’s structure and into other units.


Think your condo has a mold problem? Learn more from the resources below:


Get Insurance to Cover Mold Damage

It would be prudent to insure your condominium for clearly defined coverage for mold damage and mold repair work. Building managers could make the mistake of selecting a big insurance plan without actually studying the type of coverage that’s offered.

Control Moisture Levels

Typically, mold infections rely on moisture to grow. This is why mold is commonly found in damp and moist areas such as basements, bathrooms and showers. You (and individual units) should be able to control moisture by fixing windows to stop leaks, preventing pipe leaks or preventing water from intruding through the ceiling, walls and/or HVAC system.

Quickly Respond to Water Damage

You should respond to water damage (e.g. caused by floods and leaks) immediately. Mold can begin taking form in water-damaged areas as early as 48 to 72 hours of the damage occurring.

Yes, it’ll cost some money to repair water-damaged areas, but this will come at a much lower cost than having to repair a mold-infested structure or area.

Mold Remediation

In terms of handling an actual mold outbreak or mold damage, it’s important to recognize that mold is a hazardous substance. In other words, you or your contractor will need to follow your province’s health and safety laws while removing the mold.

Get a Professional Inspection

If you suspect there’s a mold infection, then you must start by calling a professional consulting firm to take samples and run a proper analysis. You might find damage that looks like mold, but it could simply be water damage or some other issue.


Think your condo has a mold problem? Learn more from the resources below:


Hire a Professional Environmental Contractor

If the inspection returns positive (for mold), then your first step should be to call a professional environmental contractor. Not only will such a contractor properly identify the extent of the mold infestation in your condo, but they will provide proper first-steps to safely removing it.

In addition, a professional environmental contractor will also abide by all federal and provincial laws when it comes to handling and removing mold. Not only does this ensure that your mold removal job is done properly, but it frees of you of legal issues (e.g. worker safety) and keeps your tenants safe from additional exposure.

If you have spotted mold in your condo, then contact us today to get a strong understanding of what it will take to solve the issue and a quote.