Mold remediation · San Antonio, TX
Musty smell, dark patches, or a leak you left too long? Find the water first.
Mold is a symptom. Something is wet, or was wet and never properly dried, and until that is found and fixed anything else is cosmetic. Call, tell us what you are seeing and give us your ZIP, and we will connect you to an independent remediation company covering your area.
Connects you to an independent mold remediation company. Home Service Lab does not perform the work and does not set the price.
- Visible mold
- Musty smell
- After a leak or flood
- Bathroom ceiling
- Basement or crawl space
- Smell through the vents
- Warped or stained drywall
- Condensation on windows
Before you touch it
Most of the damage people do to a mold problem happens in the first hour, with good intentions.
- Do not scrub or dry-brush it. Disturbing growth releases spores into the air and moves the problem to rooms that did not have it.
- Do not reach for the bleach. On a hard, non-porous surface it has a role. On porous material like drywall, plaster or wood, it wets the surface, does not reach what is growing underneath, and frequently makes things worse.
- Turn the HVAC off if the smell is coming through the vents. A running system distributes spores through the whole building efficiently.
- Find the water. A leak, a failed seal, condensation, a roof problem, or ground water. Remediation without fixing the source is a temporary and expensive result.
- Photograph everything before anyone starts, particularly if this followed a water damage event that might become a claim.
On health, we are staying in our lane. People react to mold very differently and we are not qualified to tell you what it will do to you. If anyone in the house has breathing difficulty or persistent symptoms you think are related, that is a conversation with a doctor, not a website.
What remediation companies get called for
The jobs that come through this line most.
Written so you know roughly what you are dealing with before anyone arrives. None of this replaces someone looking at it properly.
After water damage
The most common route to this page. A room that was wet for days rather than hours, dried late or not at all. See water damage for the first-response steps.
Bathroom and ceiling growth
Usually ventilation rather than a leak — an extractor fan venting into the loft instead of outside is a classic. Fixing the fan matters more than cleaning the ceiling.
Basements and crawl spaces
Ground water, poor drainage and no vapour barrier. Frequently recurring, because the cause is the building rather than an event.
HVAC contamination
Musty smell that arrives with the system starting up. Needs the ducts and the air handler assessed, not just the room you can smell it in.
Behind walls and under flooring
Suspected from smell and staining rather than seen. Needs moisture meters and sometimes a small inspection opening to confirm before anything is priced.
In San Antonio
Texas licenses mold assessment and mold removal separately.
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation licenses mold assessors and mold remediators separately, and one license holder isn't allowed to do both the assessment and the remediation on the same project.
TDLR also says that in most cases, visible mold covering less than 25 contiguous square feet can be cleaned up by people who aren't licensed.
San Antonio sits in what the National Weather Service calls Flash Flood Alley, so if your house has taken on water, find where it got in before anyone starts on the mold.
Before you agree to work
Six things worth asking on the doorstep.
Remediation is a trade where scope, certification and testing claims all get stretched. These are the questions that matter.
- What training or certification do your technicians hold?Ask, and ask to see it. We make no certification claim on their behalf anywhere on this site, so this one is genuinely on you.
- Are you carrying current liability insurance?Ask for the certificate. This work involves cutting into your building.
- Where is the water coming from, and who is fixing it?If nobody can answer the first half, stop. Remediation without source repair is a temporary result you will pay for twice.
- What is your containment plan?Sheeting, negative air, and how they stop spores travelling into clean rooms during removal. A vague answer here is a bad sign.
- Will you also be doing the clearance testing?Ideally not. The company being paid to remove it should not also be the one certifying it is gone. Independent post-remediation testing removes that conflict.
- Written scope before demolition starts.Specifically what is being removed and what is staying. "We will see what we find" is how this becomes a rebuild.
Cost
Why we will not quote you a price.
Remediation cost is driven by how much has to come out, and nobody knows that until someone has looked properly. What moves it:
- Square footage affected, and how many rooms and cavities it reached.
- Sealed containment and negative air are labor and equipment on top of the removal itself.
- Non-porous surfaces can often be cleaned. Drywall, insulation and carpet pad usually come out.
- The plumbing, roofing or drainage fix is a separate job and a separate bill.
- Pre and post testing by an independent party, where you want it, is priced separately.
- Crawl spaces, wall cavities and under-floor work cost more to reach and to verify.
Being straight with you
We route the call. We do not do the remediation.
This site is a free service to assist homeowners in connecting with local service contractors. All contractors are independent and this site does not warrant or guarantee any work performed. It is the responsibility of the homeowner to verify that the hired contractor furnishes the necessary license and insurance required for the work being performed. All persons depicted in a photo or video are actors or models and not contractors listed on this site.
Questions
Mold removal, answered.
What's the average cost to remove mold?
We don't publish a price, because the mold company sets it after seeing the job.
One Texas point: in most cases, visible mold under 25 contiguous square feet can be cleaned up by someone who isn't licensed. Bigger jobs fall under the state's mold licensing rules unless an exemption applies.
Can I just clean it off with bleach?
On a hard, non-porous surface like tile or a bath, cleaning has a role. On porous material — drywall, plaster, wood, insulation — it is largely cosmetic: the visible surface goes, what is growing inside the material does not, and you have added moisture.
The bigger issue is that cleaning without fixing the water source means it comes back.
Do I need testing, or can they just remove it?
If you can see it and you know where the water came from, testing often adds little before the work. Testing earns its keep in two situations: when there is a smell but nothing visible, and afterwards to confirm the job is finished.
Where you do test after the work, having it done by someone independent of the company that did the removal is the sensible arrangement.
Does insurance cover mold?
Often only in limited circumstances, and frequently with a specific cap. Policies commonly cover mold that results directly from a sudden covered event, and commonly exclude mold arising from a long-running leak or from humidity that was never addressed.
This is not a coverage promise — read your policy or ask your insurer.
Will it come back?
If the moisture source is not found and fixed, yes, essentially always. That is the whole reason this page keeps returning to the water rather than the mold.
Is black mold dangerous?
We are not going to give you a health verdict, because reactions vary enormously between people and we are not qualified to. What we will say is that colour is not a reliable way to identify a species or its risk, so "is it the black one" is not the useful question.
If people in the house have symptoms they think are connected, speak to a doctor. Separately from that, deal with the water.
Do you cover my ZIP code?
Remediation coverage is more concentrated around metro areas than plumbing, because fewer companies carry the containment and drying equipment. Call and give us the ZIP.
Still smells musty?
One call connects you to an independent remediation company covering your ZIP. Free to connect, no obligation.
(833) 561-0471