If your Houston-area home has been affected by hurricane flooding, heavy rain intrusion, or storm surge, restarting your HVAC system without a professional assessment is one of the most dangerous things you can do for your family’s indoor air quality.
Mold growth can begin inside a flood-contaminated HVAC system within 24 to 48 hours. By the time visible signs appear, the system may have been distributing mold spores through every room for days or weeks.
What Hurricane Flooding Does to Your HVAC System
When floodwaters enter your home, they carry contaminated water containing bacteria from sewage systems, mold spores from surrounding properties, chemical runoff from industrial and commercial areas, and fine sediment particles that infiltrate every part of your HVAC system — including the interior surfaces of your ductwork, your evaporator coil, and your plenum box.
Even if floodwater never reached your living spaces, it may have contacted outdoor HVAC equipment, the air handler unit inside your garage or crawlspace, or the condensate drain line. These contact points create pathways for contamination to be drawn into the system when it is restarted after the storm.
Why Mold Establishes So Quickly After a Flood
The combination of standing water, organic debris, and Houston’s warm temperatures creates ideal conditions for rapid mold colonization inside ductwork. The organic debris that accumulates in a normal HVAC system becomes exponentially more dangerous when combined with flood-contaminated water, because the water carries additional biological material, nutrients, and contaminants that accelerate mold growth.
What Must Be Done Before You Restart Your System
Do not turn the HVAC system on until it has been professionally inspected. Restarting a contaminated system simultaneously distributes mold spores, bacteria, and chemical particulates into every room in your home.
A NADCA-certified technician must examine all 8 components — return ducts, evaporator coils, blower fan, heating chamber, plenum box, supply ducts, register boxes, and grills — to determine the extent of contamination and whether individual components require cleaning or complete replacement.
What Our Post-Hurricane Service Includes
Our NADCA-certified technicians have decades of experience cleaning HVAC systems after every major Gulf Coast storm event, including Hurricane Harvey and Tropical Storm Imelda. We know what flood-contaminated systems look like and what proper remediation requires.
Our comprehensive post-hurricane service includes detailed inspection of all components, professional source removal cleaning or component replacement where cleaning is insufficient, anti-microbial treatment of all affected surfaces, and comprehensive documentation for insurance claims.
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AH-CHOO! Indoor Air Quality serves Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and South Louisiana. NADCA certified. Average job time: 7 hours. 8 components cleaned every service. 38 years of experience.
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