Learn how to remove mold by using this handy guide. Having a mold infestation can ruin your health and your home. Having mold can also cause more problems than it is really worth by just ignoring it. This article will show you just how you can remove it without wasting your time and money.
Most homes will get mold at some point. Knowing how to find, remove, and clean your house of mold is a very valuable asset to have and that is what we can do. We can show you how to identify it as well as teach you how to remove the small bouts of mold as well as the large mold infestations that have started to spread everywhere within your home. One of the biggest things to know is how to safely remove mold infestations without causing harm to you, your family or your home.
Mold Removal Overview
Mold is a big problem. It will blacken your grout lines in a shower, shows up as black spots on your siding, grows on and rots damp wood, darken decks, and discolors drywall. What is worse is that it is bad for your health. It can release microscopic spores that can cause runny noses, sneezing, allergic reactions, and even injurious and irritating odors.
Most homes will end up with mold. The trick is to stop the mold before it gets bigger and harms your home and your family. We will show you how to find and remove small mold infestations and even bigger ones that are spreading rapidly.
You can remove minor mold with regular household cleaning products, but the bigger infestations can be hazardous to your health, especially if you have allergies or a weak immune system. When you find that you have a big mold problem, it is recommended that you use protective measures or call a professional to deal with the problem. You can try Googling Environmental and Ecological Consultants or Industrial Hygiene Consultants or simply call your local public health department. Even if you decide to hire a professional, read this guide and ensure that they are following precautions to keep the mold from spreading in your home.
Caution
There are mold types that are highly toxic. If you have an allergic reaction to mold or a lot of mold in your home, call a professional to analyze the mold type. You could also call the local public health department and ask for mold testing advice.
How to identify Mold
Mold is everywhere. It is a spore that turns into a big problem. This fungus is floating through the air as you read. It is able to grow just about anywhere that it lands and it will a comfortable temperature between 40-100 F and moisture. That includes just about every damp place in your home.
You will be able to spot the most visible mold type, mildew which starts as tiny black spots but it can grow to be larger. It is the black stuff that you see in grout, on outdoor surfaces, damp walls, and especially in damp and shaded areas. Mildewed surfaces are hard to tell from a dirty surface. In order to test for mildew, drop a few drops of bleach on the area. If it lightens up after a few minutes, its mildew. If it doesn’t change color, then its dirt.
Mildew is a mold type that won’t damage the structure of your home, but the other types of mold can cause it to rot. Inspect the area with a screwdriver or other sharp tool. If the wood is soft or crumbles, then fungus has begun to rot your wood.
If there is a lot of mold, you may start to smell it. If you are smelling an odor that is musty, you should look for mold on damp walls, carpets, wet wood floors, and crawlspaces, along with other areas that are damp. Clean up this mold right away before it gets worse.
Removing large mold infestations requires work and precautions
Removing large mold infestations will require additional work and safety precautions including:
Removing molded carpet
Cut the musty or stained carpet and pads into 6 by 8 foot sections with a utility knife. Using a pump sprayer, mist your surfaces with water to stop the spread of spores and then roll the sections up. Double wrap the pieces in 6-mil plastic and then tape it with duct tape. Be sure to wear protective clothing and run the exhaust fan in your window.
Seal off the damaged area
Seal the room off from the rest of the house. Cover the doorway using overlapping plastic and tape it to the floor and wall. Cover your air ducts using tape and plastic.
Open up the moldy walls
Pry the trim and baseboards off of the areas with a pry bar and block of wood. Probe the area using a screw driver to find and open up the moisture damage and hidden mold in your insulation and wall framing.
Moisten and bag moldy materials
Turn off your electric to the room and cut open the wall using a saw or utility knife. Mist your insulation and drywall with a pump sprayer to keep the mold spores from spreading. Double bag the material in heavy duty bags and tie them shut.
You can scrub surface mold off in your decks, siding, and bathroom in just minutes using a 1 to bleach/water mixture. Often the mold will grow and spread in places that aren’t noticed until you see surface staining and feel mushy drywall or smell a musty smell.
If you have to remove mold that covers more than just a few feet, it is recommended that you take special precautions. You want to avoid contaminating your home but to protect yourself from breathing too many VOCs and spores.
- Wear old shoes and clothes that you can either throw away or wash after clean up.
- Wear p-100 or n-95 respirators as well as gloves and goggles.
