How To Inspect For Black Mold

Find The Moisture Source

Black mold removal is important. But first, one must identify that it is black mold. First, look at the color, followed by the smell. Black mold is black or even dark grey in color, and often smells wet and musty, as it usually grows in areas with a lot of moisture. Black mold is also usually noticeable in the home if you experience a burning or scratching sensation in your throat or lungs. Black mold is dangerous, and can greatly affect your health if left untreated, so it’s important to remove it as soon as you’re aware of it.

Before you can begin any black mold treatment, youll need to perform a black mold test and find the source. Its often the result of excess moisture in a particular area. Youre most likely to find black mold in areas of your home that you dont visit as often like the basement, but it can pop up anywhere. Here are a few common moisture sources to look for:

• Faucets and fixtures. Sink, shower and bathtub faucets and fixtures that are leaking can lead to the growth of black mold over time.
• Exposed plumbing. Damaged or leaking pipes, especially in warmer temperatures, can often create black mold in areas like basements.
• Water heaters. A small leak can create black mold in your basement or water heater closet.

How To Remove Mold

• Wear old clothes and shoes that you can launder or throw away after the cleanup work.
• Wear special N-95 or P-100 respirators, in addition to goggles and gloves.
• Set an old box fan or a cheap new one in a window to ventilate the room while working. Throw it out when you’re done cleaning, because the spores are almost impossible to clean off. Tape plywood or cardboard around the window openings so the spores can’t blow back in.
• Wrap and tape moldy carpeting in 6-mil plastic, and double-bag mold-infested debris in garbage bags for disposal.
• To control airborne spores, moisten moldy areas with a garden sprayer while you work.
• Turn off your furnace and air conditioner and cover ducts and doors to contain spores.
• Keep your wet/dry vacuum outside when you vacuum.

How To Remove Black Mold

Protect yourself. You don’t need to worry about having mold tested if you find mold in your house. But you should get rid of it no matter what type of mold it is. Take precautions to protect yourself before you attempt to remove mold.

Use an N-95 face mask to avoid breathing in mold spores. Wear gloves to protect your hands and goggles without ventilation holes to protect your eyes.â

Find and destroy the mold. The most important part of removing mold is finding and removing its water source. Mold can’t grow without moisture. Keep the following tips in mind when you’re cleaning up mold:

• Items that can’t be dried quickly should be discarded if they show signs of mold or water damage. Porous items such as carpet, padding, drywall, and paper soak up moisture.
• Do not paint or caulk over moldy surfaces. Remove the mold and dry the surfaces before you paint. Paint applied over mold will peel.
• Use plastic sheeting to block an area with mold from the rest of your house and keep the spores from spreading.
• Scrub hard surfaces with mold with detergent and water and dry them thoroughly.
• Put any moldy items in a plastic bag before you take them out of the room to prevent mold spores from spreading.
• Use a HEPA filter in your air conditioner and furnace to capture mold spores that may be airborne in your house.
• Consult a specialist if you’re not sure of the best way to clean a valuable or sentimental item.â

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Why Live In A Mold Infested Home

Of course, people dont voluntarily live in a home that is infested with black mold but for many, the problem remains undetected until it is too late. Unless mold is visible to the naked eye, many people have no idea that it is in their home. Therefore, it is extremely important to do routine mold testing. A majority of people do this with DIY mold testing kits. However, a more thorough and effective method is to hire a certified professional mold testing and inspection company. Unfortunately, this is also a very expensive option and should be decided carefully.

What Affects The Cost Of A Mold Inspection

There are two main factors that affect the cost of a mold inspection: the size of the house being inspected and whether or not the inspector has to remove or destroy parts of the property, such as drywall or paneling, to complete the inspection.

Quite simply, a large house with a lot of square footage is going to cost more to inspect because the inspection is going to take longer. An âinvasiveâ inspection involving digging through drywall or digging under a crawlspace is also going to cost extra because of the extra time and work involved.

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Finding A Mold Problem

MDH does not recommend mold testing in many cases, especially as the first response to an indoor air quality concern. Instead, careful detailed visual inspection and recognition of moldy odors should be used to find problems needing correction. Efforts should focus on areas where there are signs of liquid moisture or water vapor or where moisture problems are suspected. The investigation goals should be to locate indoor mold growth to determine how to correct the moisture problem and remove contamination safely and effectively.

