Inspecting the House For Mold

Going through your house and looking for mold is something that every homeowner should do at least two or three times a year, especially since mold can start growing in as little as 48 hours after the spores land on something they like. Killing the mold is not the only problem you will have to deal with if you find it; removing the mold from the property is something else to be concerned with, since dead mold spores can still cause allergic reactions in some people. Depending on the severity of the allergy, these reactions can be a simple case of sneezing or as severe as requiring hospitalization. You can take antihistamines to help combat this, but no one should take medication if they do not have to.

There are a few places in your house that you need to inspect regularly for mold growth. These are areas of the house that naturally have a lot of moisture and these include the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and the basement.

The basement is somewhat humid because of its underground location, but there are things that you can do to add unnecessary humidity to it. Some people use the basement as a laundry room as well and this is fine, but you need to make sure that the dryer is properly vented to the outside of the house. Having an exhaust fan in the room will also help get rid of some of the excess moisture. One thing that you should really avoid doing at all costs is hanging up laundry to dry without proper ventilation.

The bathroom is one of the worst areas for mold in the house and this is generally due to flawed waterproofing. This could be cracked tiles on the floor, missing areas of grout or caulking, or mold growing on the ceiling because the humidity in the room is too high. This can be corrected by having an exhaust fan installed, just like in the basement. In fact, having these fans in all moist rooms of the home is recommended and the chances for mold growth will be greatly reduced.

Something to avoid having in the bathroom or another moist area of the home is carpet. Mold loves to grow in carpet and once the padding underneath it is contaminated, it has to be taken up and thrown away, because it cannot be cleaned.

The kitchen is another area where the floor and ceiling are the most at risk. Try to seal up and cracks in the flooring and make sure there is an exhaust system over the stove to get rid of steam before it hits the ceiling.