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How To Find Out If House Has Mold

Create A Bleach Mixture

How Do You Know If Your House Has A Mold Problem?

If the black mold growth in your home is small enough for you to treat alone, a simple mixture of bleach and water can help. Add one cup of bleach to one gallon of water and apply it to the moldy spots. You can also find commercial black mold removal products.

Soak a paper towel in the cleaner and press it over the mold growth to dampen the area. Then start scrubbing. Avoid spraying moldy areas, since the droplets will collide with the mold spores and launch them throughout the room, making them easier to breathe in and harder to eradicate.

Be sure to dry the area thoroughly when youre done.

Do NOT mix bleach with ammonia. This combination can create toxic fumes that are far more dangerous than any mold youre trying to clean.

How To Test For Toxic Mold

If you have mold in your home, your nose is one of the most inexpensive devises you can use to detect it. Mold smells, and chances are, you’ll be able to detect the distinctive odor that taints the air around moldy walls, carpeting and other objects. The struggle is in understanding when mold is dangerous to your family or home.

The term toxic mold is a little confusing. Some molds, like Stachybotrys chartarum or black mold, produce mycotoxins, toxic substances that cause health problems in some people. There is no direct link yet between mold-produced toxins and serious conditions like idiopathic pulmonary hemorrhage in infants, but there are concerns that exposure to these toxins can exacerbate existing lung conditions and allergies, and possibly cause problems in otherwise healthy people. Common molds that aren’t considered toxic also have the potential to cause reactions in some people, which makes it important to get rid of any type of mold you find in your home as soon as possible, particularly if you suspect that someone in your family is having a reaction to it.

Mold can be scary. There are potential health implications for your family, and a mold outbreak can take a financial toll, too. Once established, mold can be very invasive, releasing millions of spores into your home. Many homeowners’ insurance policies now exclude or limit coverage for mold related problems.

First up, let’s learn a little more about household mold.

  • Keeping Mold Away
  • Dont Want To Use Chemicals Heres How To Test For Mold In Your Home Naturally

    If youre concerned about the effects of harmful chemicals when testing for mold in the house, worry not. Testing for mold doesnt use any chemicals, and kits are non-toxic.

    In fact, the main thing you should be worried about when testing for mold is the mold itself. If you are collecting direct samples of mold using the swab technique, wear gloves and a mask to reduce your exposure to the mold.

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    Are You Considering Buying A Home With Mold

    Dont worry buying a house with mold isnt the end of the world. The technicians from GP Inspect can identify and solve nearly any kind of mold infestation imaginable. We will also get you in touch with certified mold remediation services to tackle the job.

    If you think you have a mold problem, contact us today and let us help you!

    First Published on: May 22, 2020

    Updated:

    The Paint Is Bubbling On Your Walls

    Selling A House With Mold in Houston

    Have you noticed that the paint is bubbling on the walls of your bathroom or near a window? One of the most common reasons paint begins to bubble is moisture. And where theres moisture, theres probably mold. You wont be able to cover up the problem with a fresh coat of paint you have to find the source of the moisture. It could be a leaky windowsill, too much humidity, or leaky plumbing. Once you fix the moisture issue, then you can repaint. Just make sure to scrape, patch, clean, and thoroughly dry the walls before rolling on the first coat. Watch out for these sneaky everyday objects you touch every day that can be toxic.

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    You Can Start The Mold Removal Process Quickly

    It is not fair to say that you should avoid buying a house with mold under all circumstances. In some cases, the presence of mold can be mild and easily fixable. But it is far easier to remove the mold before you move in so scheduling an inspection before the purchase is the best approach.

    Non-toxic molds can be removed with a deep cleaning, especially on surfaces like tiles, sinks, or tubs. Bleach and heavy-duty cleaners can be used to scrub away mold. However, you may want to hire a professional cleaning service to take care of this issue.

    If mold is growing in the carpets of the home, it is best to have it carefully removed and replaced. The floor beneath should be sprayed and cleaned out before a new carpet is installed to prevent this from growing again. Pieces of moldy drywall, insulation, or wallpaper will also need to be removed and replaced.

    You may also want to consider renovating areas of the home where mold has grown to add in better ventilation.

    How Do I Find Hidden Black Mold In My Walls

    Tara B. Thousand Oaks CA.

    There are several ways to determine if you have mold inside your walls. You first need to know if there is moisture damage, or if you know there was a prior or current leak, you want to focus on those affected locations.

    Some tools you Can use are an in-wall camera, or if youre a DIYer you can make a small incision in the wall and inspect. Make sure you have a proper mask & gloves.

    Heres a quick trick using shaving cream when opening the wall, this method encapsulates any particulates, and dust fibers.

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    Visible Growths And Odd Colors

    You may be able to visibly see a black mold growth in your home. While most black mold is indeed black, it can have a wide range of variations. For instance, you may notice a dark, furry growth or what appears to be a black stain, or there could be white, orange, brown, and even green specks.

