Mycotoxin remediation in Naples homes and condos

Mycotoxins in Naples homes, explained

Houses that sit closed through the summer

Naples has always been a winter town. Many owners spend the cooler months here and head north when the heat and the rainy season arrive, and the house waits for them. That quiet stretch is when mold does its best work. The AC is set high or runs only now and then, humidity creeps up, and nobody opens a closet door or smells the guest room for months. Mold that grows in those conditions has time to produce mycotoxins, and the toxins settle into dust that nobody is wiping away.

When a family comes back in the fall and notices a stale smell that takes weeks to fade, that is usually the reason. In the closed-up Naples homes we work in, the problems tend to start in the same places:

• The AC closet, where a clogged drain line or a sweating air handler keeps the closet damp
• Closets on exterior block walls, where cool interior air meets warm, wet wall surfaces
• Under kitchen and bathroom sinks, where a slow drip goes unnoticed for months
• Guest bedrooms kept closed, with the vent shut and no air moving
• Behind headboards, sofas and dressers pushed tight against outside walls
• Around sliding doors to the lanai, where summer rain gets past worn seals

Our page on mold in seasonal and closed-up homes covers prevention in more detail. This page is about what to do when the mold has already been there long enough to leave toxins behind.

Older block homes, cottages and Gulf-front condos

Naples housing ranges from Old Naples cottages and older concrete block ranches to newer custom homes and the condo towers along Gulf Shore Boulevard and Park Shore. Each hides contamination in its own way, so each gets its own plan.

Block homes

In an older block house, the inside of the exterior wall is often drywall or plaster fastened to thin wood strips over the block. That gap stays humid, and it is where mold grows when a house sits warm and closed. Many of these homes have been renovated more than once, so there may be layers of old material behind the new finish. We open only what the assessor’s protocol calls for, clean the block face and the strips, and treat the cavity before it is closed again.

Condos

A condo shares walls, plumbing chases and sometimes air handler closets with its neighbors, so a leak two floors up can end up in your unit. Under Florida’s condominium law, s. 718.111(11), associations generally maintain the common elements and owners are generally responsible for the unit interior, but your declaration controls and you should confirm it with your association manager or an attorney. In practice, we coordinate the work schedule, the containment in shared hallways and access to any shared spaces with the association. More on that in our guide to condo and HOA mold in Southwest Florida.

What Hurricane Ian left inside some Naples walls

The National Hurricane Center’s report on Ian estimates maximum flooding of 6 to 9 feet above ground in Naples. The tide gauge on the Naples Pier recorded 6.18 feet above the normal high-tide line before it was destroyed, and there were reports of flooding at the Naples airport. Fifth Avenue South, Tin City and neighborhoods along the Gordon River all took water, and in the weeks after, curbs across the city were stacked with drywall and cabinets.

Most of those homes were repaired long ago. The mycotoxin question that comes up now is about how they were repaired. When crews were stretched thin, some walls were closed before the block behind them had dried, and some wall cavities were never cleaned after the wet drywall came out. A home can look finished and still carry that history in its wall cavities and ductwork. If you bought a rebuilt Naples home, or rebuilt one yourself, and someone in the family is now working with a doctor on mold exposure, that history is worth checking. Our guide to mycotoxins after hurricane water damage explains why toxins can outlast the flood by years.

Why testing is independent in Florida

Florida licenses mold assessors and mold remediators separately. Under Florida Statute 468.8419, an assessor may not remediate a structure it assessed within 12 months, and a remediator may not assess, including clearance, a structure it remediated within 12 months. Certified Division I contractors are the exception.

That rule works in your favor. The company testing your home has no reason to find more mold than is there, and the company removing it can’t grade its own work. On our Naples projects, an independent licensed mold assessor inspects and samples the home, writes the scope, and performs clearance testing. We do the remediation to that protocol. The assessor may use air sampling, dust-based mold testing such as ERMI or HERTSMI-2, and a mycotoxin panel on settled dust, and our mycotoxin testing page explains what each one shows.

Working alongside your doctor

Many of the Naples families who call us have already been talking with a functional or integrative physician for months. They aren’t looking for a quick cleanup. They want to know what is in the house, whether it can be removed, and how they’ll know it’s gone. With your permission, we’ll talk with the doctor’s office about what the home results show and send them the clearance report directly.

We also help with the practical decisions: which rooms can stay in use behind containment, whether it makes sense to stay elsewhere during the work, and which belongings to clean, set aside or replace. Those choices are yours and your doctor’s to make. We stay on the building side and give you the facts to decide with.

Keeping it from coming back next summer

A clean house that goes back to the same summer routine can end up with the same problem. Before you leave for the season:

• Keep the AC running on a schedule that controls humidity, not just temperature. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity below 60 percent, ideally between 30 and 50 percent.
• Have the condensate drain line cleared and the air handler checked before you go.
• Install a humidity monitor you can read from your phone.
• Leave interior doors and closet doors open so air can move.
• Ask your home watch service to open the AC closet and check under sinks on every visit.

Our Southwest Florida team works in Naples and throughout Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties. We are a family-owned company, in business since 2008, and every project is backed by a complete-removal guarantee. We don’t close a job on a failed result.

We remove mold and mycotoxins from buildings. We don’t diagnose, treat or give medical advice, and home test results are not medical tests. Please rely on your doctor for health decisions. With your permission, we’re glad to share the lab results and our plan with them.