How To Identify And Remove Mold From Your Home

Mold

Mold is a major nuisance. It grows on and rots damp wood, it darkens decks, it shows up as black spots on siding, it discolors drywall, and it blackens the grout lines surrounding your shower or bath. Even worse than being an unsightly menace, it can lead to health problems as well, including allergic reactions and asthma. In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can identify mold, and then how you can remove it from your home.

How to Identify Mold

Mold is a fungus that grows from tiny spores floating in the air.  Anywhere that these spores land can lead to mold growth, so long as the space is at a temperature between 40 and 100 degrees F, and there’s moisture present.  Mold first appears as mildew, which looks like tiny black spots.  However, if these aren’t removed upon first sight, it soon grows into larger colonies.

Take a look at the surface of your deck, any damp walls in your home, and at the grout lines in your shower.  If you see any black spots or marks, this is mold.  During the early stages of mold growth, though, it can be hard to tell the difference between mildew and dirt.  In order to test for mold, you can dab a few spots of bleach onto the surface.  If it stays the same color, you’re looking at dirt.  However, if it gets lighter, you have mold.

While mildew on its own won’t damage your home, when it progresses to mold, you have a problem.  Cleaning the infestations as soon as they occur is therefore the best plan of action, but if your mold problem has progressed, you’ll need to move on to the next stop.

How to Remove Large Infestations of Mold

Surface mold, which is most common in bathrooms and decking, can generally be scrubbed away using a mixture of bleach and water.  You want to add 1 part bleach to 3 parts water to create the required strength.

However, sometimes the mold will have progressed further.  You’ll know when this is the case as there will be a musty odor and the mold will be quite prevalent.  Getting rid of this will require taking precautions so as not to breathe in the high concentration of spores, and many homeowners will be better off hiring a company like Servicemaster MN to deal with the problem on their behalf.

If you do choose to go it alone, it’s important to wear old clothes and shoes, a special respirator, as well as gloves and goggles.  You’ll want to set up a fan in the corner of the room to ensure the space is ventilated while you work, and also tape the windows so that any spores you remove cannot return to your home.  A garden sprayer can help to control airborne spores too.  Any moldy carpeting should be double bagged for disposal.

While it should be possible to clean small amounts of mildew from your home, when it comes to large infestations, hiring a professional is usually the best call.

How To Identify And Remove Mold From Your Home

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Mold / Mold Removal / How to Identify Mold / Home and Garden Tips / Fungus / Cleaning Mold

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