How to Prevent Mold in Your Home

Do you know how to prevent toxic mold in your home?  Wetness and dampness are the primary culprits behind mold activity. In the southeast mountain region, where rainfall is heavy and the humidity is thick, this creates a big problem. When you open up your windows to cool off the house, the outdoor air ventilation brings the damp outside air inside.  This wet air seeps into every nook and cranny of your home and your possessions, locking in moisture. This moisture allows mold to be active and more thoroughly colonize your indoor living space. A mold infestation can harm your health, your belongings, the value of your home, and your peace of mind.

The following measures will help reduce the mold activity inside your home:

• Inspection. Inspection will identify mold conditions in your home. Mold testing is not the place to start.
• Rainwater. Monitor roof, gutters, downspouts, rain barrels, drains, surface grade, and groundwater.
• Plumbing  leaks. Water supply lines, sinks, tubs, toilets, drains, septic lines, irrigation, fire sprinklers.
• Water devices. Dishwashers, icemakers, dehumidifiers, humidifiers, fish tanks, AC cooling coils, pools.
• Wetness target. 20% moisture content of wood, drywall, flooring, and other building components.
• Dampness target. 52% air humidity air in rooms, closets, basement, crawl space, storage rooms, garage.
• Air. Manage the air circulation, temperature, cleanliness, and dampness.
• Dust. Clean up accumulations of dust. Molds are in dust. Molds can feed on the organics in dust.
• HVAC.  Maintain your HVAC system. It is central to mold control. Sometimes it is the mold source.
• Duct system. Inspect, secure, seal, insulate, and possibly clean this respiratory system of your house.
• Items. Molds are “item-specific”. They prefer certain materials over others as a food source. Manage items and materials that mold favors. Discard items heavily colonized by mold (old suitcase, old shoes, old papers). How and where you store these items can make all the difference (warm spot, cold spot, in a sealed container).
• Layers. Avoid layers that trap dusts and moisture (ex: drywall, plus wallpaper, plus paneling on a wall).
• Simplify. Smoother surfaces with less detail and trim reduce mold-harboring dust build up.
• Clutter. Reduced clutter limits mold-harboring dust levels, simplifies clean-up, improves air circulation.
• Preventives. Certain paints, oils, and finishes discourage mold. Certain air cleaners reduce mold growth.

As you can see, there are many tactics for keeping mold at bay.  You are sure to have many questions, including; Where do you start? Which preventative measures are vital for the health of your home at this time? Which projects can you afford to undertake? Which projects can you do yourself? Where can you learn how to complete these projects? Which ones will you need outside help with? Who is best suited to getting this or that project done? What should it cost? What are the consequences of not doing some of these at this time?

The first item to check off your list is where to start. If done properly by a professional with sufficient experience, a good mold inspection will be the blueprint that you use to define your house’s mold control work list.

PS:  A Mold test can be either helpful or useless. It may lead you to a misleading conclusion and unnecessary expenses. It may totally miss the presence of some other indoor pollutant such as flue gas, formaldehyde, sewage gas, carbon monoxide, etc. You may be putting efforts toward the wrong issue. However, it is a mold inspection that confirms where mold is, how heavy it is, what trouble it is causing, how to clean it up, what allowed it to be active, what corrective measures are needed, and how to stay out of mold trouble in the future.