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Mold Remediation in San Antonio, TX
Gulf moisture keeps morning relative humidity averaging 83% year-round at San Antonio's airport station, with May and June mornings normal at 87% — conditions that let mold take hold after any unrepaired leak. One call reaches vetted local mold-remediation pros.
Mold in San Antonio follows water. The county averages 34.9 inches of rain a year, and much of it falls in bursts that soak homes faster than they dry. Federal records list 30 disaster declarations for the county, among them 12 for hurricanes and three for flooding. Each of those events leaves saturated drywall, insulation, and framing behind — the substrate mold needs — and remediation demand here tracks those wet-out events rather than any single storm season.
Mold risk in San Antonio
34.9"
average annual precipitation (NOAA)
63%
of Bexar County's 30 declared disasters were floods, hurricanes or storms (FEMA)
0.05"
rain forecast for San Antonio in the next 24 hours — fresh moisture keeps the mold clock running (NWS)
Sources: FEMA OpenFEMA — federally-declared disaster history (county FIPS 48029) · NOAA NCEI — 1991–2020 Climate Normals (SAN ANTONIO 8 NNE, TX US)
Recent events in San Antonio
Live from the DisasterStatus event tracker — San Antonio is named in each event's affected area.
What makes San Antonio a mold-prone city
Mold pressure in Bexar County starts with how water arrives. Of 30 federally declared disasters, 12 have been hurricane-related and three floods, and the county's 34.9 inches of average annual precipitation tends to come in concentrated rain events rather than steady drizzle. Storm water that soaks drywall, insulation, and subfloor leaves colonizable material behind long after the street drains.
The building stock compounds the exposure. Roughly 22 percent of the city's housing units were built before 1960, and nearly 30 percent of its single-family dwellings, according to the Office of Historic Preservation's study of older housing — meaning a large share of the area's homes predate current construction and ventilation practice.
State law shapes the response. Anyone hired to remediate 25 or more contiguous square feet of visible mold must hold a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation license; that license holder must deliver a certificate of mold remediation within 10 days of finishing the project, and an owner selling the home must give the buyer every certificate issued in the preceding five years (Occupations Code § 1958.154). Insurance Code § 544.303 then bars insurers from making underwriting decisions against a previously remediated property that carries one. For a homeowner in the area, the documentation matters as much as the cleanup: a licensed job produces the certificate that keeps both the disclosure and the insurance record clean, while an uncertified cleanup produces neither. The mold remediation guide covers the scope decisions that follow.
Mold remediation rules & licensing
Mold work in Texas is licensed by the state rather than the city: the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation credentials mold assessment consultants and mold remediation contractors under 16 TAC Chapter 78, and its core rules — the 25-contiguous-square-foot licensing trigger, the five-day project notification, independent post-remediation clearance, and the Certificate of Mold Damage Remediation — bind projects in Bexar County exactly as they do statewide. What the city adds sits on the repair side. Development Services registers home improvement contractors under Chapter 10-115 of the Code of Ordinances and requires permits once work moves past sheet rock patching into walls, insulation removal, or trade replacement.