Cost Of Mold Inspection

As mentioned above, the cost of hiring a professional mold inspector is not cheap. Depending on the size of the house, the extent of the mould growth, the types of testing done, and the equipment used the price can range from $200 to $900. It is also important to realize that if any additional paperwork needs to be completed, such as to file an insurance claim, it could involve additional costs.

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Poor Reason For Testing #2 To Identify What Type Of Mold Is Present

Some testing can be used to identify a portion of the live mold in a sample by growing it in the lab. This gives only a partial description of the total amount of molds, because those not present at the sampled time and location or those that didnt grow in the sample are not seen by the analysis. Most importantly, nonliving molds will not be identifiable, but they can still contribute significantly to health complaints.

From a practical, health-protective perspective, knowing the types of molds is usually not very important because any indoor mold growth represents a problem. The problem should be corrected regardless of the types of molds that can be identified.

Cleaning Up Small And Medium Mould Problems

Bleach is not necessary to clean up mould.

You can clean up small areas of mould if you follow the proper procedures and use the right protective equipment. Unless the mould growth is on smooth surfaces such as bathroom tiles, surface cleaning will not eliminate the problem.

In most cases you can clean up medium areas of mould if you follow the proper procedures and use the right protective equipment. Materials damaged by mould must be physically removed and disposed of under safe conditions. However, it is important to seek professional assistance if there is a large mould problem or if mould comes back after cleaning.

Susceptible individuals such as pregnant women, infants, children, the elderly, and occupants with asthma, allergies or other health problems should not be in or near the area where the mould is being cleaned up.

Minimum protective gear needed:

• a disposable N95 mask and
• household disposable gloves.

You can purchase an N95 mask from a hardware store. Make sure that the label says “N95”. Other masks are designed to provide limited protection against dust and are not suitable for protecting against mould exposure. Make sure that the mask is properly fitted and you can breathe through the mask.

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Preventing Mold In Your Home

The best way to keep your family safe from black mold is to prevent it from growing. Since mold grows in damp, dark places, you should aim to improve ventilation and reduce humidity in areas that are prone to mold.

In your bathrooms, for example, you can use a shower squeegee to remove excess water from shower walls and bathroom mirrors. You can also install a vent fan or open a window when showering to allow humidity to leave the room. These steps help reduce the moisture in your bathroom and make it more difficult for black mold to grow.

Make searching for black mold or potential growth areas a part of your spring cleaning routine. The sooner you catch a mold growth, the better chance you have to get rid of it before it causes health problems.

What To Do If You Have Mold In Your Home

What should you do if you see mold in your home? The first thing is to do some investigation. Mold is a sign of excess moisture. You need to determine the source of moisture and control or eliminate it. Moisture can come from many sources, including leaks, condensation, and ground water. Once you determine the source, take measures to correct the problem.

The Minnesota Department of Health created a fact sheet explaining why it does not support mold testing as a first response to indoor air quality problems. For more information about MDH’s stance on testing, visit Testing for Mold.

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Getting A Mold Checkup

Getting rid of the mold in your home is your first priority. Since CDC guidelines don’t distinguish between different types of mold and recommend the prompt removal of all mold in your home, testing beforehand isn’t a priority if you’ve already decided you have a problem. Testing can be useful when you want to make sure your property is free of mold after a cleanup, though.

There are a couple of ways you can arrange for a test. You can purchase an in-home test kit, follow the directions and submit the resulting sample to a lab. The costs for this can vary quite a bit, anywhere from $40 to more than $200, and the results might not be reliable. Consumer Reports conducted an evaluation of home mold testing kits in 2006, and none of the four kits they looked at received a recommendation. The problems ranged from the kits having no expiration dates, potentially compromising the results, to being difficult to use .

There is a third choice. After a cleanup, you can make periodic, careful evaluations of the infected area yourself and monitor your family’s health to see if the problem recurs. The time and effort you take with the clean-up and the extent of the mold damage may have an impact on how comfortable you feel with this option. If a foul smell alerted you to a mold problem in the first place, using your nose to check the area periodically might be a good way to gauge the success of your cleanup efforts.

