Almost every home gets a mold problem. Those spores are just everywhere, and they are fast spreading. They start off as just a few black spots, and in a few days, they make your wall black. Their most common breeding ground is every home that has moisture in it. Which is every home in the world? But, there are steps on how to fix the problem if you have it. It all starts with an inspection of your home, which you can do yourself. After that, we have some solutions that can help you if you find anything. Even if you don’t, there are a lot of precautions that can be taken.
How to inspect and identify the problem?
As we mentioned before, mold starts off as a few black spots. But, coincidentally, it can look a lot like dirt. The easiest way to know is where they show up. If the places show up in the bathroom near your shower or the sink, that is likely to be mildew, which is another name for mold. Every damp, moist, and shady area is a possible home for fungus.
Now, if you are not sure, you can do a simple experiment. You can take a few drops of the bleach that you have at home and put them on the black areas or spots. If they lighten up a bit after one or two minutes, that means you’ve got a mold problem. On the other hand, if it still remains the same color that means that it’s just regular dirt. Click here to read more.
What should you wear while performing the experiment?
Be careful when you do this not to touch the bleach or the mold or the dirt. Always use a pair of rubber gloves that go up to your forearms. That will minimize the risk of those microorganisms touching or entering your body. You should also always wear a breathing mask. The best one is an N-95, which is relatively cheap and you can get it in almost every store.
Finally, you should not forget about the goggles for your eyes. It is extremely dangerous to get mold in your eyes, and it can happen if your eye itches while you’re doing the job. Be careful and pay attention. Here’s some more info: https://www.restoreunow.com/mold-removal-in-columbia
What to do if you have an infestation?
Okay, so you’ve seen that you have a problem. What should you do next? Well, the answer is to get to work. Get your mask, goggles, and gloves and a pair of old clothes that can be thrown away. After that, you’ll need to make a 1 to 8 bleach to water solution. Open up all the windows in the room where the problem is, and you can also bring a fan. If the room doesn’t have any windows, bringing a fan is extremely necessary.
Next, you should remove all the contaminated items. If you had a bit of flooding on the floor and the carpet has a few black spots, cut it up into pieces and throw it away. Bring a lot of big plastic bags to put all the infected items. If the mold is on the wall and it appears entirely damaged, take a screwdriver and probe it. Remove a piece of the wall and see if the image has spread inside of it. If it has, start breaking the wall up to the point where there isn’t any. Put all those parts in the plastic bags as well. If the insulation is damaged, throw it away too.
Don’t turn on the air conditioning in any case. Because you’ll be cleaning, the spores can enter the ventilation systems. If that happens, as soon as you finish, you’ll have the same problem all over again. A good idea is to put a plastic cover on all of the vents.
After you finish throwing everything away, take the bleach-water solution, and scrub everything. By everything, we mean everything. Those spores were surely flying around, and you wouldn’t want to breathe them again. When you finish, wait for them to dry and then seal them. You canc do that with regular paint that has a mildewcide to stop any future growth.