| Permit / inspection | When it applies |
|---|---|
| TDLR mold license and the 25-contiguous-square-foot threshold (Occupations Code § 1958.101; 16 TAC § 78.30) | State level, enforced by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Once mold contamination covers a total surface area of 25 or more contiguous square feet, remediation must be performed by a licensed mold remediation contractor and assessment by a licensed consultant or technician. Owners of single-family homes may remediate their own property regardless of area; the threshold binds non-residential owners and residential properties with 10 or more dwelling units. |
| Five-day notification of mold remediation activities (16 TAC § 78.110; Occupations Code § 1958.153) | State level. A mold remediation contractor or company must notify the department no less than five calendar days before the anticipated start date of any project at or above the 25-contiguous-square-foot threshold, with the fee required under § 78.80. Where a delay in response to a water damage occurrence would increase contamination, the project qualifies as an emergency and notice is due no later than the following working day — the route most burst-supply-line and roof-leak jobs take. |
| Independent protocol and post-remediation clearance (16 TAC § 78.140) | State level. A licensed mold assessment consultant conducts the post-remediation assessment and issues a written passed clearance report covering worksite observations, temperature, humidity and moisture readings, analytical results, and photographs. Clearance requires the work area to be free from all visible mold and wood rot and the work to comply with the remediation protocol and work plan. The department does not permit the same party to conduct assessment and remediation on one project, so the inspector and the remediator must be separate firms. |
| Certificate of Mold Damage Remediation (Occupations Code § 1958.154; 16 TAC § 78.150) | State level. No later than the 10th day after remediation is complete, the license holder provides the property owner a certificate on the Texas Department of Insurance form, and the mold assessment license holder states whether the underlying cause was corrected so the mold is not reasonably expected to return from that cause. Only licensed remediators can issue one. An owner who sells the property within five years must give the buyer copies of every certificate issued during that period. |
| City of San Antonio Home Improvement Contractor Registration (Code of Ordinances Chapter 10-115) | City level, administered by Development Services. The registration covers nonstructural repair, replacement, remodeling, or alteration of an existing building — the rebuild phase that follows remediation — and must be in place before permits are issued under it. The fee is $150 for initial registration and renewal, the term is two years, and applicants file an FBI criminal history record dated within 30 days plus liability coverage of at least $300,000 per occurrence, $600,000 aggregate, and $300,000 aggregate for products and completed operations. |
| Development Services permit triggers on mold repair work | City level. Repairing sheet rock, plastering, painting, tiling, and replacing carpet or wood and laminate flooring require no permit, so containment and surface work often proceed without one. A permit is required to work on walls, windows, or doors and to remove insulation — the step that pulls saturated batts out of a wall cavity — while plumbing, electrical, and mechanical replacements are separately permitted trades. Permits are typically issued the same day and are valid for six months, extendable another six with ongoing progress. |
Mold disclosure & remediation standards
- Seller's Disclosure of Property Condition (Texas Property Code § 5.008)
- State level. Sellers of used single-family homes must give the buyer a written notice disclosing known conditions, including previous water penetration into a structure due to a natural flood event and whether the property sits in a 100-year or 500-year floodplain, floodway, or reservoir flood pool. Eleven transfer types are exempt, among them foreclosure sales, estate and trust transfers, and new construction never previously occupied.
- Mold remediation certificates furnished at sale (Texas Occupations Code § 1958.154)
- State level. A licensed mold remediator must issue a certificate of mold damage remediation to the property owner within ten days of completing the work, backed by a mold assessment professional's statement that the identified contamination was remediated as the plan required. When the owner later sells, the owner must give the buyer a copy of every certificate issued for that property during the preceding five years.
- Prohibition of underwriting decisions based on previous mold damage (Texas Insurance Code § 544.303)
- State level. An insurer may not make a residential property insurance underwriting decision based on previous mold damage or a mold claim once the mold has been remediated, shown either by a certificate under Occupations Code § 1958.154 establishing with reasonable certainty that the underlying cause was remediated, or by an independent assessor or adjuster who determined the property holds no evidence of mold damage.
- Landlord's Duty to Repair or Remedy (Texas Property Code § 92.052)
- State level. A landlord must make a diligent effort to repair a condition that materially affects an ordinary tenant's physical health or safety, once the tenant specifies it in notice to the place where rent is normally paid and is not delinquent in rent. The statute names no mold or moisture condition specifically, so a leak or growth qualifies only if it meets that health-or-safety test. No duty attaches where the tenant, an occupant, or a guest caused the damage, apart from normal wear and tear.
- San Antonio Property Maintenance Code 2024, §§ 304.7 and 504.1 (adopted by City Code § 6-51)
- Local level. The 2024 edition reproduces the International Property Maintenance Code and took effect May 1, 2025 as the minimum housing standard inside the city limits. Section 304.7 requires roof drainage adequate to prevent dampness or deterioration in the walls or interior portion of the structure, and § 504.1 requires plumbing fixtures kept free from obstructions, leaks, and defects — the moisture sources code enforcement can cite a property for, distinct from state mold licensing.