Moisture: Investigating And Solving Problems

Mould will grow indoors if moisture is present. Moisture problems in homes may result from:

• daily activities such as showering or bathing, washing clothes or cooking, if exhaust fans are not working properly or are not used
• infiltration of water from the outside when there are cracks or leaks in the foundation, floor, walls or roof
• plumbing leaks
• moisture condensation on cold surfaces
• flooding due to weather conditions
• inadequate ventilation.

Moisture indoors accumulates when it cannot be vented outside and becomes a problem when building materials become damp or wet.

Moisture problems are preventable.

Unless the cause of the moisture problem has been identified and solved, mould will reappear. Once the moisture problem and its causes have been identified, they must be fixed. To prevent future problems, measures should be put in place to control sources of moisture in your home, for example:

• Ensure rain, irrigation water and snowmelt drain away from the house by sloping the grade away from the building.
• Keep eavestroughs and downspouts clean of debris and ensure that the outflow runs away from the house and not into neighbouring foundations.
• Repair plumbing leaks promptly.
• Use exhaust fans, ventilation and air conditioning systems to vent moisture outdoors.
• Use moisture tolerant materials in areas likely to get wet .

Run a dehumidifier in damp areas such as basements or if you observe that moisture is condensing on cold surfaces such as window panes.

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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.

Healthy Home Myths Debunked

Common areas to test for black mold are basements, crawlspaces, bathrooms and kitchens where moisture and condensation may gather regularly. A water source is the first requirement for mold growth, so any damp, humid areas of the home are often susceptible.

Sight and smell may give you a good indication of whether or not you have a black mold problem black mold tends to have a strong, musty smell, and of course it displays a trademark black color. If you believe you have black mold growth in an area of your home after these initial inspections, you have two options: professional mold testing or do-it-yourself testing.

Professional mold testing companies will take samples of the air and any areas of mold growth, identify precisely what type of mold is present, and recommend next steps for remediation.

If you go the DIY route while testing for black mold, you will need to purchase a mold testing kit from a hardware or home repair store, take samples of the air and affected areas yourself, and then send these in to a testing facility, which will report back as to which type of mold is present.

Black mold can be an expensive and potentially unhealthy problem for homeowners, but by testing for black mold, you can know for sure if you’ll need to take steps to eradicate black mold from your home.

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I See Mold Do I Really Need A Mold Professional

Home> Inspections & Testing> I See Mold. Do I Really Need a Mold Professional?

If you have amold problem, youre probably asking yourself two questions:

Read on to find out.

Epa Advice On Mold Testing

The US Environmental Protection Agency advises that mold sampling usually isnt warranted if you can see visible mold growth. There are currently no threshold limits for mold or mold spores, so sampling a home for mold will not tell the homeowner whether or not their homes mold sample falls within an acceptable standard for mold exposure. Also, mold identification usually is not necessary because all molds have the potential to cause unfavorable health reactions, especially in people that have pre-existing sensitivities. Regardless of the type of mold or the amount of mold, it should not be allowed to grow in your home. Once you find it, you should take steps to remove.

For specific information about mold removal and remediation guidelines, follow the EPA’s key steps for remediation.

For information about hiring a mold contractor, visit Hiring a Mold Consultant or Contractor.

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Help With Black Mold Inspections

If youre not sure youve located all of the mold in your home, we recommended calling in a certified mold tester. These professionals, certified by either the American Council for Accredited Certification or the American Board of Industrial Hygiene , are usually engineers. They can test for mold by sampling the air in your home and by sampling any surfaces that might bear traces of mold. They will perform a very thorough black mold inspection and make sure all areas of mold in your home have been identified. For a list of certified mold testers in your area, just follow the link.

Poor Reason For Testing #1 To Find Out If There Is Mold

A complex mixture of mold particles normally exists in all occupied indoor environments. If appropriate testing is done, it is expected that molds will be found. There is, however, an important distinction between the normal presence of mold particles, versus mold growth and accumulation indoors. Unfortunately, even when it is done well, testing may not be able to distinguish between normal and problem conditions and it may even give misleading results.

When mold grows indoors, it poses a potential health risk and damages what it grows on. When mold growth is visible or mold odors can be smelled, it is common sense that there is a problem that should not be tolerated.

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