    A good rule of thumb is no matter what the color, get it treated to avoid damage to your health.

    The Facts About Mold In Your Home

    How to find hidden mold in your home after Harvey

    Mold is a fungus that reproduces by creating small spores that work like seeds. Every home has mold. Mold spores can be unwelcome guests floating in on the breeze through an open window or door, hitching a ride on clothing or hiding in plain sight on packaging materials like cardboard or paper. Once established, it will look like fuzzy spots or blotches that can be black, green, brown, yellow, and even orange or white.

    There are nearly 1,000 types of household mold. A few common culprits are Alternaria, Aspergillus, Cladosporium and Penicillium. The dreaded black or toxic mold that you see in the headlines, Stachybotrys chartarum, also know as Stachybotrys atra, isn’t a common mold, but it’s not rare either. It will look dark green or black.

    You can’t keep mold out, but you can make it less welcome. Household mold needs hospitable conditions in which to thrive. One key ingredient in establishing and maintaining a mold colony is moisture. If you don’t have a consistent source of moisture, mold won’t be able to survive.

    In the next section, we’ll take a look at ways to check for mold.

    • Inside ductwork
    • Above ceiling tiles

    The nose knows, and if you can’t find any mold but the smell persists, there’s probably mold hiding somewhere nearby.

    In the next section, we’ll discuss ways to get help dealing with mold in your home.

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    How To Know If You Have Mold In Your House

    Below we will discuss the key signs of mold growth in your home and what these signs can do to your indoor environment.

    Visible Discoloration on Surfaces

    One of the most obvious signs of mold in a home will be discoloration that is present on surfaces such as walls, ceilings, and other surfaces in a home. If you see a ton of visible mold than the problem may be bigger than you may have initially thought.

    Health Effects in Occupants

    Have you started to notice that certain health symptoms are present only within the confined space of your home? If this is the case then you may have a mold problem on your hands, that is continually growing in your personal indoor environment. Health symptoms that mold can trigger can include allergy-type symptoms like coughing, sneezing, difficulty breathing, etc.

    Musty Smell

    The distinct smell of mildew or mustiness in a home may also be another indicator of mold growth in a home. Many different species of mold will produce a moldy odor into the environment and this smell can be spread throughout the air space, alerting the occupant of a problem in their home. Once this smell starts to become apparent in your home it will be necessary to begin your searching for mold in the environment.

    Flooding or Moisture Intrusions

    Protects Vulnerable Family Members

    Mold spores are among the identified causes of asthma and allergy attacks for some vulnerable family members. Exposure to these substances will trigger episodes of coughing, sneezing, wheezing, and general discomfort. You can coordinate closely with the contractor to ensure that there wouldnt be any residual molds around the house for your peace of mind.

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    What Is Mold And What Causes Mold In Your Home

    Mold is, by broad definition, a type of fungus that sprouts from microscopic spores floating in the air. When clusters of mold spores grow on surfaces, they start to reproduce and become visible to the human eye. If you have mold allergies, asthma, or another lung condition, even breathing in the microscopic pores can trigger an attack. If you dont, you may not even be aware that there is mold in your home until you see it or smell it .

    All homes have the key ingredients needed for mold growth: the presence of mold spores, a surface for it to grow on, oxygen, warmth, and darkness. When you add moisture, whether from a water leak, stagnant water, or high levels of humidity, into the mix, thats where mold problems begin. Knowing where mold is commonly found in homes can help you prevent and treat it so you can keep your home and body healthy.

    Mold Armor Fg500 Do It Yourself Mold Test Kit

    What are the Stages of Mold Damage in a House?

    The Mold Armor kit includes a test swab, petri dish, and a bottle of mold growth medium. You can use this single kit in one of three waysto test the air for mold spores, to test air quality in your HVAC duct, or to test for surface mold.

    To use the kit, pour the growth medium in the petri dish, replace the lid, and allow it to gel for one hour. Then, either allow it to remain open to the atmosphere for an air quality test, tape it to your air duct for a HVAC test, or use the swab to remove a sample from a surface and apply it to the growth medium for a surface test.

    If after 48-96 hours mold begins to grow in your dish, you may choose to send it to a lab for analysis. With a price tag of under $10, this mold test kit is affordable. But the lab fee is an additional $40.

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    Know The Signs Of Mold In Your House

    Before you start to panic, its a good idea to figure out whether or not you actually have mold growing in your home. Mold identification can be obvious if youve noticed mold growing in a visible location in your home. However, its worth noting that mold can also grow in dark and little-used spaces, so youll want to be aware of a few key signs of mold to look out for.

    First, be on the lookout for unexplained health symptoms. Issues like lightheadedness, dizziness, rashes, and respiratory problems are common in households with mold. If anyone in your household has breathing conditions like asthma or allergies, you might notice that their condition has grown worse without explanation.

