Mold Remediation Service Areas in Adams County
We cover Gettysburg and the boroughs and townships around it. Every town below has its own page, because every one of them gets wet for its own reasons.
Adams County is unusual in how it is laid out, and the layout is why a Gettysburg-based service can cover the whole county. The county's Wikipedia article describes it this way: Thirteen historic roadways converge at or near Gettysburg Borough. Two circular rings of towns surround Gettysburg; the first is typically found at a distance of approximately 7 miles (11 km) from Gettysburg. The second ring is found at a distance of 12 to 15 miles (24 km) from the county seat. Every borough we serve sits on one of those spokes, which keeps travel short in both directions.
The county's climate is the other thing they share. Adams has a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dfa). Warm, wet summers over cool below-grade spaces produce condensation and high cellar humidity from Littlestown to Biglerville, and the housing, much of it old, sits on foundations that pass ground moisture. The details differ town by town, which is what the pages below are for.
Towns we serve
The county seat, founded in 1786 on 220 lots, with hot, humid summers and a wet June over stone cellars built long before sump pumps.
LittlestownLaid out by Peter Klein in 1760 as Petersburg; 4,782 people at the 2020 census, within 20 miles of Hanover, Gettysburg, and Westminster.
New OxfordIncorporated August 20, 1874; 1,868 people on 0.6 square miles, with a Victorian core, brick cellars, and an annual antiques show in June.
BiglervilleRenamed in 1903 for Governor William Bigler; home of the National Apple Museum, with orchard-country farmhouses on stone foundations.
McSherrystownFirst lot deed dated June 27, 1765; 3,077 people in about half a square mile of rowhomes hard against the York County line.
The towns at a glance, and why each one gets wet
The county shares one climate but not one housing stock, and the housing stock is what decides where the water ends up. NOAA's 1991–2020 normals for the Gettysburg station give the shared half: 44.46 inches of precipitation a year, June the wettest month at 4.74 inches, July the warmest at a 74.5 °F average. The rest is local.
| Town | Founded or incorporated | What the housing is like | Where the mold usually turns up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gettysburg | Laid out 1786; county seat from 1800 | Borough rows and detached houses, much of it pre-20th century, on fieldstone and rubble foundations | Stone cellars, and behind anything finished that was built tight against masonry |
| Littlestown | Laid out by Peter Klein in 1760 as Petersburg; renamed 1795 | An old core with later neighbourhoods around it, near the Maryland line | Cellars in the older core; sump and grading failures in the newer streets |
| New Oxford | Incorporated as a borough on 20 August 1874 | A compact 0.6 square mile borough with an older commercial and residential mix, and an antiques trade that draws an annual show each June | Basements under shopfronts and the houses behind them |
| Biglerville | Originally Middletown; renamed Biglerville in 1903 | Orchard-country borough with farmhouses and outbuildings around it | Crawl spaces, attics and farmhouse wings with additions over dirt |
| McSherrystown | First known lot deed dated 27 June 1765 | The most tightly built of the five towns here, about half a square mile against the York County line, much of it in rows | Shared-wall cellars, where one neighbour's water becomes two houses' problem |
Each town has its own page with its own history, housing and water sources; the founding dates above are quoted on those pages from each borough's Wikipedia article.
Townships and the rest of the county
The boroughs get the pages because they are where the oldest housing is concentrated, but a great many of Adams County's people live in the townships between them, and we cover those too, from Cumberland Township around Gettysburg out to the rural townships toward each borough. Township homes tend to be newer and more likely to sit on crawl spaces or poured basements than on stone, so the problems shift from chronic cellar humidity toward failed sump pumps, wet crawl spaces, and finished basements over concrete. Rural properties add their own variables: well pits, spring houses, and outbuildings converted to living space, all of which hold moisture in ways a subdivision home does not. Our crawl space and basement pages cover both.
The county's other boroughs, including Abbottstown, Arendtsville, Bendersville, Bonneauville, Carroll Valley, East Berlin, Fairfield, and York Springs, do not have their own pages yet. We cover them; if you are in one of them, use the contact page and name the town in your message. One boundary worth stating: Hanover, which runs straight into McSherrystown, is in York County, and we do not cover it.
Where we do not work, and why
Hanover is the one people ask about most, and the answer is that it is not in this county. Hanover sits in York County, not Adams, and it does not appear in the Adams County borough list. McSherrystown runs right up against the county line, so the two towns feel continuous on the ground, but a Hanover address is a York County address and belongs with a York County service.
We also work on houses rather than commercial buildings: single-family homes, townhomes and small rental properties. A church basement, a shop, a warehouse or a school is a different standard of job with different containment requirements, and it is not what this service is for. If you are not sure which side of either line your property falls on, the contact page is the fastest way to ask, and the answer costs nothing.
How the service works in every town
The process does not change with the zip code. It starts with an inspection or a look at what you have already found, moves to a written, itemized quote, and follows the IICRC S520 sequence: fix the moisture, contain the area, remove what cannot be cleaned, clean what can, dry, and verify. Pennsylvania does not license mold remediators, so in every town the credential to ask for is IICRC certification, and the document to insist on is an itemized quote that addresses the water source. Our cost page explains what national surveys report and what changes the number in an older house, and the form on each town page arrives with the town already filled in.
Frequently asked questions
Do you serve Hanover, PA?
No. Hanover is in York County rather than Adams County, and it does not appear in the Adams County borough list, so it belongs with a York County service. McSherrystown runs right up to the county line and the two towns feel continuous on the ground, which is why the question comes up so often, but the county line is the line we work to. If you are unsure which side your address falls on, ask us and we will tell you straight.
What if my township is not listed on the site?
Ask anyway. The pages here cover Gettysburg and the four boroughs with the most housing, but the service covers Adams County, including the townships between those boroughs and the smaller boroughs in the county's outer ring that do not have their own page yet. The county's layout helps: towns sit on spokes around Gettysburg in two rough rings, so travel across the county is short in both directions. If your property is in Adams County, the answer is almost certainly yes.
Is the mold problem really different from town to town?
The climate is not, but the housing is, and the housing decides where water ends up. All of Adams County shares a hot-summer humid continental climate and roughly 44 inches of rain a year in NOAA's 1991-2020 normals for the Gettysburg station. What differs is what that rain meets: fieldstone cellars in the older boroughs, shared-wall rowhome basements in McSherrystown, crawl spaces and farmhouse additions in the orchard country around Biglerville, and newer subdivisions where the failure is usually a sump pump or a burst line rather than slow ground moisture.
Find your town above, or ask us about yours.