You may not think so, but everyone’s home is at risk for mold on one level or another. Mold is everywhere and in the air we breathe, so there is not much that we can do to escape it completely in our homes, but there are some things that you can do to stop it from developing colonies where you live. Some areas in your home are more at risk for mold growth than others and these are the laundry room, kitchen, basement, and bathroom. Of these four rooms, the two the most at risk are the kitchen and bathroom, since these rooms see the most use of the four. We all go to the kitchen and the bathroom at least once a day.
Kitchens are at risk when items like dishwashers or ice makers malfunction or the kitchen sink is allowed to overflow. Pipes underneath the sink can also burst, but this does not happen often if you have good plumbing. If you do have an appliance that uses a lot of water and it malfunctions often, you will be much better off purchasing a new one than allowing it to do damage and cause mold growth to your floor.
The bathroom is the room in your home that is at the most at risk for mold growth and water damage. Everyone in your home takes a bath every day (at least, they should) and this results in a large amount of water flowing through this room on any given date. This humidity buildup can wreak havoc on your ceiling if there is not an exhaust vent in place to take the steam out of the room. Ceilings have been known to become discolored and even collapse after years of steam soaking into them. Local building codes will probably require that your bathroom have either an exhaust vent or a window, but ideally, you should have both. Leaving your bathroom window open all the time is usually not practical at all, since bad weather crops up no matter where your home is located.
Another area at risk is the laundry room. This is mainly because of the washer and the possibility of it malfunctioning and releasing a large amount of water on the floor, but pipes can also burst behind it if you do not keep an eye on them. Make sure the plumbing is securely connected to the washer on a regular basis to help prevent this. You should also wash wet clothes as soon as possible and never throw them in with dry dirty clothes, since they will mold after a couple of days. Who has not covered up wet dirty clothes with dry ones and forgotten about them before?
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Dallas Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Smoke, Fire, and Water Damage
A house fire is one of the worst things that can befall a person and their family and the cleanup afterward can wreak even more havoc, but more on the wallet than anything else. You can hire someone to assist you in cleaning up your home after a fire has damaged the inside or you can do the majority of the cleanup yourself, depending on whether you are physically able or not. You can save a lot of money by doing most of the work yourself, but if there is anything that you are unsure of your ability to do, let the professionals handle it.
Do not enter the house without turning the electricity off, especially if there is standing water from the fire truck left. You need to record any damage that occurred to the home with a video or still camera. This will help you when you need to file a claim with your insurance company in the very near future. Locate the important papers in your home, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, insurance papers, and etcetera. If you did not have a fireproof and waterproof safe to store these in, you should purchase one as soon as you can. The odds of a house fire happening to the same person twice may not seem that great, but it does happen. Learn from the past and protect your valuables.
Do not walk on carpets that have ash and soot on them. Use a vacuum cleaner (not an upright) to clean this up, since an upright has bristles that will only drive the ash further into the fibers of it.
Anything damaged by the fire or the water sprayed into the house by the fire truck should be removed and taken outside. Wet items of furniture should be taken outside and let to dry out as soon as possible. Items with a heavy amount of padding that have been soaked with water must be dried out as soon as possible or they will mold within a few days. This is different than in a situation where a sofa or chair is flooded by water from a river or the ocean due to a hurricane or other storm, since those waters contain mud, silt, bacteria, and etcetera. There is not much danger of a large amount of bacteria being in the water from the truck, so you are more able to save your furniture.
Unfortunately, the smoke damage to your ceiling and walls will have to be painted over. Most of the time, attempts to wash this off the walls only succeed in spreading the soot around.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Do not enter the house without turning the electricity off, especially if there is standing water from the fire truck left. You need to record any damage that occurred to the home with a video or still camera. This will help you when you need to file a claim with your insurance company in the very near future. Locate the important papers in your home, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, insurance papers, and etcetera. If you did not have a fireproof and waterproof safe to store these in, you should purchase one as soon as you can. The odds of a house fire happening to the same person twice may not seem that great, but it does happen. Learn from the past and protect your valuables.
Do not walk on carpets that have ash and soot on them. Use a vacuum cleaner (not an upright) to clean this up, since an upright has bristles that will only drive the ash further into the fibers of it.
