How to Remove Mold

According to the Environmental Protection Agency you can not find out how to remove mold permanently. According the EPA experts it is impossible to remove mold from an indoor space. The best you can do is to prevent it from germinating and spreading.

Mold will grow on anything that will provide a food source (organic) and has moisture. If you find mold in any area of your home you should consider having your heating and air conditioning ducts inspected for mold as well.

While a complete cleaning of your home’s heating and air conditioning ducts can cost between five hundred ($500) and over a thousand ($1000) dollars, experts will tell you that you will not need to do it again for at least three to five years. If your duct cleaning and sanitizing lasts your five years your average cost per year for duct cleaning would be between one hundred and two hundred dollars per year. Less than you probably spend on carpet cleaning each year.

If you factor in the costs of health problems related to mold exposure you can easily see the cost benefit aspect of getting the duct work cleaned as quickly as possible. If you live in an area like Ohio which is rainy much of the time and has a high relative humidity no matter what time of year it is mold will be a common occurrence in the average home.

How many times do you look down at your shower or tub enclosure door and see the black fuzzy stuff in the water channel at the bottom. Hardly anyone dries out their shower on the inside before stepping out to dry themselves.

There are hundreds of products on the market that claim to remove mold permanently from whatever surface you are cleaning. Cleaning manufacturers would have you believe that you need a separate product for bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and regular hard surfaces.

Common sense says that if it is a hard surface it does not matter where it is, your cleaner should be able to remove dirt, stains and disinfect the area. It is always best if after the cleaner has been used that the surface is wiped down until it is completely dry.

There are a variety of cleaning sites that will give you instructions on how to clean mold. The key to mitigating the effects of mold are to make sure that the conditions that allow it to grow in the first place are taken care of. Mold and mildew will grow in the corners of outside rooms.

Outside corner rooms are considerably colder than rooms adjoining the heating system and as a result have a higher relative humidity than interior rooms. Keeping the relative humidity of the room below sixty percent is an excellent preventative to mold growth.

Mold is irritating, unsightly, destroys what it is on, and can be dangerous to one’s health. Having a professional cleaning service eliminate your mold problem can provide peace of mind, but can result in a very large cleaning bill. Unless your mold problem is the result of water damage or flooding that can be covered under your homeowner’s insurance you should find out how to remove mold your self.

The keys to how to remove mold are determining all of the locations where it is growing. You need to use your senses of smell and vision to find where mold may be lurking in your home. Once you have found the source for the mold and have taken care of the moisture problem that has allowed the mold to grow you need to protect yourself while removing the mold.

Make user you get several paper filter masks that painters and drywall contractors use to keep form breathing in the paint or drywall and wood dust from sanding. This will keep the majority of mold spores out of your respiratory system. It's all about knowing how to kill mold folks.

Use rubber or nitrile gloves when cleaning the mold from whatever surface it is on. People who are susceptible to allergic reactions from mold can get a reaction from skin contact as well as breathing it into their system. Finally make sure you use eye protection. If your eyes start to water and you attempt to wipe them with your sleeve or hand you can create a severe allergic reaction by introducing the mold directly into your eyes.

In our next hub we are going to write about getting rid of mold in basement. Stay tuned, more interesting information is on the road.