Types of Dangerous Mold in the Home and How to Protect Against it

Not all molds are toxic, but none of them make a welcomed addition to your home. Unfortunately, mold can make its way into your space if you leave it unprotected. Hot days with poor air circulating can let it grow in your vents, and wet days can make your crawl space or basement prime incubators for dangerous clusters.

The good news is that you can work to keep your home a mold-intolerant zone with a few waterproofing measures and other preventative tricks.

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What Kind Of Mold Can You Find In Your Home?

Some of the most common types of mold you may find in your home can include:

• Cladosporium
• Penicillium
• Alternaria
• Stachybotrys chartarum

These types of molds tend to have a negative effect on the air quality in your home. Cladosporium, for example, has many different offshoots and can change the coloration of your wallpaper, carpets, or other porous materials. In the same vein, Alternaria can cause allergies in both young children and grown adults.

Stachybotrys chartarum, however, is an especially toxic kind of mold known as “black mold.” This mold not only impacts the quality of air in your home, but it can induce severe health issues in residents who continue to live above or around its clusters.

Removing Mold From Your Home

You’ll want to get the molds that make themselves comfortable in your home out as quickly as you can. That said, some molds are easier to get rid of than others. Moldy bread, for example, can be deposited in your trash can in a matter of minutes. The mold in your carpeting, however, can take longer to get rid of.

It’s important that you take the presence of mold in your home seriously. You can’t paint over mold and expect it not to continue harming the structural integrity of your home. Not only will you need to scrape it off of walls or replace materials it’s settled into, but you’ll need to clean the spots where it was most heavily clustered with soapy water. Alternatively, you can invest in a commercial mold remover and spray down those areas you believe may be most sensitive to regrowth.

Preventing The Growth Of Mold In Your Home

Even if you can’t see mold growing in your home, it can have a negative impact on the health of your family and your home’s overall value. As such, you’ll want to take preventive measures to keep it from taking root. The best ways to protect yourself include:

• Keep the air circulating throughout your home – Contrary to popular belief, mold doesn’t enter your home with invasive water. Instead, it travels by air current. If you want to keep mold particles from finding a place to land, you’ll want to keep the air in your home circulating.
• Clean your air vents regularly – Mold often settles in the places you don’t look. If you clean your air vents regularly, you’ll prevent clusters from both settling and spreading throughout the rest of your home.
• Eliminate moisture – Mold loves nothing more than a moist place to grow. The less moisture you have in your home, the less likely mold will be to take root. The best ways to limit mold in your home include home dehumidification and rapid response to internal water damage. If you suspect you have a leak on your hands, you’ll want to reach out to your local professionals for a fix to both preserve your home’s value and prevent mold growth in your sensitive structural support materials.
• Invest in home waterproofing measures – It’s never a bad idea to invest in home waterproofing solutions. These solutions, including interior drainage and a sump pump, can all repel water from your home, making it more difficult for mold to take root.

It may also benefit you to get rid of any porous materials, like carpeting or unused wood, that you have in your bathrooms or unfinished basement, as mold can make itself at home in these materials with little effort.

If you want help ridding your home of the presence of mold, or if you want to prevent it from taking root in the first place, don’t hesitate to reach out for help. The professional foundation, basement, and crawl space repair teams working in Raleigh and Winston-Salem, NC, can encapsulate your crawl space with the trusted CrawlSeal™ vapor barrier and help you limit the moisture that might otherwise allow mold to flourish. You’ll come away from a comprehensive home inspection from Tar Heel Basement Systems with a free quote on the services you need to restore your home to working order.