- Set a fan in a window to ventilate the room while working. Throw it out when you are done because the spores are hard to clean off. Tape cardboard around the window openings so that the spores can’t get back in.
- Wrap and tape carpeting in plastic and double bag moldy debris in garbage bags for disposal.
- To keep the spores from going airborne, moisten the areas with a garden sprayer.
- Turn the AC and furnace off and open doors and ducts.
- Keep the wet/dry vacuum outside when vacuuming.
Moisture damage and mold go together. The photos below show cleaning under a leaky window where rain frequently got into the wall and caused mold.
You need to open up the wall to get at the form developing inside (Photo 4). Since you need to repair the wall at any rate, don’t dither to curtail past the conspicuous harm to discover all the form and let the wall dry out. To keep from cutting any wires, make an opening near the area and find the wires. Cut the electricity to outlets before you cut the wall.
On the off chance that the damage has been disregarded, you may find that there is decay. Where possible, remove and replace light studs, and wall sheathings. Where there are issues, treat the wood with an additive to clean the wood and let it dry.
Tips for Mold Prevention
The way to ceasing most form is to control sogginess. The most exceedingly awful invasions normally happen in moist crawlspaces, in upper rooms and walls where water has spilled in all things considered, and in cellars with poor establishment waste. The best safeguards for mold are taking breaks, having good ventilation in your storage rooms, keeping water from the area, and keeping your crawlspaces as dry as possible.
Mildewcide in paint is normally viable for controlling the growth of surface mold within damp rooms like bathrooms and in shady regions outside. Many paints will now have mildewcide in them. Check with your paint merchant certainly. You can include mildewcide, despite the fact that you may void the paint guarantee.
Clean up and repair
This section will show you how to clean up and repair moldy areas.
Vacuum debris
Vacuum up mildew covered garbage with a standard wet/dry vacuum. Purchase an additional length of hose and run it out the window so you can keep the vacuum outside to evade advance spore spread.
Clean mildew covered surfaces
Clean the surface form stains from dividers and wood trim with a blend of 1 qt. water and 1/2 glass bleach to execute the form. Utilize a delicate brush and work until the point when indications of the shape vanish.
Wipe off, however DO NOT RINSE these surfaces. Set trim in guide daylight to dry. Clean concrete with TSP or programmed dishwasher cleanser.
Seal rotten territories after they dry
Permit to dry, at that point seal all beforehand plagued zones with a pigmented shellac-or oil-based groundwork. At that point put in new protection and drywall and nail the trim back on.
Finish the underlying cleanup by vacuuming up the flotsam and jetsam (Photo 5). Altogether vacuum with the wet/dry vac subsequently by discarding the sift and washing through the tank, hose and connections with the sanitizer and-water arrangement.
Subsequent to scouring the surfaces (Photo 6), just enable the detergent answer for keep on penetrating the surfaces and dry. Wash solid floors with TSP, programmed dishwasher cleanser or a chlorinated cleaner, for example, Comet.
Set out dehumidifiers and new fans to dry the now-cleaned territories for no less than three days, at that point check them (by sight and smell) for shape. In the event that you find more form, clean again with blanch.
When you’re certain the form has been disposed of, seal any of your wood surfaces with an oil-based groundwork like KILZ or pigmented shellac like BIN (Photo 7). Repaint cleaned divider surfaces with a standard latex paint that contains a mildewcide to help stop future form development. Also, remember that if the dampness returns, shape will return.
Techniques for cleaning surface mold
Surface mold will grow in a damp location, like grout lines. They can be scrubbed away with 1 qt. water and ½ cup of bleach, with a bit of detergent. The bleach will kill the mold, and the detergent helps to remove it from the surface, so that you can rinse it off. You can also purchase a mildew cleaner.
For simple cleaning, protect yourself from contact with mold and bleach by wearing protective clothing, gloves and goggles.
If the mold doesn’t disappear after scrubbing, reapply the cleaning mix and let it sit. Then scrub again.
Seal your clean surfaces when they are completely dry. Apply a grout sealer to your tile joints.
Caution
Never mix anything with ammonia or ammonia with bleach as this combination creates a gas that is poisonous.
Professional Mold Removal Services In Arizona
If you need professional mold removal in Phoenix, Arizona or anywhere else in the Metropolitan area, Native Environmental, LLC can help! Give us a call today at (602) 254-0122 for more information.
