WOLLONGONG MOULD REMOVAL SERVICES
Commercial Mould Remediation in Wollongong
We work around your trading hours and hand you the paperwork, so the mould is dealt with and you can show it was dealt with properly.
Trusted Commercial Mould Remediation in The Illawarra
A staff member has mentioned the musty smell twice now. Or a customer said something. Or you’ve found mould in the storeroom and you’re doing the sums on what closing for two days would cost you.
Commercial mould is a different problem to household mould, and not because the mould behaves differently. It’s because you have people working in the building, a landlord or tenant on the other side of a lease, an insurer who will want to know what happened, and a business that needs to keep trading while it gets sorted.
Wollongong Mould Cleaning & Removal has been remediating mould all across the Illawarra for 15 years, in homes and in workplaces. On commercial sites we plan the job around your hours, contain the work so the rest of the site keeps running, and document what we found and what we did, so you’re not left trying to explain it from memory later.
Is this you?
- Staff have raised the smell, or someone's reported headaches or worsening asthma at work
- Mould in an office, shop, cafe kitchen, storeroom, gym or treatment room
- You can't afford to shut, or you can only shut for a night
- A leak or storm got in and now there's mould in the fitout
- Your landlord says it's your problem, or your tenant says it's yours
- You need something in writing for an insurer, a landlord, or your WHS records
- A building inspection or audit has flagged mould and you need it resolved and evidenced
Tell us the site, the trading hours and what you’re seeing. We’ll come and look, at no charge for a mould inspection, and tell you what’s involved.
FREE INSPECTION, NO OBLIGATION
We will call you back personally to arrange a time.
Whose Problem Is It, Yours or the Building Owner's?
This is usually the first argument, and it holds up the fix while the mould keeps growing.
There’s no single answer, because it turns on your lease and on what caused it. As a rough guide, building owners are generally responsible for the structure and the fabric of the building, so a roof leak, failed waterproofing, a plumbing fault in a common wall or a building-wide ventilation problem tends to sit with them. Tenants are generally responsible for their own fitout and for how the space is used and maintained, so mould from an unventilated kitchen, a fridge left dripping, or stock stacked against a cold wall tends to sit with the tenant.
The cause decides it. That’s exactly why an independent assessment in writing is worth more than another email arguing about it, and it’s often the thing that unlocks the repair.
If the site is a unit, a townhouse, or part of a building with an owners corporation and common property, that’s a different set of rules again, and we cover it on our strata and body-corporate mould page. If the mould came from a burst pipe, flood or storm, the drying work comes first, and that’s water damage restoration.
None of this is legal advice. Check your lease, and take advice on it if there’s real money at stake.
How We Remediate a Commercial Site
First, we look at the site and the schedule together
We assess the mould and the moisture behind it, and at the same time work out when we can actually be on site. A cafe, a childcare room and a warehouse all have different windows, and the plan has to fit yours.
We find the moisture source before we quote
Mould in a commercial building usually traces to a specific fault: a roof or gutter leak, failed waterproofing, a condensation problem from air conditioning, or a plumbing issue. Finding it is what stops you paying for this twice, and it’s also what settles the lease question.
We contain the work so the rest of the site keeps trading
We seal the work zone and run HEPA filtration, so spores don’t travel into the areas still being used. In a lot of jobs that means one room is out of action rather than the whole premises.
We work after hours or overnight where that’s the better option
If the only sensible time is after close, that’s when we come. It costs a bit more in labour and saves a lot more in lost trade.
We remove and treat, then deal with the cause
Contaminated materials are removed and treated properly. Where fixing the cause needs another trade, a plumber, a roofer or an air conditioning specialist, Jake brings them in and manages it as one job.
We document the entire thing
Photos, moisture readings, what was found, what was done, the products used, and the clearance at the end. You get a written record you can hand to an insurer, a landlord, or your WHS file.
The Documentation Is Half the Job on a Commercial Site
On a house, the result is the point. On a workplace, the result and the evidence of the result are both the point, and this is where most mould cleaners fall short.
Under the NSW Work Health and Safety Act, a person conducting a business or undertaking has a primary duty of care to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers, including providing and maintaining a work environment without risks to health. Hazards are meant to be identified, assessed and controlled, and workers are meant to be consulted on health and safety matters that affect them. Mould in a workplace sits inside that duty like any other hazard.
