What to Do If You Find Mold Growing in Your Home
Indoor mold is an incredibly common issue. Mold can flourish in any warm, humid environment. Although many homeowners are quick to grab their bleach, surface-treating mold isn’t always enough. If you don’t take the right steps to effectively eliminate this problem, it will return within a matter of days or weeks. Following is everything that you should do when you spot mold on your tub, tiles, windows, or other home surfaces.
Turn Your HVAC System Off
Before you start tampering with mold, you want to make sure that your HVAC system is off. When mold starts forming, it’s often fairly well contained. However, as soon as you disturb it, you’ll send live spores floating through the air.
Once these spores reach your HVAC system, they’ll find adequate warmth and moisture within it to thrive. When HVAC systems are mold-infested, these harmful pathogens get circulated and recirculated throughout entire buildings.
Identify and Resolve the Underlying Cause of the Mold
There’s usually a good reason why mold has started forming. After major flood events, mold spores take just 24 to 48 hours to develop. If you’ve had a recent flood in your home, contact a water damage restoration company.
If not, look for the source of excess moisture. In bathroom areas, it may be that the fan vent is clogged and not effectively routing moisture out of the room. All bathrooms have either overhead fan vents or central windows. Make sure that building residents are using these when showering, bathing, or engaging in any other humidity-producing activities.
At windows, the most common cause of mold development is leaky seals. Windows with leaky seals often have condensation or pools of water at their base where rainwater has collected. Multi-pane windows with leaky seals may need to be replaced rather than repaired. Due to their unique design and higher prices, multi-pane windows are often warranted for up to 15 years.
In other instances, the causes of excess indoor moisture are less obvious. You may have a slow, hidden leak behind your drywall or at the back of a water-reliant appliance such as your dishwasher or washing machine. These issues must be found and corrected before mold treatment starts.
Until balanced humidity is restored in your home, mold problems will recur. If there are no water leaks or leaky windows, you may just have a naturally humid home. In this case, having a whole-house dehumidifier installed is probably the best choice.
Treat Hard, Non-Porous Surfaces With a Sanitizing Solution
Although mold itself is often easy to spot, these fungi also have a lot of unseen activity. On porous surfaces, mold develops fast-spreading roots known as hyphae and mycelium.
On unsealed wood, natural stone, drywall, and fabric, hyphae and mycelium grow deep down into microscopic cavities and build branching networks.
This is why when you wipe down a moldy window sill with bleach, the mold invariably returns over time. Bleach clears surface mold off, but only on surfaces that don’t have pores.
For all non-porous surfaces, you can use a solution of equal parts water and bleach. White vinegar and water in equal portions will work as well. Once you’ve sprayed and wiped down all affected, non-porous surfaces, let them dry thoroughly by leaving the room well-vented.
Wash, Sanitize, and Seal Porous Surfaces
Couches, curtains, carpeting, and other porous surfaces should be thoroughly washed and sanitized. Equal mixtures of water and white vinegar or water and hydrogen peroxide will suffice. When possible, wood, drywall, and other solid, porous surfaces that have been affected by mold should be sealed.
There are several high-performing, mold-proof sealants that you can purchase at local home and hardware stores. If your sofas and other soft furnishings have been heavily infested in mold and cannot be thoroughly cleaned, these items will need to be replaced.
Keep Your Home Well-Ventilated
Avoid sealing your home up too soon after treating mold by closing all of your windows and doors. It will take time for all of the water from the underlying moisture problem to dry out. This is why mold remediation and water damage restoration companies use heaters, air movers, blowers, and fans.
Ventilating your home ensures that moisture still hiding within the air pockets of building materials doesn’t cause these structures to warp, buckle, or bow. If you’ve been asking, “do home inspectors check for mold?” damages like these are guaranteed to draw their attention.
Home inspectors know that soft, sagging building materials are a sure sign of moisture problems and a likely sign of mold.
Consider UV Light Treatments
When mold infestations are especially challenging to get rid of, it’s time to call the professionals in. Advanced UV light treatments can kill mold within minutes. These services also kill hidden networks of hyphae and mycelium so that mold problems don’t recur.
As such, they’re an excellent investment to make if you’re committed to preserving the value and integrity of your home, and the health of everyone in your household.
Bottom Line
Dealing with mold isn’t easy. However, when you target the problem at its source, thoroughly sanitize the affected areas, and maintain a dry and well-ventilated living environment, you can rest assured that the problem won’t recur.
