We’ve all stepped in the shower at some point and seen dark spots between the tiles or around the drain. When that happens, there’s no reason to panic. You just pull on some rubber gloves, get some heavy-duty cleaner, kneel down, and start scrubbing.

So, why is it such a big deal when you discover mold due to water damage from a leak in your roof or from your plumbing—or any other source of moisture or wetness in your house or building? Why can’t you simply get out some bleach and get to scrubbing?

Should You Try to Clean up Mold on Your Own?

Jeremy Sessions at Springfield Restoration and Remodeling gets this question all the time. “In some cases,” he says, “you are able to take care of mold in your home on your own.” He points to the size of the mold patch as an indicator of whether you can clean it up yourself. “If it’s a small case, in a small area,” he says, “you should be okay.”

The other question to keep in mind: do you know where the water came from? Mold can cause both structural damage to your home or place of work and health issues for your family or employees. If you know what caused the leak or the excess moisture, then you can make sure to fix the rupture, provide better ventilation, or install some sort of engineering controls.

So, if the mold patch is small and you’ve already fixed whatever caused the wetness, you’ll probably be okay putting on those gloves and scrubbing the spot away with an antimicrobial cleanser.

One final consideration is how long the mold has been growing. Mold moves fast, and if it has taken you more than a few days to discover it, you likely have more of it than you can see. This is especially true in cases where the mold is growing on drywall, wood, or carpet. As Sessions explains, “There’s sometimes testing that needs to be done in order to realize what the problem really is.”

When Professional Mold and Water Remediation Expert Is Called for

“It is possible to do your own mold remediation?” Sessions poses. “Yes. Would I advise doing so? Probably not.” Again, if your case involves a small patch of mold, caused by wetness from a source you’ve already fixed, at a point in time you’re sure you know, then go ahead and take care of it.

The thing is, though, if there’s mold, then it’s already been growing for a while. So, there’s a good chance there’s more of it than you can see. This is why it’s a good idea to get some pros involved who can do the necessary tests to determine the extent of the problem.

It’s also far more common for people to be unsure where the moisture is coming from, or unsure about the extent of the leak, than for them to know exactly what’s happening. If you have a patch of mold on your wall, for instance, it’s really difficult to figure out what’s going on behind the drywall, between the studs, with whatever pipes may be back there.

As Sessions explains, “If it turns into more square footage or you get into a wall cavity and you have mold inside the wall cavity, you have to get much more aggressive with the tearing out and the engineering controls that have to be put up.”

But What Will the Mold Remediation Experts Do Once They’re Here?

For those reluctant to get involved in a big cleanup project, Sessions has this assurance: “Remediation sounds like a big scary word, but we’re actually there just to clean things up for you and get you back to where you were before the problem happened.”

The first thing most water and mold remediation experts will do is assess the situation. They’ll use specialized tools to locate the source of the moisture and determine how far the mold has spread. Do your homework before contacting a water damage restoration company, and you’ll have little to worry about.

Here at Springfield Restoration and Remodeling, for instance, our protocol is to first make sure the problem isn’t getting any worse, and then determine the extent of the damage. At that point, we’ll consult with you before making a final decision about which repairs to make and which engineering controls to put in place. When it’s all finished, we’ll do a final test to make sure that your home is structurally sound and your family is safe. Then you can get back to normal.