Having mold in the house is a pretty nasty thought, but there are a lot of people who live with this problem every single day. There are a lot of things that you can do to prevent mold growth in your home and some of the best ones start with removing the mold spores from your indoor air supply.
Removing mold spores from your air supply serves a couple of purposes. The first one is that the spores do not have a chance to land anywhere in your home and start to form a colony, which will produce more spores. If you can stop the spores from producing colonies, then your mold problem is removed before it starts. The second reason you would want to do this is to be able to avoid breathing the spores in, since some species of mold can cause aspergilloma to develop in the body. These are essentially fungus balls that will grow in cavities such as where a person has had cancer or ulcers of some kind and can spread from one part of the body to another.
There are a couple of appliances that you can purchase that will help remove the majority of mold spores in your home’s air. These are a vacuum cleaner and an air purifier and both need to be equipped with HEPA filters.
HEPA filters remove about 99.7% of all particle debris in the air, including mold spores, down to a size of 0.03 microns. This is equal to about one third of the width of a human hair, so only about 0.3% of the air you breathe will have any particle debris in it. All of the things you were breathing previously, smoke particles, mold spores, pet dander, and etcetera are being captured by the filter. As long as you replace it as regularly as you are supposed to, this will work very well, especially for people that have respiratory conditions such as asthma, allergies, or emphysema.
Keep in mind that not all vacuum cleaners and air purification systems have HEPA filters in them, so be sure of what you are purchasing before you hand over the money. Read product reviews and find the best vacuum cleaner and purification system for you, since not all are created equal.
Any pre-existing mold problems in your home need to be taken care of, as well, as soon as possible to make the most out of your prevention methods. As long as mold colonies continue to exist in your home, you will continue to have mold spore problems.
Showing posts with label exhauset. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exhauset. Show all posts
Friday, January 18, 2008
Getting Mold Off of Fabrics
Most of us who have lived in a home for a while have collected a large number of fabric items, including clothing, sheets, blankets, and linens, but sometime we run across an old and neglected item that has been in the back of the closet for quite a while and has become molded. If you do happen to find an item like this in your home, it is best that you go wash your hands after handling it as soon as possible, since letting mold come into contact with your bare hands can cause skin rashes and sometimes allergic reactions.
These items can be cleaned most of the time, depending on how advanced the contamination of mold is, but unfortunately, many times it will leave behind stains. Cleaning mold off of white fabric is fairly easy, since bleach can be used to remove stains, but if you are cleaning mold off of colored items, getting rid of the mold stains may be a little more difficult.
Borax laundry detergent can be used to kill and remove the mold, but you should use an old toothbrush to remove any substantial growth. Always wear latex or rubber gloves of some kind before working with these items and you can put a pre-wash stain remover on them to help with the stain removal process. Allow this to soak on it for about 45 minutes before you wash it the first time. Things should usually be washed in borax detergent at least twice and instead of using the electric dryer to dry them out, let them dry naturally outside the house.
A bad thing about mold contaminating items of clothing and furniture is that natural items like leather do not do very well. These items can rarely, if ever, be restored to their original condition. Leather becomes discolored fairly easily and since mold’s job in nature is to decompose organic material, this is to be expected.
Use a vacuum cleaner that has a HEPA filter on it to get rid of mold that can collect on drapes and furniture. Using this will collect the majority of mold spores from the air and capture them. When you are emptying the filter, however, do it slowly, so you do not stir the contents back up into the air. If possible, you should do this outside.
Air purifying systems are also available and will help reduce the amount of mold spores in your home, thus reducing the chance that it will build up on your clothing in the closet or in drawers. Purchase one of these that can handle your homes square footage or it will not work as intended.
These items can be cleaned most of the time, depending on how advanced the contamination of mold is, but unfortunately, many times it will leave behind stains. Cleaning mold off of white fabric is fairly easy, since bleach can be used to remove stains, but if you are cleaning mold off of colored items, getting rid of the mold stains may be a little more difficult.
