When there’s mold on the wall there’s only one team to call: UK’s mold team.

Working from within the Physical Plant Division, a small group of UK employees are tackling cases of mold on campus. 

 “It’s not like ghostbusters,” said Kevin Kreide, director of PPD. “You don’t walk into a room and it’s something out of a horror show.”

Kreide and John Summersett, who oversees the mold team, said the team treats about 20 to 30 cases a year, ranging from $500 for a few hours of work to $1,000 a day for bigger jobs. 

The three-man team has been around for three to four years, and members are required to do 40 hours of training. Summersett said there is no required accreditation in Kentucky for mold remediation. 

The team works with UK Environmental Health and Safety, which takes reported cases, assesses them and then notifies the mold team when appropriate. 

David Hibbard, director of Environmental Health and Safety, said things like dry air, office temperature or office layout can all impact the air quality, but these things may not indicate the presence of mold.

Summersett said there are thousands of mold species that all develop differently, but the real danger of mold comes when spores are released, affecting the respiratory system. 

Overall, Summersett and Kreide said health risks are minimal, but it depends on the situation — or the individual.

“It’s just similar to what you have outside. If a person has trouble walking outside … they’re going to have the problems inside, But if they don’t have the problems outside, they’re not going to have the problems inside either,” Summersett said.

When the team handles a situation they take the appropriate safety measures, which sometimes involves wearing hazmat suits and respirators. They also build an airlocked unit, use dehumidifiers and test the air’s particle-count so that everyone is safe. As the team works, another method of protection is to spray mold with glue to keep the spores from releasing. 

“I think people get scared because they see us in the suits,” Kreide said. “The reason we’re in this is because we’re tearing (the mold-infected area) all apart.” 

The team will assess the area and decide if more than a basic cleaning needs to be done. Summersett said it uses infrared cameras to see if mold is present on the backside of the wall, in which case sections of the drywall will be removed and replaced. The team cleans the area and sprays it with a preventative spray. 

One of the challenges, Summersett said, is finding the water source, like leaky pipes, windows or roofs. Because of this, both old and new buildings are susceptible. 

“Sometimes that’s the fun part — trying to find the source,” Summersett said.

Because cases of mold can often go unseen, Kreide said the team relies on faculty, students and staff to notify them. 

“It’s not like an epidemic around campus that we’ve got black mold in all the buildings,” Kreide said.