What that means practically: once a staff member raises it, the question is no longer just whether the mould is gone. It’s whether you can show what you did about it and when. A wipe-down by the cleaners with nothing written down leaves you with nothing to point to.
So every commercial job we do comes with a record. What we found, where, moisture readings, photos before and after, the scope of what was removed and treated, the cause identified, and what was recommended or repaired. Where a job warrants independent verification, we can arrange mould inspection and testing, including lab analysis, so the clearance is not just our word for it.
That same file is what an insurer wants when you claim, and what a landlord or tenant wants when responsibility is being sorted out. One job, one set of paperwork, and everyone can see what actually happened.
This is general information rather than legal or WHS advice. SafeWork NSW is the authority on your obligations. Call us if you need anymore information.
Commercial Mould Removal for Offices, Hospitality, Retail and Industrial Sites
Different premises, different pressures. Here’s where mould turns up in each, and how we deal with it.
Office and Professional Suite Mould Removal
Complaints usually start with the smell, or with staff saying they get headaches or their asthma is worse in one part of the floor.
Most of the time the cause is above the ceiling tiles: air conditioning condensation dripping onto insulation, or a slow leak from the floor above. We lift tiles and check what’s in the ceiling space, treat what we find, and get the condensation or leak sorted so it doesn’t come back.
Office work usually runs after hours, so your team walks in to a finished job instead of losing a day.
Mould Removal for Cafes, Restaurants and Commercial Kitchens
Kitchens work against you. Constant washdown, steam, cool room condensation and extraction that can’t keep up with the load. Mould turns up behind splashbacks, above cool room doors and in the ceiling over the cooking line, which are all the places a nightly clean never reaches.
We treat those properly, work out whether it’s extraction or a leak driving it, and come in overnight between close and prep so you don’t lose a service.
Retail and Shopfront Mould Treatment
The trouble is usually out the back. It’s usually a storeroom against an outside wall, stock boxed up against cold brickwork, or a leak in the rear roof nobody has looked at in years.
Damaged stock costs you directly, and a musty smell drifting onto the shop floor costs you quietly. We contain the back of house so you keep trading out front, treat the affected area, and tell you what’s making that wall damp in the first place.
Gym, Studio and Treatment Room Mould Removal
Showers, sweat and a lot of people overexerting themselves in a closed room add up to humidity with nowhere to go. It shows up in change rooms, on ceilings above the equipment, and behind wall mirrors where nobody looks in years. Ventilation is nearly always the underlying cause, so we remove the growth and then check whether the extraction actually moves the air it’s supposed to.
Childcare, Medical and Aged Care Mould Remediation
The people using these spaces are often more sensitive to mould than the general population, and the standard you’re held to is higher. That means full containment, scheduling around the people who use the rooms, and documentation that holds up to an audit or an inspection. We can arrange independent testing at the end as well, so the clearance isn’t only our word for it.
Warehouse and Industrial Unit Mould Remediation
Large volumes, cold surfaces and roof leaks that run for a season before anyone notices the final boss – visible mould.
Mould tends to appear on the underside of the roof sheeting, down the inside of external walls, and on stored goods and packaging. Access is the main thing that drives the cost here, so we plan around your racking and forklift movements rather than asking you to clear the floor.
Where materials have to come out, plasterboard, ceiling tiles, insulation or flooring, putting the space back together is part of the job and carries into our building restoration work.
How Much Does Commercial Mould Remediation Cost?
Commercial work is priced on the affected area rather than by the room, because a 400 square metre tenancy with mould along one wall is a different job to a small office with mould through the whole fitout.
Across Australia, professional remediation generally runs between $45 and $90 per square metre of affected area, or $60 to $110 an hour.
The site assessment is free, and for a commercial job that includes working out how to do it with the least disruption to your trading.
| Affected area | What that looks like | Guide price |
|---|---|---|
| Under 10 sqm | A storeroom, one office, a section of wall or ceiling | $800 to $1,500 |
| 10 to 50 sqm | Several rooms, a back of house area, part of an open plan floor | $1,500 to $4,500 |
| 50 to 100 sqm | A full tenancy, a commercial kitchen, a large storage area | $4,500 to $9,000 |
| Over 100 sqm | A whole floor, a warehouse, or mould through the fitout after flooding | $9,000 and up |
Figures are indicative and exclude GST. Where materials have to be stripped out and replaced, that restoration is quoted separately.
