How to Prevent Mold in Your House
Preventing mold from festering in your home is an effective way of maintaining air quality and reducing the risk of respiratory diseases for your family. This type of fungus appears anywhere there is excessive humidity.
It can easily grow on plumbing installations, walls, floor and any areas that retain dampness excessively. Follow the following tips by cfmoldinspect.com on how to control the level of moisture in your house and how to avoid its spreading.
Determine possible causes of mold
The first step in preventing mold is identifying which areas in your home are more prone to developing this fungus. Rooms that lack proper ventilation or walls that are covered with too much vegetation are often the first places in a house to fall victim to mold.
It could be that you have a bathroom with no window where the ventilation system struggles to expel the moisture after you take a shower. Additionally, your basement may likely experience excessive moisture or become flooded, and your attic could accumulate water from a leak in the roof. Your best solution is to perform periodic check-ups and find if you have areas prone to mold anywhere in your home. Read on to learn how to prevent mold in your house.
Remove the moisture
If you happen to find a damp area in your house, you should immediately take action to reduce the chances of mold developing and expanding. First off, remove the source of moisture. If there is a leak from the plumbing system, you should remove everything that water has damaged including carpets, furniture, and wallpaper. Everything from wet clothes to simple rags should be laid out to dry.
Clean spills immediately
Sometimes mold may appear from an accidental spill that you forget to clean. Any liquid that lingers on for too long can infiltrate carpets, floors, and walls, and subsequently allow the mold to develop. This unfortunate event usually happens in kitchens where the frenzy of cooking can sometimes create minor accidents. You should ensure that you clean any spill or pool of standing water as soon as they occur.
Increase ventilation
Once you have removed the wet materials from the room, it is best to increase ventilation to enhance the drying process and prevent mold from settling in. You could use AC units and dehumidifiers to help reduce moisture. Install them in the kitchen, the bathroom or if there is a room where you dry out your clothes. For improved performance, you can even use an exhaust fan.
Use anti-mold solutions
If you often have to deal with mold infections in your home, you might want to look deeper into the problem. The house in which you live may contain materials that attract moisture. If this is the case, your best choice is to renovate your home by installing moisture-resistant drywall, preferably from gypsum covered in fiberglass. This material does not contain any paper, thus it is highly unlikely to attract or develop mold.
Keep an eye on the infected area
After identifying the source of the mold and removing it, you should continue to keep an eye on the infected area. This fungus spreads through minuscule pores that can escape the cleaning process and create a new colony in just a few days. Make a habit out of inspecting the formerly infected place to prevent the mold from resurfacing.
Improve air circulation
One of the key elements in mold prevention is the quality of air circulation. In the cold season, mold tends to appear in rooms that are poorly ventilated. Stale air creates the perfect conditions for fungus to develop, so make sure that you open the windows and let in fresh air whenever you get the chance. Additionally, ensure that you leave the doors open at least a few hours every day to allow the air to circulate throughout your home.
Dry wet clothes outside
If you do not have a drier, you should always dry wet clothes outside in open air. However, if the weather does not allow it, you must allow the clothes to dry off in a well-ventilated room. You will need to leave the windows wide open. The water that is in the damp clothes evaporates, and without a source of fresh air to disperse into, it will go straight into the walls and enable mold to form there.
Clean the outside of your house
After dealing with the potential sources of fungus in your home, you can go an extra step in mold prevention by cleaning the outside of your house. It is quite often that vegetation that grows too close to the walls retain humidity that later transfers to the interior and creates the perfect conditions for mold to appear.
Removing the vegetation around the house may not be enough to prevent mold. You should also clean the gutters from debris and leaves as well as fixing any cracks that they develop. By maintaining the proximity of your home clean and moisture-free you have a good chance of avoiding mold from appearing and spreading to the interior.
Article and photo's provided by Bill Hendrix at Markham Services, Orlando FL