    In addition, mold tends to grow in damp places, so a recent water leak should always be a sign that you should do a quick search for mold. Check any rooms where water may have lingered for a while.

    Last, take note of any unusual smells. With enough mold growth, youll start to smell a musty, fungal smell similar to the scent of rotting wood.

    When trying to identify mold growth, note that mold isnt just black. Instead, it comes in a range of shades and types. In other words, what you might think of as a green stain may in fact be mold growth!

    How Do You Know If You Are Buying A House With Mold

    Unfortunately, mold can be quite difficult to see with the naked eye. Mold thrives in dark, damp areas and is known to hide out in hard-to-reach areas that arent visible at first glance. Mold may also breed inside HVAC units and up in attics and behind walls, and beneath the flooring.

    If you suspect a home may have mold, there are some signs to look for on your own.

    When viewing the home, you should do some visual inspection to see if you spot any visible signs of mold. Mold can come in all kinds of colors and textures, depending on the type. Some of the most common household molds include:

    To avoid this potentially expensive situation, it is best to schedule a mold and air quality inspection from a professional service.

    Here are just a few key reasons why a professional mold inspection should be one of your top priorities before signing on the dotted line.

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    How Mold And Mildew Form

    Mold and mildew need the right conditions for growth. To begin, they need mold spores as a type of seed. Spores grow with three factors: food , water, and oxygen. Increasing or decreasing any of these factors will cause mold and mildew to grow or die.

    Spores land on the surface, germinate, and grow. Mold and mildew may start as early as 24 to 48 hours after the surface has been dampened. Mildew’s white-gray spots spread outward, not upward, remaining on the surface. Mold, though, eats into its baseâwhich makes it harder to removeâand sometimes grows upward.

    What Does Black Mold Exposure Treatment Look Like

    How Much Should Mold Remediation Cost? Find Out If You Are Being Overcharged!

    Just like the diagnosis, the treatment of mold exposure differs from doctor to doctor. One thing most doctors will advise you to do is to test for and, if needed, remove any unhealthy mold conditions from your home. Even if the treatment will help in the short-term, it wont be effective over the long-term if your indoor environment isnt improved.

    To treat the symptoms, doctors may suggest:

    • Over-the-counter medication. Medicine that would decrease the airway inflammation and suppress the allergic reactions.
    • Nasal sprays to deal with a runny or stuffy nose or rinses to clear your nasal passages from inhaled mold spores.
    • Regular allergy medicine

    A persons immune system has to be working properly to fight mold symptoms, so changes in a lifestyle or diet might be necessary. In more severe cases of allergies, doctors prescribe immunotherapy to provide relief from symptoms

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    How To Find Hidden Mold In Your House

    by amanda wooley | Apr 28, 2020 | Indoor Air Quality, Mold

    Whoa! Is it just you or has your home acquired a musty odor what seems like overnight? Additionally, you have started to notice spots forming on the surfaces, such as on the walls, ceilings, and even in your counters near the sink or bathroom in your home. All of these signs cannot be taken lightly, as these can be a clear notice to a homeowner that something is not right in your home which can be tainting the indoor air quality of your home, ruining the surfaces in your home, and even contributing to certain health effects that an occupant may have begun to experience strictly within this indoor space.

    The process of detecting and identifying mold inside of a home is never an easy task, and there are many components to consider when looking for mold indoors. Humidity, temperature, moisture, and other conditions within a home can be the underlying culprit behind mold growth in these environments. Also, certain tell-tale signs in your home like musty odors, discoloration on surfaces, exposure symptoms in home occupants, and even moisture intrusions in a home can all give insight into a potential mold infestation in your most sacred space your home.

    In this article we are going to learn more about how to find hidden mold in your house, how mold forms in this indoor space, and the best remediation methods to eliminating airborne mold microorganisms from the polluted air of your home.

    What To Do If You Have Hidden Mold

    If you can see mold, the solution is easy. Simply have it identified so you know whether its a toxic mold or not and then safely remove the mold.

    But sometimes you simply cant find it by ordinary means, even when you nearly tear your whole house apart.

    Sometimes, the only mold in your home is hidden in places you cant easily look. It can hide in attic insulation, in the wall cavity between drywall sheets, or between a finished basement ceiling and the floor upstairs.

    There is a way to tell. If your home has a musty odor or anyone with allergies to mold seem to have more symptoms in your home, you can suspect you have mold growth somewhere even if you cant see it.

    But, before you spend any money tearing down your house apart to find it, why not find out for sure? You can perform a preliminary air test that could tell if you have hidden mold growth.

    Order our air quality mold test kit to know for sure whether that musty odor is mold or something else. Its an easy, inexpensive way to find out whether you need to investigate further for mold or not.

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