Home › Mold Resources
Mold Resources
Straight answers about mold, written by a licensed Louisiana remediation contractor. What it costs, what causes it, what actually works — including the parts that lose us work.
Start here
What causes mold in South Louisiana homes
75 homes pulled at random from fifteen months of our quote records. Twelve had a leak. Most had two or more problems at once, and every house is published.
Read → Free toolMold Risk Check by Mold Shield Restoration
Seven quick questions about your home, scored on a live gauge. Checks the things that keep a house wet, plus how to check your house for mold yourself.
Take the check → Original photosWhat mold looks like: 50 real photos
Ceilings, vents, walls and what we find behind them. Every photo is from a real South Louisiana house, and you are free to use any of them with credit.
See the photos → IdentificationWhy you can't identify mold by looking at it
Pink, orange, black, white. One sample of outdoor air grew six or more different things in four days. What the color does tell you, and what it cannot.
Read → TestingMold inspection and mold testing: which one you actually need
An inspection finds the problem. A test tells you what is in a sample. In Louisiana they are two different companies, and if you need a test we will get you to the right one.
Read → Original testDo mold test kits actually work?
We ran four plates for four days — a supply vent, a vent swab, indoor air and outdoors — and photographed every one. The plate that grew the most was the one we left outside.
Read → Original testDoes an air purifier help with mold?
We ran a do-it-yourself Corsi-Rosenthal box in one bedroom and put plates out before and after. It cleared the air. It did not touch the mold.
Read → Cannot get helpI have mold and nobody will help me
You keep calling and getting turned away. It is not you — it is where the numbers come from, and there is a specific reason the market cannot show you a tester.
Read → How it worksHow mold spreads through a house
Mold needs four things and you only control one of them. Why the air conditioner does more to spread it than anything else, and why cutting it out is the biggest release of all.
Read → DiagnosisHow to tell if there is mold behind drywall
You do not have to open the wall to find out. What a moisture meter, a thermal camera and a borescope each establish — and the fact that none of them see mold.
Read → Water damageDry to the touch is not dry
The tub overflowed, you got towels down, and two months later that room smells. Where the water actually went, and why the smell arrives so late.
Read → InsuranceDoes homeowners insurance cover mold?
Usually not, and the reason is not fine print. Two questions decide it, most people fail the first one without knowing, and there is no such thing as sudden mold.
Read → Early warningCondensation on windows is a mold warning
Water on the inside of the glass is not a window problem. It is the first surface in the house cold enough to show you the air is too wet.
Read → CostWhat mold removal actually costs
Real price ranges, what drives them up, and a free mold fogging calculator. Our minimum is $600 — most companies start at $1,000 to $1,500.
Read → DiagnosisMusty smell and nothing to see
A musty smell with no leak and no visible mold is telling you something specific. Usually it is the air conditioner, the attic, or the filter in your return.
Read → PreventionMold prevention, room by room
Where it actually starts in a Louisiana house, what to check twice a year, and the 48 hours after water gets in that decide whether you have a problem at all.
Read → The cause behind most of itHow to lower the humidity in your house
Above 60% humidity mold grows with no leak anywhere. The AC fan setting, the condensate line and the return duct decide most of it — and two of those are free to fix.
Read → MythDoes bleach kill mold?
No — not in the way you need it to. It removes the color and adds water to the material underneath. Here is what happens and what to do instead.
Read → Where it shows upMold on the bathroom ceiling
Almost never a leak from above. It is trapped moisture — and the reason it stays is usually the door and how long the fan runs.
Read → MythBlack mold removal
"Black mold" is not one thing, and nobody can identify a species by looking at it. What actually decides the work is how much, what it is on, and where the water came from.
Read → HVACMold in your air vents
The vent is where you see it, not where it started. Usually the system is running wet — and duct cleaning alone will not fix that.
Read → The cause nobody checksAttic mold
An attic that cannot breathe sends moisture down into the house and stops your air conditioner working. Mold in rooms with no leak anywhere often starts here.
Read → Before you hireChoosing a mold company
How to read a quote, which credentials mean something in Louisiana, and the questions that separate a remediator from a general contractor with a fogger.
Read → LouisianaLouisiana mold laws
What the law actually requires of a mold contractor here — licensing, insurance minimums, and why assessment and remediation cannot come from the same company.
Read →Why we write these
Most of what is online about mold is written to get you to pick up the phone. Prices are hidden, problems are made to sound worse than they are, and the answer to everything is a service call.
We would rather tell you what is actually happening. Some of these pages will save you money and cost us a job, and that is fine — a fair number of our free evaluations end with us telling someone they do not need us.
Written from job sites
These come from work in South Louisiana homes, not from a content brief. Where there is a number, it is a real one.
Construction, not just mold training
Mold certification teaches what to do once you find mold. It does not teach how a house is built or how water travels through one. Before starting Mold Shield, our founder spent years as a superintendent for a residential homebuilder and as a project manager at a national restoration franchise.
Mold is all we do
No water, fire, storm or reconstruction divisions. One trade, done properly, in one region.
Still not sure what you are looking at?
Tell us what you are seeing. We look at these all day, and the on-site evaluation is free.
225-500-1530Call or text — South Louisiana, Lafayette through to the Gulf Coast.
Text us what you are seeing