The building-side playbook, published in full.
Twenty protocols spanning the entire arc of a mold and CIRS building project — foundations, testing, zone-by-zone assessment, remediation to the sensitized-occupant standard, verification, and prevention. Free and vendor-neutral, whether or not you ever hire anyone through us.
CIRS and Your Home: The Building-Side Playbook
If you or a family member is working through a CIRS or mold-illness protocol with a physician, the medical plan is only half the equation. T…
PROTOCOL 02 / BUILDING SCIENCEWater-Damaged Buildings: How Houses Actually Get Sick
Mold is a symptom. Water is the disease. This guide covers the moisture pathways that create water-damaged buildings — bulk leaks, capillary…
PROTOCOL 03 / TESTINGERMI and HERTSMI-2: What Dust Testing Can and Cannot Tell You
ERMI and HERTSMI-2 are the dust tests most CIRS-literate physicians reference. This guide explains what they measure, how to collect a sampl…
PROTOCOL 04 / ASSESSMENTThe Mold Inspection, Done Right: A Homeowner's Field Manual
Most 'free mold inspections' are sales calls. This guide describes what a legitimate inspection includes, the instruments involved, the ques…
PROTOCOL 05 / TESTINGAir Sampling vs. Dust Sampling: Choosing the Right Instrument
The mold testing industry sells air cassettes by default, but the right sampling method depends entirely on the question you are asking. Thi…
PROTOCOL 06 / CONTAMINANTSMycotoxins in the Home: Separating Signal from Marketing
Mycotoxins are among the most misunderstood — and most aggressively marketed — topics in this field. This guide covers what they are, how th…
PROTOCOL 07 / CONTAMINANTSActinobacteria: The Other Water-Damage Organism
Water-damaged buildings grow more than mold. Actinobacteria — filamentous bacteria that thrive in chronically damp materials — are increasin…
PROTOCOL 08 / CONTAMINANTSEndotoxins in Indoor Environments: A Plain-Language Guide
Endotoxins are fragments of gram-negative bacterial cell walls that can accumulate in damp buildings and dust. This guide explains where the…
PROTOCOL 09 / SYSTEMSHVAC Contamination: When the Air System Becomes the Source
The HVAC system touches every room in the house. When it is contaminated, it becomes a distribution network for exactly the particles a CIRS…
PROTOCOL 10 / REMEDIATIONSmall-Particle Cleaning: The Step That Separates Real Remediation from Demolition
Removing moldy drywall is demolition. What makes a project succeed for a sensitive household is what happens after: the systematic removal o…
PROTOCOL 11 / CONTENTSContents: What to Clean, What to Keep, What to Let Go
The hardest decisions in a mold project are not about drywall — they are about belongings. This guide provides a rational framework for tria…
PROTOCOL 12 / REMEDIATIONRemediation for Sensitized Occupants: The Elevated Standard
Standard industry remediation is designed to return a building to normal condition for average occupants. CIRS and environmentally sensitize…
PROTOCOL 13 / VERIFICATIONPost-Remediation Verification: How You Know It Worked
The most important test in the entire project is the one at the end. Post-remediation verification (PRV) is the independent, instrumented co…
PROTOCOL 14 / PREVENTIONMoisture Control: The Building Science of Staying Dry
Every recovered building faces the same question: how do we keep this from happening again? The answer is moisture management — drainage, dr…
PROTOCOL 15 / ZONESCrawl Spaces and Basements: The Building's Weather System
Air moves upward through houses, which means the crawl space or basement is upstream of every room you live in. This guide covers why below-…
PROTOCOL 16 / ZONESAttics and Roof Systems: Reading the Top of the Envelope
Attic contamination has two distinct origin stories — leaks from above and humid air from below — and they require different fixes. This gui…
PROTOCOL 17 / ZONESBathrooms, Kitchens, and Plumbing Walls: The High-Frequency Zones
Most residential mold cases begin within six feet of a plumbing fixture. This guide covers the failure patterns in wet rooms — shower assemb…
PROTOCOL 18 / SITUATIONSRenting with CIRS: Testing, Documentation, and Your Options
Renters face the hardest version of this problem: exposure in a building they cannot renovate, owned by someone with different incentives. T…
PROTOCOL 19 / ASSESSMENTMold Detection Dogs: The Reliability Problem and the Welfare Problem
Mold-sniffing dogs are marketed as a fast, friendly way to find hidden contamination. Before you book one, you deserve the two conversations…
PROTOCOL 20 / ASSESSMENTChoosing a Mold Testing Company: Conflicts, Sampling Theater, and What a Real Report Contains
The mold testing industry has honest professionals and it has an incentive problem, and from the outside they look identical. This protocol …
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