HVAC Mold Cleaning in Irving, TX
Every afternoon in August the system cycles on and the first thirty seconds of air smells like a wet towel left in a gym bag. Then you notice a tan ring on the hallway ceiling, right under where the air handler sits on its platform in the attic. The emergency drain pan has been overflowing for weeks. This site connects you by phone with an independent local provider who does HVAC mold cleaning in Irving and across western Dallas County.
Coil, primary pan, drain line, secondary pan: the order water takes
They go up with a light and a meter and start at the unit. The evaporator coil, the primary drain pan, the condensate line, and the secondary pan under the platform are checked in that order, because that is the order water takes when the line clogs. Then they read the plywood platform, the ceiling joists around it, and the insulation under the pan for how far the overflow spread.
Inside the house they pull a supply register and look into the duct for growth on the inner liner, and they check the return plenum, which is usually the wettest spot in the whole system. With the unit off they meter the ceiling under the stain and mark how far the wet extends past the ring.
Kill the system and find where the secondary line drips outside
Turn the system off at the thermostat and, if you can reach it, at the breaker. Running it pushes more wet air over the coil and more spores through the ducts. If you can get into the attic safely, photograph the pan, the platform, and the insulation around it without touching anything.
Check the secondary drain line where it exits the house, often over a window or at the eave; if it drips, the primary line has been clogged for a while. Do not pour bleach down the condensate line. Do not try to scrub the coil. Both leave growth where you cannot see it and risk damage the HVAC company will have to fix.
Why flex duct gets replaced instead of scrubbed
The coil is cleaned with a product made for it, the primary and secondary pans are scrubbed or replaced, and the condensate line is cleared and often fitted with a float switch that shuts the unit off before the next overflow. Flex duct with growth on its inner liner is replaced rather than cleaned; the liner cannot be scrubbed. Rigid metal trunk lines and the plenum are HEPA vacuumed and wiped under negative pressure.
The attic platform is dried or replaced, wet insulation around it goes out in bags, and the stained ceiling below comes out to the moisture mark with plastic across that hallway. Growth that spread onto the roof decking from a sweating duct is attic mold remediation. A ceiling that fell is mold removal in the room below. Replacing the drywall and matching the texture is mold damage repair.
Sixteen hours a day of cooling through a 130-degree attic
Nearly every Irving house built after 1980, from Las Colinas to Valley Ranch to the newer streets in Coppell, puts the air handler in the attic. Irving summers run past 100 degrees for days at a stretch, the attic above the insulation runs 130 or more, and the unit cycles sixteen hours a day. The coil sweats constantly, the drain line grows a slime plug by midsummer, and the primary pan overflows into the secondary pan, which rusts through in a few seasons.
Older houses south of Highway 183, built in the 1950s and 1960s, often have the unit in a hall closet, which puts the overflow in the hallway floor instead of the ceiling and soaks the slab under the closet. Either way the mold work and the HVAC repair are separate trades; a licensed Texas HVAC contractor fixes the drain and the pan, and a licensed mold remediation contractor handles any growth past 25 contiguous square feet. Both licenses can be checked through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
Telling the provider about the smell when the system cycles on
Have the address, where the unit sits, how long the smell has been there, and whether a ceiling is stained or dripping. Say whether the HVAC company has already been out and what they found in the pan. Call (469) 652-8352.
