Why this network exists
Mold remediation is a trade where the gap between best practice and common practice is unusually wide. The ANSI/IICRC S520-2024 standard defines what professional remediation should look like — source removal under engineered controls, with independent verification. But many of the contractors a property owner finds through a generic search are operating below that bar: spraying biocide on porous materials, painting over visible growth, performing self-clearance without independent verification, or working from the older 2015 edition of the standard rather than the current 2024 revision.
This network exists to close that gap. Property owners who call us reach a coordinator who routes the project to a contractor in the network — vetted against the criteria below, working under the current standard, with documentation that supports insurance claims and stands up to expert review.
We didn’t invent the standard. We adopted it as the line, and built the network around contractors willing to work to it. That position — standards-grounded, transparent, technically rigorous — is what differentiates us from the broader mold-remediation lead-generation industry.
The standard we run on
ANSI/IICRC S520-2024 is the consensus standard for professional mold remediation in the United States. It’s approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) through the consensus process and published by the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC). The 2024 revision is the standard’s 4th edition, replacing the 2015 third edition that the industry had operated under for nearly a decade.
The standard is detailed enough to fill more than sixty pages, but its central position can be summarized in one sentence: contaminated materials are physically removed, surrounding surfaces are HEPA-cleaned, the moisture source is resolved, and an independent third party verifies that the area has returned to normal indoor fungal ecology before reconstruction begins.
What it explicitly rules out is also worth naming. The standard does not endorse encapsulating contaminated materials in place. It does not endorse biocide-only treatment as a substitute for physical removal. It does not endorse painting over visible growth. And the 2024 edition strengthened the standard’s position on independent post-remediation verification — moving it from a recommended practice to the gold-standard completion criterion.
You can read the standard directly through IICRC or any ANSI-affiliated standards distributor. Every project the network handles references the standard by edition in the written scope of work. We surface this because most competing contractor websites reference “industry standards” generically or quote the older 2015 edition. Naming the current edition is a small detail that signals technical currency, and it’s a detail every property owner should expect to see in any remediation contract.
How the network works
This site is a coordination layer between property owners and a network of independent IICRC-certified mold remediation contractors. Here’s the honest description:
- You call us. A coordinator answers, takes the basics — location, property type, what you’re seeing or smelling, whether there’s a recent water event, whether you’ve filed an insurance claim — and identifies the appropriate contractor in the network for your area.
- We route the project. The contractor we route to is independently licensed in their state of operation, carries their own commercial insurance, holds the credentials below, and contracts directly with you. We don’t insert ourselves between the contractor and the property owner once the connection is made.
- The contractor performs the remediation under ANSI/IICRC S520-2024, with documentation supporting any insurance claim or downstream review.
- We don’t perform remediation ourselves. We’re a coordination network, not a remediation company. The network model lets us maintain higher credentialing standards than any single regional firm could — we can decline to work with contractors who don’t meet the bar, and route to those who do.
The model has tradeoffs. The advantage is consistent credentialing — every contractor in the network meets the same baseline regardless of geography. The honest disadvantage is that we’re a layer between you and the contractor, and the contractor on-site is who you contract with directly. We surface this in the footer of every page, and explain it here, because transparency about the model is itself a credentialing signal — there are operators in this industry who obscure it.
What we require of network contractors
Contractors entering the network must meet the criteria below. We verify before routing the first project, and re-verify periodically.
