Attic Mold Removal in Spokane, WA

Attic mold removal in Spokane, WA usually traces back to one of two things: an ice dam at the eaves, or warm, damp house air leaking up through the ceiling and freezing on the underside of the roof deck. The 1991 to 2020 climate normal for Spokane International Airport puts the city's snowfall at 44 to 45 inches a year, and that snow sits on roofs for weeks. Heat escaping the house melts the layer against the shingles, the water runs to the cold eaves and refreezes, and the next melt backs up under the roofing and into the attic. By the time a stain shows on a bedroom ceiling, the sheathing above it has often been damp since January.

We treat attic mold with the VaPURE process, a two-stage vapor that reaches the rafters, the sheathing, and the top of the insulation without pulling the attic apart. You, your pets, and your plants are out of the house while we work. Most jobs take 4 to 6 hours, so you are home the same evening.

Part of our Mold Remediation service in Spokane, WA.

Two things happen at once between November and March. Snow loads the roof and stays there, and the house below runs its furnace with the windows shut. December's average low sits near 22°F, so the underside of the roof deck is cold for months. Any indoor air that reaches it drops its moisture as frost. On a sunny afternoon the frost melts, soaks into the sheathing, and the cycle starts again that night.

The air gets up there through recessed lights, the attic hatch, gaps around plumbing stacks, and, more often than you would think, a bathroom exhaust fan that was ducted into the attic instead of through the roof. A fan that dumps a hot shower's worth of steam onto cold rafters twice a day will grow mold by spring.

The VaPURE process works as a vapor, so it goes where air goes. The first stage is a sterilant that treats mold on the rafters, the sheathing, the trusses, and the surface of the insulation. The second stage is an antimicrobial protectant that bonds to those surfaces and helps resist regrowth once the moisture source is fixed. Insulation that is soaked or matted comes out, and we tell you that before we start, but in most attics it stays.

Because the vapor moves through the whole house, we treat the living space below in the same visit, where the same spores have been drifting down through the hatch. The home is vacant during treatment. Air samples taken before and after go to an independent accredited lab, and the written result is yours to keep.