Anything damaged by the fire or the water sprayed into the house by the fire truck should be removed and taken outside. Wet items of furniture should be taken outside and let to dry out as soon as possible. Items with a heavy amount of padding that have been soaked with water must be dried out as soon as possible or they will mold within a few days. This is different than in a situation where a sofa or chair is flooded by water from a river or the ocean due to a hurricane or other storm, since those waters contain mud, silt, bacteria, and etcetera. There is not much danger of a large amount of bacteria being in the water from the truck, so you are more able to save your furniture.
Unfortunately, the smoke damage to your ceiling and walls will have to be painted over. Most of the time, attempts to wash this off the walls only succeed in spreading the soot around.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Rooms at Risk for Mold
There are a number of different rooms in your home that can harbor mold, but a good way to guess where it might be is to look at the rooms of your house that are naturally moist. This is any area in your home that water comes out of the plumbing system and these are usually only the bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, and basement. Bedrooms and common areas can also be at risk for mold growth, but nowhere nearly as much as the other rooms in your home.
One thing you do not want to have in either the bathroom, kitchen, or laundry room, is carpet. This is just not a practical choice, since these rooms usually have large amounts of water going through them at least once a day. If the dishwasher or clothes washer malfunctions and spills water all over the floor, it will be much more difficult to clean up than if it was spilled onto a tile or linoleum floor. Mold starts to grow after about 48 hours and if you do not completely clean up the water, this is most likely to happen.
If you have a large appliance such as a dishwasher or clothes washer (and if you run a full household with spouse and kids, you should), and it malfunctions, you really need to get it replaced as soon as possible. The cost of repairing the water damage done to the floor by both over time will probably outweigh the cost of a new appliance. Cut back on some spending in other areas and purchase a new one as soon as you can.
Your bathroom is another important area to take care of. If your bathtub or toilet overflows, the damage to the floor can be substantial if it is not waterproofed. This means that there should be no missing areas of grout, no cracked tiles, and no missing or loose caulking around the base of the toilet or bath tub.
Something that you should purchase for all the moist rooms of your home is an exhaust fan. Most building codes require that there be an exhaust fan or a window in the bathroom, but you should really have both, since leaving a window open for the steam to escape is not always practical. It could be too cold, too hot, or raining outside, so having the exhaust fan helps with this inconvenience. The reason for the fan is to keep the steam from being soaked up by the ceiling and causing it to become discolored. If it soaks up enough water over time, it could start to sag and even collapse on you.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York Basement Water extraction and other states and cities such as
new york city mold remediation companies across the united states.
One thing you do not want to have in either the bathroom, kitchen, or laundry room, is carpet. This is just not a practical choice, since these rooms usually have large amounts of water going through them at least once a day. If the dishwasher or clothes washer malfunctions and spills water all over the floor, it will be much more difficult to clean up than if it was spilled onto a tile or linoleum floor. Mold starts to grow after about 48 hours and if you do not completely clean up the water, this is most likely to happen.
If you have a large appliance such as a dishwasher or clothes washer (and if you run a full household with spouse and kids, you should), and it malfunctions, you really need to get it replaced as soon as possible. The cost of repairing the water damage done to the floor by both over time will probably outweigh the cost of a new appliance. Cut back on some spending in other areas and purchase a new one as soon as you can.
Your bathroom is another important area to take care of. If your bathtub or toilet overflows, the damage to the floor can be substantial if it is not waterproofed. This means that there should be no missing areas of grout, no cracked tiles, and no missing or loose caulking around the base of the toilet or bath tub.
Something that you should purchase for all the moist rooms of your home is an exhaust fan. Most building codes require that there be an exhaust fan or a window in the bathroom, but you should really have both, since leaving a window open for the steam to escape is not always practical. It could be too cold, too hot, or raining outside, so having the exhaust fan helps with this inconvenience. The reason for the fan is to keep the steam from being soaked up by the ceiling and causing it to become discolored. If it soaks up enough water over time, it could start to sag and even collapse on you.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York Basement Water extraction and other states and cities such as
new york city mold remediation companies across the united states.
Molded Foods in Your Fridge
You do not normally think of mold as a part of your diet and you probably should not, but the fact is that foods have been made with mold in them for millennia. Most of the time, though, molded food in your refrigerator does not work in your favor and ingesting it can very well make you sick. This usually comes from outdated items or fruits and vegetables and most of the time, you will have to throw these things away.
Molded bread needs to be thrown out, because it is a porous food and any mold that grows on one piece will contaminate the next one to it. You cannot be sure how far the mold has embedded itself into the loaf, so it is best to just throw away the whole loaf.
