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Masks

"Be very careful when you're cleaning out where mice have been. You can get very sick from the dust from their droppings. Be sure to wear a good mask, they are very annoying, but they work."

“I wholeheartedly agree with the recommendations of being fully suited up, duct tape your socks to your pants as needed, wear good work boots, cover your head, use eye protection,
and get the best mask you can. Sealing your body from the yuck is really not overkill. Plus in addition to breathing poop and fumes and vermin remnants and dust, you will stir up irritating insulation dust if you clean an attic or come into contact with unfinished or damaged walls. Just my 2 cents, but staying healthy during the process should be your #1 priority”.

To note for animal hoarding situations in particular:

"At Home Depot there are two different departments that carry the heavy duty respirators/masks with the replaceable filters. There are some in the general area that are for dust from cutting wood, etc. and they are made by AOS. There are also 3M respirators/masks in the paint department.

The only time I was able to smell anything noxious with the 3M mask was when I would wrinkle my nose or move my jaw so that I lost a good seal against my face, and I would catch a small whiff around the edge. Other than that they completely prevented any bad smells from getting through.

The home depot website does now offer a full face type mask, and that might be a better option since some of us needed goggle too.

The 3M masks have 3 different product codes that determine size. The 6100 series are the smalls, 6200 series are the medium, and the 6300 series are the large. Not all Home Depots have all sizes so getting them in advance may be a good idea.

The 3M masks are the heavy duty $30-$35 ones with replaceable filters. There are actually different types of filters and I recommend the ones that are called "Organic fumes".
We used the 4 sided filters with the 6001 filters.”

“I would go one step further and recommend the kind of heavy duty mask that has replaceable filters. That's the kind I used-- my brothers recommended it because it's much more comfortable than the disposable kind and you're less likely to want to take it off. It costs about $35, I think, but it's a useful thing to own for any future tasks that involve fumes. (I wore one a couple years ago when I was pregnant and wanted to help paint our new house.) I think they are approved for use with stuff as bad as asbestos, so they are really effective.

The one downside-- since everyone on our cleanup team essentially had ONE mask to keep track of, we had to be very careful about where we put them down whenever we took a break."

Yes working in your Parents hoard does remind you of a health and safety meeting at work.
Put on Your PPE (Personal Protective equipment)

Respirator 3M 6200 14$
Filters 3M 2097 11$ Note these filters are only good for 40 Hrs in a bad hoard change more often

Sexy white sperm suit 8$
non latex gloves Box 7$

With the masks the 2097 is the best that you can get, for the hoard it is a P100 rating but there has not been extensive testing of any mask in a mold environment so change those filters often. There is a Carbon filter in it and that takes the foul smell out.

Don't get them from Home depot it is probably too expensive get them from a safety supply store and fake having a company to get no retail rates

Comment re: above advice:
The 3M 6200 mask is the medium size. If you are petite, you'll need
the 6100. If you have a large face, you'll need the 6300. Guys really
need to shave pretty closely to get a good seal.

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What you'd rather be doing in Antartica, right?

 

“You mentioned asbestos. I would not assume that the organic fumes mask is adequate for asbestos. 3M has different types of masks, I would refer someone to their site for MSDS and other documentation on the various kinds of filters available. The organic fumes masks by 3M are great, I recommend them highly, not optional for a messy/dirty/dusty hoard especially if
you have allergies or asthma”.

"First is to protect your respiration. You need to have at the very least an N-95 dust mask. Not the little cheap ones that are just a thin paper but one with a exhale port and good girth to it. Dust associated with pest can carry all sorts of baterium."
- http://www.biocleaningservices.com

From Cory Chalmers,Steri-Clean (a division of Crime Scene Steri-Clean, LLC)”:
“Whatever mask you chose, make sure it is NIOSH approved or has N95 listed on it. That just stands for National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety. Here is a link to all the brands
and models that are approved by the CDC.”

Indoor Air Quality Tests
First off, I have no investments in this company. I have just seen so many questions about how dangerous is a hoard house. The tests aren't cheap, but it may give you the information you need to get the rest of the family off their collective rear ends. There may be better tests out there that I don't know about yet. Let me know if you have a better solution for in home air quality testing.

 

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Eye Care/Goggles

“Some of our team needed goggles. I think the ones with dry eyes needed them the most. I would guess that people with contacts might want to have glasses with them. I don't have them but it seems like a little piece of dust under a contact can be agony."

Gloves

"Wear gloves! Not optional. If the person that hoards will be there, tell them you have a skin condition and must wear them if you have to."

I recommend kevlar gloves-There is just too much sharp stuff in the piles. They look flexible, and they are only $10.00(plus shipping). They can be worn as liners or by themselves. The only downside I see is that there is only one size. There may be other makers that I haven't found yet though. You can find some here.

 

Do you have some advice?

 

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