The Best Mold Removal and Cleanup in Chambersburg

Rebuilt in Brick, Built on Creeks

Benjamin Chambers built his mills where Falling Spring Creek meets the Conococheague, and the town grew up around that water. The town was platted in 1764 and the borough was incorporated in 1803. Then on July 30, 1864, Confederate cavalry burned a large part of the town after a ransom demand of $500,000 went unpaid. Much of what stands in the middle of town today was rebuilt after that fire, in brick.

That history explains most of the calls we’d expect from Chambersburg. Brick and stone hold water and let it travel. An older foundation wicks ground moisture every summer, and the humid air that comes in through a basement window condenses on cold masonry and the joists above it. Add a town that gets 38 to 42 inches of precipitation a year, with July highs around 85 and nights near 65, and the basement rarely gets a chance to dry out on its own.

What We Check in Chambersburg Homes

Downtown brick and the old blocks: the foundation walls with a moisture meter, the party wall if the house is attached, the downspouts and where they end, the sump if there is one, and the attic, because a lot of these houses got insulation added without added ventilation.

Houses near Falling Spring and the Conococheague: ground moisture and grading first. We read the basement humidity separately from the main floor, since a basement can sit at 70 percent while the upstairs reads normal.

Newer homes on the edges of town: supply lines behind appliances, water heater pans, sump pump discharge, bath fan ducts traced to where they actually end, and HVAC condensate drains.

Rentals: anything left shut up. A unit with the HVAC off through a humid stretch can pass 60 percent humidity in the basement within weeks. We inspect between tenants, before the next lease starts.

Indoor humidity should stay between 30 and 50 percent. Above 60 percent, spores grow on almost anything.

How the Job Goes

Once the moisture source is found, every job follows the same steps: containment, negative air with HEPA filtration, removal of what the mold has grown on, HEPA cleaning and treating the framing, drying to standard, verification, then patching and painting. The mold removal page walks through it step by step, and the basement mold removal page covers the stone and brick foundation version in detail.

If water is on the floor right now from a burst pipe or a failed sump, water damage and structural drying comes first. For a musty smell you can’t trace, start with a mold inspection and air quality test. Attic staining on the roof sheathing has its own page at attic mold. The cost page has planning ranges for the work, and the Gettysburg page describes the company and the office the crew drives out of.

Streets and Corners We Know in Chambersburg

The center of town is Memorial Square, where Main Street crosses King Street. The Memorial Fountain there was dedicated in 1878 and is 26 feet tall. The Chambersburg Historic District follows US 11 and US 30 and covers 159 buildings across 2,320 acres. It was listed in 1982.

North Main Street. Townhouse Row, at 55 to 87 North Main, is seven three-story brick buildings from the late 1800s. Long rows of attached brick like this are where one neighbor’s roof drain or leaking pipe becomes everybody’s problem.

King Street. The Old Franklin County Jail at 175 East King Street was built in 1818 and closed in 1970. The John Brown House is at 225 East King Street. Both are good examples of the age of the housing stock that surrounds them.

South Main and South Second. Zion Reformed Church, at 259 South Main, was completed in 1813. The Masonic Temple at 74 South Second Street was built in 1824 and, according to local history, was spared in the 1864 fire. The Franklin County Courthouse on the square is the third on its site. It was built in 1865 and reused bricks and columns from the burned courthouse.

Roads. US 30 is the Lincoln Highway and US 11 is the Molly Pitcher Highway. Interstate 81 skirts the borough on the east, and Chambersburg sits about 13 miles north of the Maryland line.

Schools, Parks, and Landmarks Around Chambersburg

Schools. Chambersburg Area Senior High School has about 2,400 students in grades 9 through 12. The district also runs CAMS North and CAMS South for grades 6 through 8, plus seventeen elementary schools. The Mary B. Sharpe School on Broad Street was built in 1908, closed in 2008, and is being converted into 13 apartments. Converted older buildings like that one are a reminder that the town has plenty of 100-year-old structures that were never designed for modern humidity control.

College. Wilson College, at 1015 Philadelphia Avenue, was founded in 1869 and sits on 300 acres.

Parks and forest. Caledonia State Park covers 1,125 acres next to the town and includes a section of the Appalachian Trail. Michaux State Forest, nearby, covers 85,000 acres.

Hospital. Chambersburg Hospital, run by Summit Health, is the largest employer in town.

Neighborhoods and Areas Around Chambersburg

• The downtown historic district around Memorial Square
• North Main Street and Townhouse Row
• East King Street and the old jail blocks
• South Main Street toward Zion Reformed Church
• Philadelphia Avenue and the Wilson College area
• The newer homes on the edges of town near US 30 and Interstate 81

Things to Do in Chambersburg

Capitol Theatre

A movie palace that opened in 1927, in the middle of downtown.

Caledonia State Park

1,125 acres of park with a stretch of the Appalachian Trail.

Old Franklin County Jail

Built in 1818, the oldest surviving jail in Pennsylvania, with 20-foot limestone walls.

Top Sites in Chambersburg

Memorial Fountain and Memorial Square

Dedicated July 17, 1878, in cast iron, 26 feet tall.

John Brown House

John Brown boarded here in 1859 while planning the Harpers Ferry raid.

Old Franklin County Courthouse

Greek Revival, built in 1865 with bricks and columns from the building the 1864 fire destroyed.