Jellies and jams in the refrigerator are also notorious for mold growth. We tend to forget about old jars of grape jelly stuffed into the back of the fridge behind everything else and they mold after a while. Throw these out. These contain a large amount of moisture and cannot be saved. If you notice that this happens every time you purchase a certain kind of jelly, jam, or other item in your fridge, try to buy things that you know your family will eat before they become moldy. This will help with the problem.
Other items like sour cream and mayonnaise, like the jams and jellies that we mentioned earlier, cannot be saved. You can use outdated sour cream for a while, since sour cream is already sour, but molded sour cream should be thrown out as soon as it is discovered.
Some items in your fridge that become molded can be saved, though, if you know what to do with them. Items like hard salami and blocks of cheese can be salvaged if you cut around the molded spot and throw it away. Cut off at least an inch around and under these areas and do not touch the knife to the mold itself and then touch another part of the food. Cross contamination is a real problem here.
You can cut down on the amount of molded foods in your fridge by making sure that your family eats the leftovers that get stored there and by purchasing smaller containers of foods that you find are becoming molded the most often. You will save time and the money necessary to replace the molded food.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New Jersey mold inspections and other states and cities such as
north carolina mold inspections companies across the united states.
Molded bread needs to be thrown out, because it is a porous food and any mold that grows on one piece will contaminate the next one to it. You cannot be sure how far the mold has embedded itself into the loaf, so it is best to just throw away the whole loaf.
Jellies and jams in the refrigerator are also notorious for mold growth. We tend to forget about old jars of grape jelly stuffed into the back of the fridge behind everything else and they mold after a while. Throw these out. These contain a large amount of moisture and cannot be saved. If you notice that this happens every time you purchase a certain kind of jelly, jam, or other item in your fridge, try to buy things that you know your family will eat before they become moldy. This will help with the problem.
Other items like sour cream and mayonnaise, like the jams and jellies that we mentioned earlier, cannot be saved. You can use outdated sour cream for a while, since sour cream is already sour, but molded sour cream should be thrown out as soon as it is discovered.
Some items in your fridge that become molded can be saved, though, if you know what to do with them. Items like hard salami and blocks of cheese can be salvaged if you cut around the molded spot and throw it away. Cut off at least an inch around and under these areas and do not touch the knife to the mold itself and then touch another part of the food. Cross contamination is a real problem here.
You can cut down on the amount of molded foods in your fridge by making sure that your family eats the leftovers that get stored there and by purchasing smaller containers of foods that you find are becoming molded the most often. You will save time and the money necessary to replace the molded food.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New Jersey mold inspections and other states and cities such as
north carolina mold inspections companies across the united states.
Mold and Water Damage In Your Home
All homeowners should do an inspection of their property for mold at one point or another, especially if you own an older home. Even newly constructed homes are not able to escape mold growth if they are not taken care of or were not built properly. There have been incidents of contractors using cheap, low quality materials and these end up causing mold to grow in your home. Even though the materials were cheap and low quality, there is nothing that you can do as long as the building was constructed up to your local building codes. You can try to pursue a legal case against the contractor, but you are not likely to get anything if they did everything up to code.
If you suspect that there is mold in the house due to a musty smell or sudden symptoms that do not appear when you are out of the house, there are a few different places that you should start. Look around in the areas of you home that large amounts of water pass through every day, like the bathroom, laundry room, kitchen, and basement. These are areas where water is likely to be and where there are water leaks, mold will soon follow.
The bathroom is the worst offender when it comes to mold. This is usually where mold is found when it is found inside a home, since so much water goes through this area every day, especially if you have 2 or more people living with you. The floor of your bathroom should be completely water tight and if it is not, you need to do what you have to in order to get it that way. Water getting under the tile or linoleum or whatever you have on the floor in your bathroom will rot the floor joists over time. Whether the floor is waterproofed or not, try not to leave the floor wet. Your bathroom should also have a window or an exhaust vent installed in the ceiling, since most building codes require one of the two.
Exhaust vents should also be in the kitchen, laundry room, and basement. These will help remove the excess humidity from the room and stop it from collecting on the ceiling. Ceilings will soak up a huge amount of water over time and this both discolors and weakens them. This can eventually cause the ceiling to collapse and as you might guess, this is very dangerous.
Replace any appliances that use large amounts of water if they malfunction on a regular basis. You will be better off replacing them than repairing the water damage they do to your floors later on.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Chicago Water and Sewage Extraction and other states and cities such as
North Carolina Water and Sewage Extraction companies across the united states.
