Restoration and remediationterms, in plainEnglish.

The high-velocity fan that drives evaporation by stripping the saturated layer of air off wet surfaces.

A HEPA-filtered unit run inside a space to reduce airborne particulate, with its clean air returned to the same room.

An EPA-registered product applied to cleaned surfaces to suppress microbial growth. It supplements source removal and never replaces it.

The powdery non-combustible residue left where material burned, distinct from soot and generally alkaline rather than acidic.

A very common mold genus found nearly everywhere, harmless to most people but a genuine infection risk for those with weakened immune systems or lung disease.

A common name rather than a species, and one that misleads: CDC advises that all molds be treated the same way for removal regardless of type or color.

An odorless, colorless gas produced when fuel burns, and the leading post-storm and post-fire safety hazard in a damaged building.

Water from a sanitary source that poses no substantial health risk on contact, so most affected materials can be dried in place rather than removed.

Significantly contaminated water that can cause illness on contact or ingestion, requiring more removal and precaution than clean water.

Grossly contaminated water that can contain pathogenic or toxigenic agents, so affected porous materials are removed rather than dried.

A sealed work area, usually plastic sheeting held under negative pressure, that keeps contamination and dust inside the job.

Any water carrying enough biological, chemical, or organic material that salvage decisions change and protective equipment becomes necessary.

Spreading contamination from the work area into clean parts of the building, usually through airflow, the HVAC system, or foot traffic.

Removing water vapor from the air so evaporation can keep happening, which is the half of drying that airflow alone cannot do.

The documented moisture level a material has to reach for the drying to be finished, taken from unaffected material in the same building.

Temporary protection, roof tarps, board-up, and shoring, put in place immediately to stop further damage while permanent repairs are arranged.

Physically removing standing and absorbed water on day one, because every gallon extracted is a gallon that does not have to be evaporated.

Four kinds of damage stacked on one event: what burned, what the smoke reached, what the suppression water did, and what happened to the contents.

A horizontal cut that removes drywall from the floor up to a set height, opening the wall cavity so what is behind it can be cleaned and dried.

A distinction with real money attached: rising surface water is flood and is generally excluded from homeowners policies, while water from inside the building usually is not.

Mold actively growing on a material, which requires moisture, a food source, and time, and which is why remediation always starts with the water.

An absolute measure of how much water vapor is in the air, used to prove a dehumidifier is actually removing moisture.

A vacuum with a sealed HEPA filtration path, so fine particulate is captured instead of blown back into the room through the exhaust.

The condition of the air inside a building, which after any loss is driven by moisture, particulate, and whatever the HVAC system is circulating.

A low grain refrigerant dehumidifier, the workhorse drying machine that can keep pulling water out of air that is already fairly dry.

The emergency phase of a loss: stopping the damage from spreading and drying the structure, as distinct from rebuilding it.

Surveying a property to find and mark the true boundary of the water, which is almost never the boundary you can see.

The instrument that reads how wet a building material actually is, in the wall and under the floor, not just at the surface.

Two separately licensed roles in Florida: the assessor diagnoses and writes the protocol, the remediator performs the work, and the same firm cannot do both on one project.

The IICRC S520 grading of a space: Condition 3 is active growth, Condition 2 is settled spores from it, Condition 1 is a normal fungal ecology.

Correcting the moisture problem and physically removing mold growth and contamination, as opposed to killing or covering what is visible.

Sampling to answer a specific question. Neither CDC nor EPA recommends routine testing to decide whether visible mold should be removed.

A HEPA-filtered air filtration device that scrubs the air inside a containment and holds it under negative pressure by exhausting outside it.

Inventorying, removing, and storing the contents of a damaged property so they can be cleaned off site while the structure is restored.

The independent check after remediation that the work area is visibly clean, dry, and back to a normal fungal ecology before it is rebuilt.

The science of air and water vapor, temperature, humidity, and vapor pressure, that structural drying is built on.

The damage caused not by the original event but by moisture left in the building afterwards: swelling, delamination, corrosion, and microbial growth.

Removing the source of an odor and then treating what remains, rather than masking it, using thermal fogging, hydroxyl generators, or sealing.

The fine carbon-based residue left by incomplete combustion, which travels far beyond the burn area and behaves differently depending on what burned.

Cleaning fire residue off surfaces using the method matched to the residue type, working from least to most aggressive so finishes survive.

An air sample that pulls a measured volume of air across a sticky slide so a lab can count and identify the mold spores in it.

The greenish-black mold behind the "black mold" name, which grows on wet high-cellulose materials like drywall, fiberboard, and paper.

Ground water and surge that enters a building during a storm, treated as Category 3 because of everything it picks up on the way in.

Bringing the building itself, framing, subfloor, drywall, and finishes, back to a documented dry standard using controlled airflow and dehumidification.

A tape lift, swab, or bulk sample taken from a specific material to establish whether what you are looking at is actually mold growth.

An infrared camera used to find temperature anomalies that suggest hidden moisture, so a technician knows where to point the moisture meter.

How contaminated the water is, graded 1 to 3 under the IICRC S500 standard, which decides what can be dried and what has to be thrown away.

How hard the loss will be to dry, graded 1 to 4 under IICRC S500 by how much wet surface area there is and how tightly the materials hold water.

The emergency phase of a water loss: stopping the spread, removing what cannot be saved, and drying the structure before the damage compounds.

Structural damage from high winds, which matters most for what it opens up: once the envelope is breached, water does the rest.