Basement Mold Removal in Ashland City, TN

Lower levels in a river town

Ashland City is the Cheatham County seat, built in bottomland on the northeast bank of the Cumberland, with Cheatham Lake nearby and Sycamore Creek just north of town. When the river ran high in May 2010, search parties worked by boat near Ashland City, and county coverage described homes left full of mud. Most houses in the area sit over crawl spaces, but where a home has a basement or a finished lower level, the ground around it can hold water well after a storm passes.

What to do now

1. Find the wettest spot. Look along the base of the walls, under stairs and behind stored boxes.
2. Move belongings off the floor and away from damp walls so they can dry or be thrown out.
3. Run a dehumidifier and check humidity with a hygrometer; EPA's target is under 60 percent.
4. Walk the outside after rain. Overflowing gutters and short downspouts often dump water right against the foundation.
5. Leave the growth alone instead of scrubbing or sanding it, which spreads spores.
6. If the furnace or ducts are downstairs and look moldy, EPA advises not running a system you suspect is contaminated.

Reading the signs

Where the money goes

Angi puts basement mold remediation at roughly $500 to $3,000 nationally, and foundation sealing at about $2,250 to $7,100; local prices in Middle Tennessee vary. The biggest swings come from how much drywall, carpet and pad must come out, whether the work needs containment across a large area, and what it takes to stop the water. Cheatham County is not one of the counties on the state's Home Improvement license list, but any job of $25,000 or more needs a Tennessee contractor's license, and mold remediation is the S-F classification. Rebuilding structural framing afterward goes through Ashland City Building Codes, Planning and Zoning, which takes permit requests on the town's iWorQ portal.