If you found this site, you probably didn't get here by accident. You searched with intention — because a problem in your building isn't resolving on its own, because someone in your home isn't feeling well, or because a previous inspection left you with more questions than answers. That means you already understand something most people don't: not every mold job is the same job.
At Sick Building Group, we use three tiered protocols — Standard, Advanced, and Systemic — each calibrated to the scope of contamination, the complexity of the building's systems, and the health of the people living inside it. The tier isn't something a client picks from a menu. It's something the diagnosis reveals.
The SBG principle: Every project — regardless of tier — begins with a complete forensic diagnosis. Cause and effect. Property history. Building systems. We do not skip this step. What the tier determines is the depth of what we treat, and the standard we hold ourselves to when we leave.
Why Diagnosis Comes First. Always.
The Forensic Foundation
A mold problem is a symptom. The cause is always something else — a moisture source, a building failure, a pressure dynamic, an HVAC pathway, a construction defect. Treating the symptom without understanding the cause is the reason so many remediation jobs come back within two years.
Before SBG assigns a protocol, we investigate the property's history, map the moisture pathways, evaluate the building envelope, assess the HVAC system as a potential distribution network, and document what the building has been doing to produce this outcome. That investigation determines which tier applies — and it also determines what a successful clearance actually looks like for this specific project.
The tier doesn't change the rigor of the diagnosis. It changes the scope of what the diagnosis reveals we need to address.
Standard
Localized contamination. Property transaction, investment, or pre-sale. Building is otherwise stable. No active occupant health factors.
The Standard protocol applies when contamination is localized, the building envelope is otherwise sound, and the primary driver of the project is documentation and resolution — not a health crisis. Investors, flippers, property managers, and pre-sale homeowners typically fall here.
Standard does not mean cut corners. It means the scope of the problem matches a defined, contained remediation. Full containment is established. Source material is removed to IICRC S520 standards. Clearance sampling is performed before containment comes down. The job is documented, defensible, and clean.
What Standard does not include is the extended building system investigation required when the contamination has moved through the structure or when an occupant's health is a factor. That's what the next tiers exist for.
- Full forensic diagnosis — cause, source, building history
- IICRC S520-compliant containment and material removal
- Air sampling clearance before containment removal
- Written documentation package for transaction or insurance purposes
- HVAC fully offline during protocol — temp climate required
Advanced
Owner-occupied home. Root cause must be resolved, not just remediated. Education and moisture management built into the scope.
The Advanced protocol is for the homeowner who lives there — who needs to understand not just what happened, but why it happened and what has to change so it doesn't happen again. This is the most common tier for residential clients who are not dealing with active health conditions but are taking the situation seriously.
Advanced goes beyond material removal. Root cause correction is built into the scope. If the moisture source isn't resolved — the failed vapor barrier, the negative pressure crawlspace, the improperly exhausted bathroom fan — the remediation is incomplete by definition. We address the cause, not just the consequence.
Client education is a deliberate part of this tier. By the time SBG leaves, the homeowner understands what their building was doing, what we changed, and what to monitor going forward. That's not a courtesy — it's what prevents the call back.
- Full forensic diagnosis including moisture mapping and building envelope assessment
- Root cause correction integrated into project scope
- IICRC S520 remediation with extended containment and engineering controls
- Dehumidification and moisture stabilization during protocol
- Client walkthrough and education at project close
- Clearance sampling and full post-project documentation
- HVAC offline, temporary climate control, duct cleaning coordinated with licensed HVAC contractor
Systemic
The building is the patient. Health-compromised household, physician-referred, or symptomatic occupant. Legacy Protocol standards applied.
Systemic is not a higher volume of the same work. It is a fundamentally different investigation — one that requires understanding every internal system controlling the building's environment and the role each one plays in distributing or concentrating contamination.
This tier applies when someone in the home is reacting — diagnosed or undiagnosed — when a physician has directed a patient to address their living environment, or when symptoms in the household have not resolved despite prior remediation attempts elsewhere. CIRS, mold illness, MCAS, immunocompromised individuals, post-infectious respiratory conditions, and chronic unexplained illness all point here.
At the Systemic tier, SBG applies its Legacy Protocol — the only named, branded, post-remediation cleaning standard in the industry verified against the most stringent clearance criteria we use. The Legacy Protocol addresses what standard remediation leaves behind: fine particulate, hyphal fragments, and surface-level mycotoxin residue that persist after visible mold has been removed. At this tier, "clean to the eye" is not the standard. Clean to the instrument is.
The building is treated as an integrated system. Stack effect and pressure differentials are mapped. HVAC pathways are assessed as potential contamination vectors, not just equipment to be serviced. Crawlspace-to-living-area dynamics are evaluated. The investigation precedes everything — and it drives every decision in the protocol that follows.
- Comprehensive building-as-a-system forensic investigation
- Pressure mapping, stack effect assessment, HVAC pathway analysis
- Full containment with engineering controls calibrated to occupant sensitivity
- Legacy Protocol post-remediation cleaning standard applied throughout
- Coordinated communication with referring physician when applicable
- Strictest clearance criteria SBG applies — instrument-verified, not visual
- Full documentation package suitable for medical or legal record
- HVAC fully offline, mandatory duct cleaning or replacement, coordinated with licensed HVAC contractor
The Question We Always Get
People ask: "How do I know which tier I am?" The honest answer is that the diagnosis tells us — not a checklist. But there are patterns. Investors and pre-sale transactions almost always land at Standard. Owner-occupied homes with a defined moisture event almost always land at Advanced. And if someone in your home has symptoms that have not resolved, or a doctor has told you the environment needs to be addressed, you are a Systemic case. That's not a sales pitch. That's what the clinical picture requires.
There is also a pattern in how people find SBG. If you are reading this page, you are probably not a Standard case. The people who find this site found it because they were looking for something more specific than "mold removal." That search behavior is itself a signal.
One thing that never changes across all three tiers: The HVAC system goes offline at the start of the protocol and stays offline until clearance is complete. Temporary climate control is arranged before work begins. Duct cleaning or replacement is mandatory on every project and is coordinated by SBG through a licensed HVAC contractor. This is not optional and it is not negotiable — it is the minimum standard for any remediation done under the SBG name.
Which Tier Fits Your Situation?
A Simple Self-Assessment
You are an investor, landlord, or pre-sale homeowner. The problem is localized. No one currently living in the property is reporting symptoms. You need the work done correctly, documented, and defensible.
You live in the home and plan to stay. You want to understand what caused this and make sure it doesn't come back. You may have noticed musty odors, visible growth, or elevated humidity — but no one in the household has a diagnosed health condition tied to the environment.
Someone in your home has unexplained symptoms, a chronic illness, or has been directed by a physician to address their living environment. Prior remediation attempts did not resolve the symptoms. You need the building treated as a system, not a surface.
Not Sure Where You Land?
Most people who find this site already know the answer. If you're uncertain — or if a previous inspection left you with more questions than answers — call or contact us. The diagnosis will tell us exactly what this project requires.
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