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6 Essential Things to Know About Mold

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Waterproofing your home doesn’t just protect you from unwanted standing water. It also limits your chance of a mold infestation. Mold can be difficult to get rid of once it’s taken root, and it can cause a myriad of problems for you as a homeowner.

What do you need to know about potential mold infestations, and how can you prevent one from damaging your home?

Mold Guide

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Dealing With Mold In Your Home

Mold is not a harmless house guest. Not only is it unsightly, but it can cause significant health problems for your home’s residents. According to the CDC, mold is known to cause these conditions:

  • Coughing
  • Asthma in younger children
  • Congestion
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Wheezing
  • Itching eyes and/or skin

Mold can also bring down the value of your home if you’re looking to sell. While its side effects can make home tours unpleasant, mold can also compromise the integrity of the structural supports throughout your home. You risk losing up to 30 percent of your home’s value if you don’t actively try and take steps to remove mold or prevent it from reappearing.

Identifying Mold In Your Home

Mold comes in a wide variety of colors and textures, all of which look relatively distinct even from your insulation or drywall. While you may not be able to identify the specific species you’re forced to contend with in your home, you should be able to identify the signs of an infestation. These include:

  • Clusters and growths
  • Moistness
  • Unpleasant or otherwise musty smells
  • Trouble breathing

There’s more to the smell mold releases than just unpleasantness. If you suspect you have mold in your home, follow your nose. The musty or moist smell should either lead you to the site of a leak in your home or to the largest of the mold clusters you have to contend with.

Finding Mold

Mold thrives when it has ready access to dark and damp places in your home. These areas will likely see little traffic, meaning you’ll be less likely to immediately notice when something’s amiss.

When searching for mold, you’ll want to start looking for clusters in your:

  • Basement
  • Crawl space
  • Attic
  • Bathroom
  • HVAC system
  • Air ducts

Mold and Moisture

Despite its love of moisture, mold does not enter your home via water particles. Instead, it travels on air currents in the form of spores. If your home has high levels of moisture, these spores will take root and begin to form clusters within 48 hours of inviting themselves inside.

Professionals serving Rush City and St. Cloud, MN, as well as Fargo, ND, can help you determine why the levels of moisture in your home have risen to the point where they’re mold-friendly. In identifying this cause, you can work to prevent mold from reappearing in your home even after it’s been removed once or twice.

Mold Removal

You should never try to remove mold from your home without the help of a professional. While clusters can look easy to pull off of a wall or away from the joints in your home, they can grow into your drywall and furniture, if you’re not careful. A mold removal professional can provide you with the tools you need to ensure a safe and thorough removal.

Preventing Mold From Growing In Your Home

If you want to keep mold out of your home, you’ll need to take steps to limit the amount of moisture that gets into your home. While you don’t want to clear your home of humidity entirely, you can take steps to ensure leaks or other forms of damage don’t add to the moisture that’s already making your home unlivable.

Waterproofing measures ranging from vapor barriers and home encapsulation to sump pumps and dehumidifiers can all help you control the moisture levels in your home. If you suspect your home may have fallen victim to damage, you can talk to the basement waterproofing and crawl space repair experts in your area to determine what kind of repairs you may need to invest in before you can install new waterproofing measures. After a home inspection, these professionals from Innovative Basement Authority can provide you with a free quote on the services that’ll restore your home back to its most protected state.

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Rush City, MN 55069