If you suspect that there is mold in the house due to a musty smell or sudden symptoms that do not appear when you are out of the house, there are a few different places that you should start. Look around in the areas of you home that large amounts of water pass through every day, like the bathroom, laundry room, kitchen, and basement. These are areas where water is likely to be and where there are water leaks, mold will soon follow.
The bathroom is the worst offender when it comes to mold. This is usually where mold is found when it is found inside a home, since so much water goes through this area every day, especially if you have 2 or more people living with you. The floor of your bathroom should be completely water tight and if it is not, you need to do what you have to in order to get it that way. Water getting under the tile or linoleum or whatever you have on the floor in your bathroom will rot the floor joists over time. Whether the floor is waterproofed or not, try not to leave the floor wet. Your bathroom should also have a window or an exhaust vent installed in the ceiling, since most building codes require one of the two.
Exhaust vents should also be in the kitchen, laundry room, and basement. These will help remove the excess humidity from the room and stop it from collecting on the ceiling. Ceilings will soak up a huge amount of water over time and this both discolors and weakens them. This can eventually cause the ceiling to collapse and as you might guess, this is very dangerous.
Replace any appliances that use large amounts of water if they malfunction on a regular basis. You will be better off replacing them than repairing the water damage they do to your floors later on.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Chicago Water and Sewage Extraction and other states and cities such as
North Carolina Water and Sewage Extraction companies across the united states.
Killing Mold While Going Green
While there are a large number of commercial chemicals that are on the market and advertised to kill mold, there are not too many options for those of us who are interested in “going green”. Many people are jumping onto the going green band wagon recently, exchanging the chemical cleaners and pesticide treated foods for something more natural and un-tampered with. There are natural ways to kill mold, though, that will not harm human beings, even if they are few and far between. You can find these in health food stores or even just your local grocery store, but be prepared to pay more than you would for the chemical alternatives.
The first one is the least expensive of the three ways, but you may not be pleased with the way your house smells immediately after you treat it. This calls for distilled white vinegar for a number of reasons. It is colorless and will not stain anything that you put it on and it will kill somewhere around 82 percent of molds that can live in your house. Even though it does not kill all kinds of mold, it will kill most that grows indoors. Pour the vinegar into a spray bottle, spray it on the mold and do not rinse. The smell will go away in a while and the mold should be dead.
Another way that you can kill mold is to use tea tree oil. This is a little bit expensive, but if you are bent on going green, this is one of the only 3 known ways to go. It will kill more types of mold than vinegar and leaves no odor. Take about two teaspoons of tea tree oil and mix it with two cups of water. Put this in a spray bottle, mix the two by shaking it up, and spray areas of mold with it. Again, do not rinse. This has an indefinite shelf life.
Grapefruit seed extract works in a similar way and you need to mix around 20 drops of this with two cups of water in the same way that you mixed up the tea tree oil. Spray it on molded areas and like the other two methods, do not rinse it off.
None of these methods should pose any health threat to you or the people in your home, unless you or they have an allergy to one of these items.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York Sewage Damage Clean-up and other states and cities such as
North Carolina Water and Sewage Extraction companies across the united states.
The first one is the least expensive of the three ways, but you may not be pleased with the way your house smells immediately after you treat it. This calls for distilled white vinegar for a number of reasons. It is colorless and will not stain anything that you put it on and it will kill somewhere around 82 percent of molds that can live in your house. Even though it does not kill all kinds of mold, it will kill most that grows indoors. Pour the vinegar into a spray bottle, spray it on the mold and do not rinse. The smell will go away in a while and the mold should be dead.
Another way that you can kill mold is to use tea tree oil. This is a little bit expensive, but if you are bent on going green, this is one of the only 3 known ways to go. It will kill more types of mold than vinegar and leaves no odor. Take about two teaspoons of tea tree oil and mix it with two cups of water. Put this in a spray bottle, mix the two by shaking it up, and spray areas of mold with it. Again, do not rinse. This has an indefinite shelf life.
Grapefruit seed extract works in a similar way and you need to mix around 20 drops of this with two cups of water in the same way that you mixed up the tea tree oil. Spray it on molded areas and like the other two methods, do not rinse it off.
None of these methods should pose any health threat to you or the people in your home, unless you or they have an allergy to one of these items.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York Sewage Damage Clean-up and other states and cities such as
North Carolina Water and Sewage Extraction companies across the united states.
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