July 4, 2005

photo by MARK GARRETT

Randy Balzer, project manager at Woodhouse Environmental Ltd., stands in front of a pile of boxes full of damaged property caused by mould. The Kitchener-based company has been cleaning up mould-infested houses caused by marijuana grow-ops in the Waterloo region for many years now.

Renovations

Cleaning up after the grow-op

Firms specializing in disinfecting buildings growing marijuana

CARLA SANDHAM

correspondent

A new challenge for contractors has sprouted with the rise of indoor marijuana grow-ops, which have left homes and industrial buildings growing with toxic mould and structurally marred.

Gaps from hacked out floorboards, dangling electrical wires and wall-to-wall mould are some of the damages a Waterloo Region contracting company has dealt with after area home-grows were shut down.

“These people don’t care about the nature of the home, they just want to make a dollar,” said Marty Molengraaf, director of the environmental division of Woodhouse Contracting Ltd.

The Kitchener-based company has been involved in grow-op clean ups for the past three years and has worked with Waterloo Regional Police on safety issues related to the cleans.

This is a relatively new market for contracting companies as the business of growing marijuana indoors has exploded in the last few years. During 2001, police services across southern Ontario executed 650 search warrants in relation to grow-ops, compared to 160 in 2000, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Any contracting company can go in and restore these homes, but Molengraaf said Woodhouse contractors are fully trained and qualified for mould abatement under guidelines set by the Canadian Construction Association. The company also has Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC). Industry-wide, more than 3,320 firms and 35,000 technicians are certified with IICRC.

“I suspect a lot of houses are not cleaned as well as they should be,” he said, adding mould that has just been painted over will come back.

High humidity levels needed to grow marijuana cause mould to grow and, depending on the size of the operation, mould can spread throughout an entire house. Molengraaf said this process is intensified when it’s carried out in energy-efficient R2000 homes.

Clean ups involve a thorough manual hand washing of all surfaces, disinfecting, and removal of mould-stricken materials.

“We leave the environment so clean I would not hesitate to eat lunch off the floor,” said Randy Balzer, project manager of Woodhouse Environmental.

Airborne particulates must also be knocked down using negative pressure in the affected areas. To do this, Woodhouse uses high efficiency particulate air filters (HEPA). These filters clean the particulates from the air before releasing the air back into the atmosphere.

Because continued exposure to mould can result in health problems, Molengraaf said staff are required to wear personal protection equipment.

In severe cases, workers wear disposable hooded high-fiber suits, heavy rubber gloves and HEPA breathing equipment.

Another challenge facing contractors working on converted grow houses is the jerry-rigged electrical modifications. These can include cuts in the foundation to accommodate rewiring required to steal electricity.

“We’ve sent our electrician in and all he could do was stare at the wires, wondering where to start,” Molengraaf said.

For a typical basement grow-op, clean up could take about a week and cost anywhere from a couple thousand dollars to upward of $20,000 if restoration of structural damage is needed, said Balzer.

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