It’s black, sometimes green or gray, gross, slimy, fuzzy, and strange. Mold! What do you like about it? Whether mold grows on your bread or inside the walls of your house, it is likely to turn your stomach. Also, some types of mold can make you sick. To make matters worse, mold spores are pretty much everywhere! These microscopic spores are like tiny floating seeds that silently float in search of a nice place to sprout. Strange, huh?
Before freaking out when you see a mold stain or colony, understand that your cleaning skills are not to blame. Mold can grow anywhere you find a suitable environment, including the tidiest homes and even hospitals. While it’s important to keep your home clean, if you want to control or prevent mold, the key is to make sure mold doesn’t find a suitable environment.
What do you consider mold to be the perfect place to establish a colony? Any wet place. That’s right, water attracts mold. Once the mold spores find a nice moist environment, it’s only a matter of time before the mold grows and reproduces itself, digesting the underlying material along the way.
Because mold consumes the surface it lives on, cleaning isn’t always effective. For example, you can usually clean moderate mold growth in a tiled shower stall. However, mold growing on wallpaper physically consumes the paper, adhesive, and drywall underneath. Controlling mold early, before it damages materials, is important to keep costs and adverse health effects to a minimum.
Since mold spores are everywhere and all they need is a little moisture, controlling humidity in the home is the key to controlling foreign mold. Go through your house, room by room, and look for sources of water. Pay attention to: areas around doors and windows, faucets, air conditioners, water containers (such as under the refrigerator), water heaters, washers and dryers, dishwashers, and other areas where water can accumulate. Mold can even grow on wet clothes, so don’t put your wet clothes in the washing machine or leave wet towels in a pile.
Spotting water and minor spills in the main living areas of your home is usually fairly easy. It is the less traveled areas that are often quickly affected by mold. For example, when was the last time you looked under your water heater? The water heater is most likely hidden in a closet, garage, or basement. A slow leak can quickly lead to a significant source of moisture. If left unchecked, it won’t be long before you have a major and rare mold problem.
Another way to control indoor humidity is to use exhaust fans. For example, when taking a shower, the exhaust fan vents the steam outdoors, dramatically reducing the humidity in the bathroom. Similarly, cooking also generates a great deal of moisture, including boiling water and washing dishes.
Mold is gross and is best prevented. Simple steps like opening vents and controlling indoor humidity make a big difference in the battle against mold.