An urge to connect with the past led us to the back of the closet and stacks of boxes with family pictures. Anticipation mounted as we opened the boxes to see how we looked growing up. But, what we saw was…mold!
Yes, mold deserves an exclamation point, especially if your home is on the market and buyers are looking in every nook and cranny. Not only does mold complicate your home sale, it also affects your health and can be very costly to remove.
The first line of defense is to prevent mold before it takes hold. Mold needs several conditions to flourish–food, moisture, the right temperature, stagnant air and time. During this spring’s storms, some moisture must have dripped into the closet and settled on the family pictures. Add stagnant air, then high temperatures, and we grew mold.
Here are some preventative measures to ensure your home is mold free.
• Be aware of your home’s humidity. The more humid it is, the more opportunity for mold to grow. Because Missouri is very humid during the summer, it’s important to keep the air conditioning at about 78 degrees. Much higher than that temperature and the humidity goes up. Setting the thermostat very low makes for colder surfaces and condensation.
• Clutter contributes to mold. All that stuff blocks airflow, reducing your AC’s ability to dehumidify and creating a stagnant atmosphere. One of our goals in the closet project was to de-clutter, review all sorts of stuff way in the back and get rid of what we didn’t want. Now, we have not only de-cluttered, but are also facing mold removal.
• Check areas that are moisture magnets. Wipe up water in the bathroom and routinely re-caulk around the bathtub. Keep an eye out for moisture in the laundry area and other parts of the basement. Look up at the basement ceiling as well as down at the floor.
If you do find mold, should you go for a do-it-yourself removal project or call the experts? For very small areas, you could remove the mold using a solution of dishwashing soap and water, but because disturbed mold spores become airborne very quickly, you’ll still have to suit up, wear goggles and long gloves.
Our best advice is to leave mold removal to the pros. Not only do they have special equipment to deal with the situation and discard the materials so that spores do not escape, they can also determine what may be behind the walls that you can’t see.