Borax laundry detergent can be used to kill and remove the mold, but you should use an old toothbrush to remove any substantial growth. Always wear latex or rubber gloves of some kind before working with these items and you can put a pre-wash stain remover on them to help with the stain removal process. Allow this to soak on it for about 45 minutes before you wash it the first time. Things should usually be washed in borax detergent at least twice and instead of using the electric dryer to dry them out, let them dry naturally outside the house.
A bad thing about mold contaminating items of clothing and furniture is that natural items like leather do not do very well. These items can rarely, if ever, be restored to their original condition. Leather becomes discolored fairly easily and since mold’s job in nature is to decompose organic material, this is to be expected.
Use a vacuum cleaner that has a HEPA filter on it to get rid of mold that can collect on drapes and furniture. Using this will collect the majority of mold spores from the air and capture them. When you are emptying the filter, however, do it slowly, so you do not stir the contents back up into the air. If possible, you should do this outside.
Air purifying systems are also available and will help reduce the amount of mold spores in your home, thus reducing the chance that it will build up on your clothing in the closet or in drawers. Purchase one of these that can handle your homes square footage or it will not work as intended.
Exhaust Fans and Ditra Prevent Mold
Mold can grow all over the house but there are a few rooms that are a bit more at risk for mold growth than all the others and this is usually due to the amount of inherent moisture that passes through them on a day to day basis. You may not realize it if you are just moving into a home of your own after college or getting out of your parents’ house, but the kitchen and the bathroom are the two areas of the home that require the most attention to keep them in tip top shape over the years (or just months) you will be living there.
All surfaces in your bathroom that are porous are in danger of mold growth, which is why you never want to install a porous flooring material in this room. Materials like hardwood or carpet are very bad for this and other wet rooms of the house like the kitchen and laundry room, so installing something like ceramic tile or sealed stone is going to be much better. Even if you install these hard materials, you can still have problems with mold and water damage underneath them if they are not sealed properly. You should check regularly for missing areas of caulking or grout, since this can allow water to get to the wooden subfloor and cause it to rot. You also need to check for this in the kitchen, since the same problem can come up. You can help prevent it, though, by installing Schluter-Ditra before you put the flooring material in. This is a layer of waterproofing material that will give you an added level of protection against water damage and mold growth.
Another problem appears on the ceiling if there is no vent or fan to allow the steam and heat from the room to escape to the exterior of the house. The ceiling will absorb this moisture since it has nowhere to escape to and will become waterlogged. Mold starts to grow on wet surfaces like this in a relatively short period of time, so making sure that the steam created by the bath or shower gets out is very important. This is also a problem in the kitchen when there is no exhaust system over the stove. You can fix this in both of these areas and other areas of the home with high humidity by installing an exhaust fan that will pull it out of the room with the flick of a switch.
All surfaces in your bathroom that are porous are in danger of mold growth, which is why you never want to install a porous flooring material in this room. Materials like hardwood or carpet are very bad for this and other wet rooms of the house like the kitchen and laundry room, so installing something like ceramic tile or sealed stone is going to be much better. Even if you install these hard materials, you can still have problems with mold and water damage underneath them if they are not sealed properly. You should check regularly for missing areas of caulking or grout, since this can allow water to get to the wooden subfloor and cause it to rot. You also need to check for this in the kitchen, since the same problem can come up. You can help prevent it, though, by installing Schluter-Ditra before you put the flooring material in. This is a layer of waterproofing material that will give you an added level of protection against water damage and mold growth.
Another problem appears on the ceiling if there is no vent or fan to allow the steam and heat from the room to escape to the exterior of the house. The ceiling will absorb this moisture since it has nowhere to escape to and will become waterlogged. Mold starts to grow on wet surfaces like this in a relatively short period of time, so making sure that the steam created by the bath or shower gets out is very important. This is also a problem in the kitchen when there is no exhaust system over the stove. You can fix this in both of these areas and other areas of the home with high humidity by installing an exhaust fan that will pull it out of the room with the flick of a switch.
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