Mold is a common problem that millions of homeowners face because it’s a fungus that grows in damp or humid areas. In addition to making your home look hideous and smell bad, mold can also lead to serious health problems if you expose yourself to it.
Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to prevent mold from growing. Furthermore, you can learn methods to clean it up safely if it starts to form. In this guide, you’ll learn how to control dampness and mold indoors, as well as other facts about this invasive bacterium.
Reasons Why Mold Will Start Growing
Mold can grow almost anywhere with moisture. In nature, mold helps break down dead plants, such as trees and leaves, which opens up space in a forest for new plants to grow.
However, even though mold benefits the outdoor environment, it can wreak havoc indoors. When there’s too much moisture on your home’s surfaces, tiny spores of mold begin growing. Once the spores have developed, the grown mold can release more spores that float through the air inside your house, even though they aren’t visible.
Mold Causes Health Problems
Mold doesn’t become problematic until it comes into contact with moisture. Once this occurs, the mold will spread rapidly and act as an allergen. It can also give off toxic substances and other irritants.
If your body is sensitive to mold, you could have an allergic reaction when you touch or inhale it. Some common responses when this occurs are symptoms that resemble those of hay fever. For instance, you could get a skin rash, red eyes, a runny nose, and violent sneezes.
How To Prevent Mold From Growing in Your Home
Here are several ways to prevent mold from growing in your home in the first place. By doing these things, you can avoid headaches down the line.
Deal With Spills Quickly
Controlling moisture and dampness indoors is the key to preventing mold from growing. For this reason, you must wipe down a surface immediately after a spill takes place. You can prevent mold from growing as long as you dry the spill or leak within 24 hours.
Clean Gutters
Another effective way to prevent mold from forming is to take a closer look at the areas of your home that might be leaking water. If the gutters on your roof are leaking or not functioning properly, you may want to clean, repair, or replace them entirely. While you work on the gutters, you should ensure that the downspout directs the water away from your home. This way, it won’t get near the foundation of your home.
Care for Your HVAC System
Since your air conditioner drips water, you should make sure that you keep your drip pan clean so that it can adequately collect any droplets. When your HVAC system has to overwork itself, it can’t collect mold particles in droplets as efficiently. You should find out if you need custom furnace filters for your HVAC system as well. If you don’t clean or replace your air filter often, your HVAC system will overwork and become less effective at preventing the spread of mold.
Monitoring the moisture from your AC unit is especially important if you have a window unit because the condensation can fill up in your windowpane and lead to a large amount of mold. Drying off your windows when condensation forms also helps limit moisture and dampness.
Prevent Moisture Buildups in the Bathroom
Anywhere in your home that gets wet frequently, such as your bathroom, is a prime location for mold growth. Therefore, you should focus your preventative efforts on these areas. Running the bathroom fan while you shower will increase ventilation. This will allow moisture to flow out of the room instead of condensing in one spot. Cleaning your bathroom more often will also ensure that mold can’t grow from the moisture on your bathroom floor, walls, and ceiling.
Tips for Reducing Humidity and Condensation
During the summer, the level of indoor humidity increases for many areas. Nonetheless, if you live in an area that experiences year-round humidity, then it’s imperative to manage it practically so that mold doesn’t get out of hand.
First, you should create an outdoor vent for any moisture-producing appliances that you own, such as stoves, kerosene heaters, and clothing dryers. Heaters and stoves produce combustion, which creates water vapor and increases the amount of moisture in a room without proper ventilation.
If necessary, you should use a dehumidifier or air conditioner when adequate ventilation isn’t possible. Opening a window is the simplest way to ventilate a room. So when you don’t have a fan or vent, you can crack open your window while you run the dishwasher, cook with the stove, or shower.
Leaving your door slightly open is a possible solution if you rent an apartment with no windows. As a renter, you should report any leaks or water problems to the building manager or owner as soon as possible so that they can address the issue. If efforts to fix your rental don’t pan out, contact your state health department or local health authorities for assistance.
Cleaning Up Mold After It Forms
If your efforts to prevent mold from growing don’t work, you must try to clean it up as quickly and effectively as you can. Mold will permanently damage whatever it grows on, and the longer you let it grow, the more damage it will cause.
That is why you must act quickly to eliminate its spread. Depending on how much has grown, you might not be able to clean up the mold yourself. If the problem becomes severe, you’ll need to get your home remediated or hire an experienced contractor to clean up the mold.
Before cleaning up mold, make sure you solve the underlying issue that created the problem in the first place. Fixing your leaky pipes and drying off any wet items will prevent this issue from returning.
Once you do this, you can scrub the mold off with water and detergent. Then, you must dry the surface completely. You might have to throw away any porous or absorbent surfaces that become mold-infested, such as carpets or ceiling tiles, because they’re hard to clean.
Overall, mold is a serious issue that every homeowner must beware of, but you don’t have to let it ruin your home. Now that you know how to control dampness and mold indoors, you can take action so that you can eliminate any possibility of this problem happening where you live.
