The insurance company will help with this. You will want to look for local mold remediation companies who will come in and offer quotes. The sooner this is dealt with, the less damage that is done.

The remediation has many stages to it, the first being "rip/remove" the damaged products. Then the determine what must stay (structural stuff) that can be sprayed with mold reducing chemicals (nasty stuff but fine once it dries). The "cleaned" site needs to dry and be retested. Once the area is "cleared" of mold, the remodeling begins. New product is brought in and installed.

While this is happening, you may want to find another place to live - at least for the part with the chemical sanitization (have to wait for it to dry). Once the mold has been removed, you will be more or less living in a "renovation" zone. Safe but annoying.

This is the perfect time to look at updating/renovation things you have always wanted to do. The insurance company will pay to have things brought "back to the original" level of finishing (if you had laminate counter tops, they will only pay out the same cost for a laminate counter). If you wish to upgrade, you are welcome to do so...with the extra coming out of your own budget. At least you get a "budget" to work with and then it is up to you to decide what is being replaced (like for like) and what is being renovated (up grade to a higher/more expensive product).

Insurance will not help with mold clean up. Will help with water damage only. Not sure how they rationalize that mold is not water damage? But the good part is we found a great clean up service who is very knowlegeable about molds. The estimates so far for clean up are extreme. The main thing is safety and right now the mold is not causing safety issues. Thank you for all of your comments and advice.

I did not put in a claim yet and have only one estimate in so far. If I have to I will get legal support; as I cannot understand how insurance cannot view this incident as water damage. The crawl space was not wet before this happened, but there is a lot of snow up there.

Julie...you might want to repost your question under "design dilemma"? It would be seen by more people there.

Also maybe add some photos of the area with mold. In my area, a "crawlspace" is below ground or at ground level and would not develop mold from "snow up there". Could you be referring to an attic space?

All was remidiated by an Bio-engineer and expert envienvironmentalist Jim Packard He did a full complete report All was nonharmful thank God Despite much rain this year, no mold

Jim Packard God send Indoor Air Quality Assessment and Mitigation - Water Intrusion Diagnostics - Mold Investigation
Mold Sampling.

Had a crawl space situation after a water heater failure and the order of operations really matters here. First thing to confirm is whether the crawl space is actually dry now, not just that the heater is fixed. The ground under an older home stays wet long after the source is gone, especially if the vapor barrier was already inadequate. Doing remediation into a still-damp crawl space is loosing money the mold just keeps growing. The "crawling into the walls" description usually means elevated spore counts in the living air rather than mold actually growing inside the wall cavities. An air sample tells you which situation you're actually dealing with. Those two scenarios are very different scopes of work. On insurance: if the water heater break was sudden and accidental most policies cover the resulting water damage. Mold has more limits but a denial without a clear written reason can be contested. Public adjusters work on contingency if you want someone to push back on the denial for you. When getting estimates ask every contractor how they verify the job is complete. Post-remediation air testing is the answer. If a contractor can't explain their clearance process clearly I'd keep looking.