| Requirement | What it covers |
|---|---|
| IICRC AMRT | Applied Microbial Remediation Technician — the baseline individual certification under the S520 standard. Required for technicians performing the actual remediation work. |
| IICRC Certified Firm | Firm-level credentialing through IICRC’s Certified Firm program. Verifies the contractor maintains training, insurance, and operational standards as a business entity. |
| State licensing | Where applicable. Florida requires both MRSR (Remediator) and MRSA (Assessor) licenses through DBPR — separate licenses. Texas, New York, California, and other states have varying requirements. We verify state-specific licensure before routing. |
| Commercial insurance | General liability, mold-specific endorsement (many standard GL policies exclude mold), and workers’ compensation. The 2024 edition of the standard introduced more specific insurance recommendations after recognizing that a substantial portion of the industry historically operated underinsured. |
| Equipment standards | HEPA-filtered negative air machines, HEPA vacuums tested to 99.97% efficiency at 0.3 microns, calibrated moisture meters (pin and pinless), thermal imaging capability. Equipment-by-name documentation provided on request. |
| Independent verification acceptance | Willingness to work with an independent third-party Indoor Environmental Professional for Post-Remediation Verification on any project where verification is warranted. Refusal here is a deal-breaker — it’s the position that distinguishes the standard from cosmetic compliance with it. |
| Documentation discipline | Written scope of work referencing S520-2024 by edition; daily moisture and equipment logs during the project; Xactimate-format estimating for insurance work; PRE and PRV reports per the standard’s procedures. |
This is the bar. Contractors who can’t produce evidence of all of these don’t enter the network. The bar is, deliberately, higher than the minimum a state regulator or a single insurance carrier would require — because the network’s value to property owners comes from operating above the floor, not at it.
The principles that guide network operations
Three positions inform how the network is run. They’re visible across every page on this site, and they’re the criteria by which we evaluate ourselves.
Source removal as the fundamental principle. The S520 standard’s position on physically removing contaminated material is the foundation of legitimate practice. Encapsulation alone, biocide-only treatment, and cosmetic painting are not source removal — and the network won’t route projects to contractors who substitute these approaches for the work the standard requires.
Edition currency. The 2024 edition of S520 made meaningful changes from the 2015 edition — stronger position on physical removal versus biocides, formal Post-Remediation Evaluation and Verification distinction, mycotoxin and extracellular microbial component recognition in the Condition 2 definition. Working from the current edition isn’t pedantry; it’s the difference between current standard of care and superseded practice.
Independent verification on projects that warrant it. Self-clearance — the remediator declaring their own work complete — is a structural conflict of interest. Independent third-party verification by an Indoor Environmental Professional is the only completion criterion that holds up to insurance scrutiny, real-estate transaction review, or litigation. We recommend it on every project past the smallest Condition 2 work.
What we don’t do
Setting expectations honestly is part of operating a transparent network. Here’s what is outside our scope:
- We don’t perform remediation ourselves. The contractor responding to your call is independent. We coordinate, route, and credential — but the contract is between you and them.
- We don’t provide medical advice. Health symptoms potentially related to mold exposure should be evaluated by a licensed physician. We can describe what the established science says about specific species (the 2004 IOM/NASEM report on damp indoor spaces and health is the standard reference), but we don’t diagnose.
- We don’t provide legal advice. Insurance claim language, lease disputes, and habitability litigation are legal matters. We can describe how the S520 standard documentation supports insurance claims, but we don’t represent property owners in disputes.
- We don’t file insurance claims on your behalf. The contractor we route to may assist with claim documentation in Xactimate format, but the claim itself is between you and your carrier or your public adjuster.
- We don’t perform Indoor Environmental Professional assessments. The IEP role is a separate trade with its own credentialing (ACAC CIE, CIEC). For Condition 3 projects, insurance claims, or any case where independent assessment is warranted, we can recommend IEPs in your area but we don’t perform the assessment ourselves.
How to reach us
Phone is the primary channel — the dispatch line operates 24 hours a day for emergency response, and during business hours for general inquiries.
- Dispatch (24/7): (888) 311-4399
- Email: [email protected] — typical response within one business day
- Mailing address: 3903 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704
For specific topics, the contact page has additional detail. For questions about the standard, the network model, or how a specific project would be scoped, calling is faster than emailing — most coordinators can answer scoping questions on the first call.
Related pages
- Mold remediation — The standard-of-care framing in detail.
- Mold removal process — The ten-step S520-2024 procedural sequence.
- Contact — Phone, email, mailing address, and what to expect when you call.
- Privacy policy — How we handle the information you share.