Types of Dangerous Mold in the Home and How to Protect Against it
Schedule Free InspectionNot all molds that make their way into your home are dangerous. That doesn’t mean that you want to leave mold clusters in your foundation, basement, or crawl space to grow at their leisure.
If you have a mold problem in your home, you can reach out to the experts serving the Grand Junction, CO, area. Together, you can determine what kind of mold you’re dealing with and how best to get it out of your home.
Share this Image on Your Site!
Simply copy and paste the code below and you can share this infographic on your site:
Mold In Your Home: What Does It Mean?
Mold thrives when it has ready access to high levels of moisture as well as dark and undisturbed places to grow. While its presence in your home can be a nuisance on its own, it can also indicate a larger problem just out of sight.
Your foundation, basement, or crawl space can all fall victim to hydrostatic pressure. This pressure can cause your structural supports to rapidly contract and expand to the point where they begin to crack. Those cracks can turn into leaks, which can then let more moisture into your home than you’d normally prefer.
Mold will flock to the areas to your home where moisture congregates. The good news is that mold tends to reveal a leak. The bad news is that if you want mold out of your home entirely, you may have to invest in substantial home repairs.
Common Molds To Find In Your Home
What kind of molds might you have to contend with while clearing out your home?
There are hundreds of types of molds out in the world, but some tend to appear in homes more than others. These can include:
- Cladosporium
- Penicillium
- Alternaria
- Stachybotrys chartarum
Of those molds listed here, Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Alternaria are the least dangerous. That’s not to say that these are safe molds to have in your home — all three can negatively impact the quality of the air in your home and cause respiratory problems in young children or residents with poor immune systems.
Stachybotrys chartarum is also known as black mold, and it is exceptionally dangerous. This mold can make your home unlivable, as it can put the health of even people without previous medical conditions at risk for severe health problems even after it’s been removed from a home.
Removing Mold From Your Home
Luckily, you can remove mold from your home on your own time. If you find yourself dealing with Cladosporium, Penicillium, or Alternaria mold clusters, you can scrape the clusters off of your walls and dispose of the molds outdoors. You will, however, need to scrub down the area in which these molds grew. These molds and many others can infiltrate the porous materials around your space and reappear if the moisture levels in your home continue to facilitate their growth.
Both soapy water and commercial mold remover will help you restore your walls and joints after they’ve served as mold shelves. That said, be sure to keep an eye on the furniture or loose wood you have near a previous mold growth, as these objects can also harbor mold spores.
It’s not the best idea to try and remove black mold from your home on your own, at least not without the proper tools. While you should always call a mold removal specialist to deal with black mold, you can scrape away at it as long as you have a respiratory mask and gloves on hand.
Preventing Mold Growth In Your Home
The best way to deal with mold in your home is to keep it from appearing in the first place. The easiest way to do this is to limit the amount of moisture in your home. Without the moisture it needs to grow, mold can’t take root, even if its spores make its way indoors.
Some of the best ways to limit the moisture in your crawl space, basement, or foundation include:
- Moving air through your home
- Keeping the air vents in your home clean
- Getting rid of excess moisture with a dehumidifier
- Treating leaks as soon as you detect them
- Using waterproofing measures throughout your home
If you’re looking for specific waterproofing measures to invest in, you can collaborate with the foundation, basement, and crawl space repair professionals serving your area. After a home inspection from the experts at Foundation Repair of Western Colorado, they can provide you with a free quote for the materials you may need, including rigid insulation panels like ExTremeBloc™ or a CrawlSeal™ vapor barrier.
Publish Date:
Last Modified Date:
Our Locations
2575 U.S. 6 & 50, Unit A
Grand Junction, CO 81501