Bay Mold

This is my second time using Bay Mold and Teresa and Graham were just as wonderful to work with. They helped me out of a jam five years ago when I discovered severe water damage and mold in my Oakland home. Graham handled the moving and remediation for me and it felt like working with family. He even tried to help me find a place to stay after I walked away from the home and before I got my new place.

Last week, I thought I smelled mold in the garage and I called someone local. Big mistake. They came out and somehow a simple question about a garage sink turned into a crazy estimate for $21k and a freakish warning that mold was urgently spreading under the house. So I called Graham. He came and went under the house and said, "You got scammed." No water damage, no mold, no remediation necessary. You can imagine my relief. He found the smell coming from my washing machine seal and recommended I replace it with a top loader. He also gave the whole house a good inspection.

I respect their honesty and the fact that they are in this business to help people, not exploit people. They don't overcharge, they're competent, and they take care of you.

I called today with a concern about my apartment and Theresa was super responsive and helpful, fielding my questions and relaying information from her husband. Hugely positive, informative and supportive experience and I would reach out to them again in a minute!

Graham is literally one of the nicest and most honest good hearted people I have honestly met in my life.

I moved to a new place that I started suspecting had mold in it. I am already very chronically ill with a lot of health problems going on so this was a really big deal to me and I was really stressed.

Luckily I got a hold of Graham. He was so incredibly helpful and caring. He is one of those rare people that wants to really help people and always do the right thing even if it doesn't benefit him. He first spent a lot of time educating me on how mold works, the process to detect it, test it, look for it and etc over the phone. He asked me all these questions to evaluate whether I really had a mold problem or whether something else was negatively affecting my health at this new place. He gave me all this great advice, while really looking out for my best interest.

He concluded that I most likely didn't have a mold problem and gave me all this valuable advice on other things I should do and mold blood tests I should get done to see whether I am sensitive to mold and which kinds of molds. He really knows what he is doing from both not only detecting mold but from a technical scientific perspective on how everything with mold works, how to prevent it, and etc.

Luckily for me he happened to be staying not to far from my area so he even offered to drop by my place the next morning on his way home to quickly look at my place and evaluate whether he sees any signs of mold. To my surprise he actually came and checked my place out and even cleaned the signs of mold he saw under the sink. He didn't even charge me and refused to take any money from me when I offered. His ultimate advice to me was to move due to other factors at my place like being located right next to the highway.

It's hard to believe that nice people like Graham exist in this world, that truly want to help other people and look out for their best interest. As a chronically ill person, usually all that people ever do is take advantage of my sickness and desperation to make money off me and lead me down rabbit holes.

I am very grateful to Graham and really appreciate him going out of his way to really help me, and saving me from spending a lot of time, money, and effort that I ultimately would have had I not met him.

Meeting people like Graham gives me faith that there are still good people out there, and he is the kind of person that should truly get a lot of business because he actually cares to really help people better their health.

If I ever do have a mold problem, I will surely get it fixed by Graham :)

I called Bay Mold for a consultation and they were beyond helpful! They gave amazing advice on how to clean the mold off of our window cills and were very clear with their instructions. I could tell that the lady that I talked to was very knowledgeable and was a pleasure to talk to. 10/10 recommend.!

I used this company to remediate mold. They are professional and nice, but I can't say they provided any benefit to me or my household. Here's why:

I had a minor leak from my kitchen sink. I asked Graham before he did the work if he would fix it. He said, "the last thing I am going to do after removing mold is leave a leak." The pipe from the disposal to the air gap was leaking, so he replaced it. The pipe he bought did not fit, so he and Mark jammed it onto my air gap, displacing it. They bent the pipe they used so much that no water can pass through (please see photo).

I called Graham the first time we ran the dishwasher to tell him the air gap was leaking, and he said "all I did was change the pipe. Have you been grinding celery?" I sent him a picture of the pipe he used and how it is causing the problem, and asked him to come fix it. He said he would. I follow up with him and get no answer.

I email Teresa and she said they only changed the pipe as a courtesy to me and did not charge me for it and I should get someone else to fix it. A courtesy? I paid them $2500.