What After-Hours and Weekend Work Adds, and Why It Beats Closing Down During Remediation
If we work outside normal hours so you can keep trading, the labour costs more, and you should know roughly how much before you ask for it.
Award loadings across the cleaning and services industry sit at 15 per cent for evening work after 6pm, 30 per cent from midnight to 6am, 50 per cent on Saturdays, 100 per cent on Sundays and 150 per cent on public holidays. In practice, after-hours and weekend commercial work usually lands somewhere between 25 and 100 per cent above the standard rate.
That sounds like a lot until you price the alternative. If closing the doors costs you a day of trade, staff wages and a diary of cancelled bookings, an overnight job at a loading is usually the cheaper option by a wide margin. We will quote you both ways and let you decide which suits the business.
The other things that move the number on a commercial site:
- How far the mould has spread and whether it is into the fitout
- Whether containment has to be built so you can keep operating around us
- Access
- Height
- Whether independent testing is needed for verification, and
- How much documentation the insurer or landlord wants.
A straightforward surface job is usually one to two days. A full remediation with drying and reinstatement is more often three to seven.
You get the figure and the schedule before anything starts, in writing.
Why a Local Team Suits Commercial Work Better
Being based in Wollongong matters more on a commercial site than a residential one. When a leak turns up on a Friday afternoon and you open Saturday morning, someone who can be there in half an hour is worth more than a bigger name who can fit you in on Tuesday.
We also know the buildings. The older shopfronts through the Wollongong CBD and Crown Street, the industrial units out through Unanderra and Port Kembla, and the newer sealed offices that trap air conditioning condensation. Coastal humidity works on all of them, and each type fails in its own predictable way.
We’re a local operation, so you deal with Daniel & Jake rather than a call centre, and the person who quoted the job is the person who turns up to do it.
Book a Free Commercial Site Assessment
Mould in a workplace tends to get worse and more expensive in two directions at once, the damage itself and the questions about how long you knew.
Send the form with the site, your trading hours and what’s been reported. We’ll come out, tell you what’s causing it, and give you a plan that works around your business.
Free assessment, no obligation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we have to close the business while the work is done?
Usually not.
In most jobs we contain the affected area so the rest of the site keeps operating, and we do the disruptive parts after hours or overnight. Full closures are rare and we’d tell you up front if your job needed one.
Can you work after hours or overnight?
Yes, and on commercial sites we often prefer to.
It costs a little more in labour and it usually saves far more than it costs, because you’re not losing a day of trade or sending staff home.
Is mould a WHS issue for my business?
It can be.
Under NSW work health and safety law a business has a primary duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, a work environment without risks to health, and to identify and control hazards.
Mould sits within that alongside other workplace hazards, and workers are meant to be consulted about health and safety matters affecting them.
This is general information, not legal advice, and SafeWork NSW is the place to check your obligations.
What documentation do we get?
A written record of the job including:
- What was found and where
- Moisture readings
- Before & after photos
- Scope of work
- Identified cause, and
- List of repairs and/or recommendations.
Where a job needs independent verification we can arrange testing and lab analysis as well. It’s built to be handed straight to an insurer, a landlord or your WHS file.
Is commercial mould covered by insurance?
Sometimes, but it depends on the cause.
Insurers are more likely to consider mould that followed a sudden insured event, such as a burst pipe, storm damage or a roof leak.
Mould from long-term damp, condensation or deferred maintenance is less likely to be covered. Talk to your insurer or broker before authorising major work, and we’ll supply the documentation they ask for.
Who pays, the landlord or the tenant?
It depends on the lease and on what caused the mould.
Building owners generally carry the structure and fabric of the building, tenants generally carry their own fitout and how the space is used. Because the cause decides it, an independent written assessment is often what resolves the argument.
Check your lease, and get advice if the amounts are significant.
How quickly can you get to us?
We’re based in Wollongong and we run a 24/7 callout, so for anything urgent, a flood, a burst pipe or a site that can’t open, call us and we’ll get there.