Buyers of grow-ups faces huge expenses. Estimates from contrators to eradicate the mould in a house ran as high as $80000. But thanks to the Louisiana government, which produced remediation videos for poor, mould-stricken victims of Hurricane Katrina, my husband and I economized with the do-it-yourself approach.
First, we hired our friends¡¯ college-age son and his buddy to do some of the dirty work. Donning head-to-toe anti-contamination suits, goggles and dual-filter respirators, the pair worked their way through each of our plastic-sealed rooms, blasting a chemical fog from an anti-mould machine, slashing away mould-damaged plasterboard and sucking up contaminated particles with a hepa machine as they went.
Then we had to get the electrical circuits-which the police ripped out-working again; bring in a structural engineer; trash all the smelly rugs and lino; invest in new, non-stench-emitting appliances; get the water and gas lines tested; and have an environmental scientist set up a lab in our basement to test the air.