Regular cleaning and maintenance are important aspects of any property, whether it is occupied or not. Without consistent cleaning and maintenance, your home will never be safe to live in. Over time, the surfaces of furniture, appliances, and fittings accumulate grime consisting of dirt, dust, stains, grease, molds, and other minute particles. Read on for more information on mold and how it can affect you and your family, and why it’s important to remove mold from the home.
Among the various particles that you can find in your home, molds are a unique matter due to them being living organisms. Molds are tiny, living organisms from the kingdom of fungi, the same classification as mushrooms, yeasts, and mildews. Molds come in different colors, from powdery white to black, green, orange, or even sometimes yellow. But don’t let their colors deceive you, molds can be harmful to your health.
The three most common molds that can grow inside your home are Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Cladosporium.
In order to know more about the consequences of being exposed to molds, it’s important to understand how you’re exposed to them, ways to remove them, and the benefits of eliminating them for good. For your health and safety, it’s important for you to deal with these problems as soon as possible. An easy way to find a relevant professional is to search for mold remediation near me. Read on for more information on mold and how it can affect you and your family.
How and Where Does Mold Grow?
Mold and other forms of fungi can grow on many indoor and outdoor surfaces. They’re brought on by an array of conditions, including high humidity, warm temperatures, and moist indoor or outdoor environments. Moisture within and around the house can be from standing water, damp fabric, or excessive humidity in the air. Mold growth can be difficult to control once they’ve proliferated excessively, so learning the warning signs of mold is important to keep yourself and your belongings safe and remove mold from the home early.
When you look closely to recognize mold, it’s composed of extremely small spores. You can compare it with how plants grow from seeds, as these spores are where molds grow from. Their small size is the reason why molds can grow and spread rapidly. Their spores can easily be carried by the wind, a stream of water, or even by the fabric you wear.
Mold will continue to grow and spread with the presence of the following:
- Oxygen
- Water
- Organic matter
- Ideally, a temperature between 77 ℉ and 86 ℉, and not less than 40 ℉ (this is also why food is refrigerated food at 39 ℉ won’t grow any molds)
Mold Prevention, Control, and Elimination
Keeping your home clean and dry is the most important preventative method against molds as they tend to grow in places with high humidity. To prevent mold growth, it’s important to keep your humidity levels optimal, somewhere between 30% to 50%. Also, you should immediately clean up any spills and wipe down your furniture and surfaces to keep them dry.
Since mold loves wet and damp surfaces, areas in your homes with leaks are the most susceptible to mold growth, such as pipes, windows, roofs, and basements. However, mold can also breed on other surfaces that you wouldn’t consider at first glance, such as fabric, wallpaper, drywall, dust, upholstery, paint, and insulation.
But, if you’re a homeowner who’s looking to remove mold from the home because it’s too late to prevent their infestation, you don’t have to worry because there’s always a way to get rid of them.
Importance of Mold Removal
Why is it important to prevent, control, and eliminate mold growth in your household? Here are the top reasons why it’s noteworthy to put mold removal as one of your maintenance priorities as a homeowner:
1. Keeps Your Health Safe
Aside from the nasty sight and smell of mold, it can also be a substantial health risk. The impacts of mold growth on your health can range from mild to severe, which can build over time if you fail to eliminate mold growth immediately.
Due to mold infestation, people with normal health can experience mild symptoms such as wheezing, stuffy nose, and irritated eyes and skin. Individuals with respiratory conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) will have more intense flare-ups involving shortness of breath. If you have an underlying lung condition or are immuno-suppressed, then you’re at great risk of developing a fungal infection. When you’re exposed to mold, it’s important to know which symptoms should be addressed immediately.
2. Prevents Degradative Damage On Your Surfaces
Mold feeds on organic matter to live and grow. Therefore, the surfaces they’re on will decay and degrade eventually as they consume them to grow. By removing these nasty molds as soon as you can, you can still salvage your things before they get even worse. Here are some ways mold destroys materials in your home:
- Since wood is an organic material, mold will eat up all the nutrients in wooden materials.
- While concrete isn’t organic, it can trap organic material like dirt and dust that can be a nutrient source for molds. Then, the porosity of concrete will be advantageous for molds to obtain another necessary resource: moisture.
- Carpet also traps all the organic materials that molds need.
- Insulation materials are also porous like concrete, so they become an ideal source of moisture or a place to grow on for molds.
3. Avoid Spread To Unaffected Areas
To avoid mold growth, it’s important to keep your surfaces and furniture dry and free from any food sources that molds can benefit from. Since molds easily spread through their spores, it can transfer to different parts of your home unnoticed and begin spreading to different areas.
4. Save Money and Prevent Costly Repairs
Removing mold as early as possible can make a huge difference. If you notice any signs of mold growth, it is best to immediately deal with it yourself or have a professional remove mold from the home. Preventing or inhibiting mold growth lessens the chances of any damage being done to your property, which helps save money that would have been spent on repairs.
Bottom Line
Once molds start to grow inside your home, it’s only a matter of time before they spread, wreak havoc, and make your home an unsafe place to live in. Through using the right techniques and equipment in mold remediation, as well as working with mold removal experts, you can achieve a healthy and peaceful lifestyle without having to worry about mold infestation again.
