How Mold Damage Affects Your Property
You may know that having mold in your home or business can be bad for your health. Mold is unsightly and will create a musty smelly odor in your home or place of business and will overtake all your personal belongings. But there are other hidden dangers to mold that you may not be aware of. Mold can cause serious damage to the home, as well! If a mold situation arises in your property dealing with it promptly is usually the best remedy to getting rid of it. Remediating a household mold problem not only prevents the problem from getting worse, but it can literally save your home and health long term.
Mold Damage To Household Structures and Construction Materials
To understand the full effect of mold damage you need to know and understand that mold breeds and feeds on organic materials, such as wood, paper, fabrics, and even some types of glue. It literally slowly decays and eats away at these materials, causing them to rot and fall apart. To put things into perspective, mold can eat away at materials like wallpaper, drywall, carpet, wooden studs in walls, ceiling tiles, floorboards, and other load-bearing structures inside your home. If left unchecked, mold can cause extreme detrimental damage that is great enough to lead to the collapse of ceilings, caving in of floorboards and even the falling down of walls.
Of course, this type of damage does not happen overnight it takes a while to reach that point. Your house is not going to fall down around you as soon as a mold problem begins to grow in it. Many materials in the home quickly become damaged beyond the point of repair, though over time, and a home can be completely destroyed by mold growth.
Mold In Heating, Ventilation And Air Conditioning HVAC Systems
You may expect to find mold in damp places like bathrooms, basements, and attics, but you need to be aware that mold can also grow and be found in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. In this type of mold contamination scenario, it can be particularly damaging to your home, both because it is extremely difficult to remove mold from inside air ductwork. But to make matters worst because of the fact that the mold resides inside your home’s air duct system it can quickly be spread to other areas of the home due to the blasting of mold spores through the air via the HVAC’s air duct system.
Blowing air through moldy ducts can easily disperse mold throughout your entire home. For this reason, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommends against turning on your heating or air conditioning if you think there might be mold in your HVAC system. It is recommended to have your HVAC system inspected, and cleaned if necessary, before turning it on in order to prevent greater mold damage to your property. Note that the Environmental Protection Agency recommends having a professional clean your HVAC ducts, if you do find mold in them, to make sure the job is done correctly and safely. If the mold situation is extremely bad you may have to replace all your air ducts in your home or property.
Repairing Mold Damage In Your Property
Repairing mold damage in your property can be a huge task. Just how big of a job really depends on the amount and the degree of mold damage you have.
In most contaminated areas you must understand that many materials cannot be adequately cleaned or repaired after being contaminated with mold, this includes things like carpet, insulation, wallpaper, mattresses, and plush furniture like sofas. Usually, these items must be discarded and replaced. In most cases, moldy drywall also needs to be removed and replaced.
Removing Contaminated Mold Material From Your Property
Care must be taken when removing moldy materials because mold can be inadvertently spread to other areas of your home or property during the removal process. For instance, pulling up moldy carpet or cutting into moldy drywall to remove it sends hundreds of thousands of mold spores flying into the air. Those spores land on other surfaces and mold can begin to grow there.
Wooden surfaces, including wall studs and floorboards, can sometimes be cleaned and repaired if a mold problem is caught and addressed early. If the mold problem has progressed, though, it may be impossible to completely remove mold from wooden surfaces. Floorboards may need to be replaced. Wall studs may and sometimes can’t be removed, but they may need to be sanded in order to remove as much mold as possible. Any remaining mold can then be encapsulated, or sealed in, with a special sealant. Please note that sanding and the encapsulation of mold should only be done by qualified mold removal professionals, to make sure it is done correctly.
Other materials that are sealed and nonporous in nature are easier to clean, such as metal, glass, tile, and concrete. The process of cleaning these materials can be both time-consuming and labor-intensive. Safety precautions must be taken by the remediator to prevent the inhalation of mold spores that can lead to serious health problems.
For Help Repairing Mold Damage
If you believe that you have a mold problem in your home or place of business in Central Florida and need help assessing and remediating mold damage, that you may be experiencing. Call Water Be Gone at 407-9909929 to schedule a free in-home consultation with a mold remediation professional. Our experienced technicians will visit your home or property, to assess the contaminated areas, make sure all areas of mold have been located, and advise you about the mold remediation process. Click here to find out more about Water Be Gone’s mold remediation process in Central Florida.
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