There is something about about the experience that felt very predatory. I was struggling with an allergic reaction and could not place the cause. It turned out not to be the mold. Of course, no promises were made, but Graham told me about another family whose son has Lyme disease, and how they rebuilt their whole house. We were both desperate.

FWIW. Think twice.

This review is long overdue. We were facing a nightmare scenario with mold in our property. After consulting several remediation companies with no real consensus on how to fix the issue or if we even had a mold problem, we found Bay Mold. They are honest, kind, and have years of experience in dealing with mold. Needless to say, our mold issue has been resolved, and we could not be happier with our experience with Bay Mold.

Graham - You are the best!

I've learned that You Must use a Test Only company! It's the only one that will hold up in court. Never use companies that also do the work. They gave motives to make more money!

My husband and I rented an older home with some mold issues six months ago. We've been working with the landlord to resolve the issues, but we noticed I was continuing to have some respiratory problems that started when we moved in. We didn't know whether or how much to invest in continuing to try to fix the issues, given that we adore our cute, unique space. We called Bay Mold to talk through the problems and find out what they recommended. The woman who answered talked us through the probable causes, based on her extensive experience with mold in the Bay Area. She explained the testing they could do to conclusively identify the causes. She told us possible treatments we could do on our own if we wanted to stay. And she was willing to share with us, when we asked her point blank, that she would leave if she were in our shoes. She told us that long term respiratory irritants caused by mold can turn into asthma.

This was a longish call in which she gave us extensive advice at no cost and she seemed more than willing to help us.

After getting off the phone, we realized we wanted to take her advice and move out, so we called back and asked if she had tips about how to move without contaminating a new place with mold, which we read could happen. She gave us quite a bit more good advice:
* Check wooden furniture to make sure it's not moldy. Clean with Murphy's oil soap and little bit of water -- test first on portion that is not exposed to view to make sure it won't harm the varnish.
* Clean and vacuum everything - dust attracts mold
* If weather permits, exposure to infrared through being out in the sunlight will kill mold
* Wash all clothing and bedding with borax detergent - sold at Target
** Smell the washing machine first, and if it smells moldy, run a load without anything in it with borax. Make sure rubber gasket isn't moldy or dirty, and if it is, clean it before washing.
** Toploaders are better - don't use front loaders - everybody gets moldy clothes from those

She also gave us tips about what to look for to find a mold-free rental:
* Low humidity
* Good ventilation
* Insulation (she said 60-70% of the calls they get are about moldy items in closets in uninsulated homes)
* No carpet
* No cold spots - evenly distributed temperature
* Forced air heating (versus a furnace, etc), which will help with ventilation and minimize the likeliness of cold spots, which attract mold
* Dual pane windows are a bonus
* Do not want aluminum frames on windows--vinyl or new wood windows are desirable. Avoid gappy old wood
* New construction tends to be less prone to mold

Finally, she gave us tips about keeping our home mold free in the future:
* Keep everything clean and dust-free (mold can cling to dust)
* Lacquer bare wood to decrease the likelihood of mold growing on the wood
* Keep mattresses and beds up off the floor on a bed frame, not touching the wall.
* Make sure your vacuum cleaner doesn't use bags - it's defeatist to vacuum and then have the dust come out when changing the bag

We feel so much more peace of mind about our decision after talking with her, and we really appreciated that she advised us on what she saw as the best course of action, even though that course would mean foregoing Bay Mold's for-fee services. We appreciated the personable, generous advice she shared.

If we ever have to go forward with mold testing, we will be so glad to give Bay Mold our business.

Graham from Bay Mold was terrific. He and his wife and son were very professional, fair, upfront and took care of what I thought might be a mold issue in my house. I would highly recommend them to anyone.

After a heavy weekend of rain, one of the portable buildings that my employer uses in San
Francisco developed heavy leaks. In cleaning up the mess we found that there had been small leaks over a long period of time before the heavy rain exposed the problem. I called Teresa at Bay Mold on a Wed. and Graham was at the portables on Thurs. testing the air and looking at the problem areas. The resultant report, received a week later, showed no mold. These folks were very responsive and reasonably priced.