Local mold notes
- Proactive Apartment Inspection Program (City Code Chapter 6, Article V; Ordinance 2023-03-23-0166) — The ordinance lets Code Enforcement assign a "program point" for each uncorrected habitability violation, and the listed code sections cover the moisture faults that precede mold growth: SAPMC 305.3 interior surfaces, 403.4 process ventilation, 403.5 clothes dryer exhaust, 504.3 plumbing system hazards, 505.2 contamination, and 506.2 maintenance. Owners get 10 calendar days to cure before a point attaches.
- Inspection program scale and registry outcomes (Kinder Institute review) — Rice University's Kinder Institute reviewed the program's first three years: five inspectors covering roughly 2,300 apartment complexes ran 21,000 proactive inspections and 43,800 re-inspections, with another 13,500 units inspected on 311 complaints. Of 2,280 properties inspected, 56 were placed on the registry; about half were removed after corrections and three re-entered. Registered properties pay an annual fee of $100 per unit.
- Bexar County Office of Emergency Management — Mold Safety After a Disaster — The county's emergency management office hosts the area's official post-disaster mold page, republishing CDC guidance in American Sign Language with a written transcript. The operative thresholds: porous materials soaked beyond 24 to 48 hours — carpet, padding, drywall, insulation, mattresses, upholstered furniture — should be removed rather than dried in place; hard surfaces can be cleaned with one cup of household bleach per gallon of water, never mixed with ammonia; cleanup calls for gloves, goggles and an N-95 or better, stepping up to a half- or full-face respirator for extended drywall
- Seven Oaks Apartments complaints and the inspections task force — Tenant conditions at the Seven Oaks Apartments helped drive the task force behind the inspections ordinance. Residents there cited mold, leaky pipes and swollen ceilings alongside air-conditioning failures that went unrepaired until November 2022, after tenants organized. The program was budgeted at roughly $388,000 in its first year and was not made retroactive: the six-month citation clock began only after council approval, so violation histories predating the vote did not count toward registry placement.
Cleanup & recovery services nearby
- City of San Antonio Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Center — Permanent municipal facility at 7030 Culebra Road — takes paint, household cleaners, pool chemicals, auto fluids, batteries and e-waste from residents who show a recent CPS Energy bill with the Environmental Fee plus photo ID, capped at 220 pounds per visit.
- Bulky Item Drop-Off Centers (Solid Waste Management Department) — Four municipal sites — Bitters (1800 Wurzbach Parkway), Culebra Road (7030 Culebra Road), Frio City Road (1531 Frio City Road) and Rigsby Avenue (2755 Rigsby Avenue) — accepting soaked carpeting, mattresses, furniture, water heaters and large appliances, with construction material limited to one cubic yard per visit against four cubic yards of bulky material.
- Bitters Brush Drop-Off Center — Residential brush site at 1800 Wurzbach Parkway taking downed branches, woody vines and shrubs at $0.25 for loads of 20 pounds or less and $0.235 per additional 20-pound increment, with city code requiring loads be tarped or a $5 penalty may apply.
- Tiger Sanitation — Family-owned hauler founded in 2002 renting 20-, 30- and 40-yard roll-off containers plus portable Storage Cubs across Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, Wilson and Atascosa counties.
- San Antonio Tree Surgeons — ISA-certified and oak-wilt-certified arborists (city license TL-924149) handling storm-downed and hazardous tree removal, trimming and stump grinding — no restoration or remediation work.
- AAA Alliance Self Storage — Third-generation family-owned facility at 6335 Camp Bullis Road offering month-to-month climate-controlled units with regulated temperature and humidity, plus drive-up and ground-floor access for contents moved out during repairs.
By the numbers
- Hours per year at or above 67°F wet-bulb — NOAA engineering weather data for the airport station (period of record 1973 to 1996) records 3,889 hours annually at or above a 67°F wet-bulb temperature under its humid-area criteria, alongside 2,156 hours at or above 80°F dry-bulb.
- 3,889