Mold
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Mold
What is it?
Molds are plants that make spores instead of seeds which float in the air like pollen; the spores than drift into your house as air moves in and out. When mold spores land on a damp spot indoors they may begin growing and digesting whatever they are growing on in order to survive. Therefore, any damp or moist area in your home, that is left unaddressed, is susceptible to mold growth.
Effects
Symptoms of mold growth in your home may include:
- Nasal stuffiness
- Eye irritation
- Wheezing
- Skin irritation
- Mold may also trigger asthma episodes
Severe reactions for workers exposed to large amounts of molds in occupational settings include:
- Fever
- Shortness of breath
- Chronic lung illnesses
Mold Prevention
Prevention
The most practical way to prevent mold growth is to
control the amount of moisture in your home. An
easy way to tell if there are higher levels of moisture
in your home is to look at your windows and see if
any condensation has built up. If it has and
weather permits try opening a few windows to keep
your house ventilated and allow sunlight in. You
can also purchase a dehumidifier to reduce the moisture
levels; but be sure to drain and clean dehumidifier
collection trays often so they do not become a breeding
ground for microorganisms.
Another way to prevent mold growth is to periodically survey your home for any water damaged areas or items due to leaky pipes, flooding, etc. Dry these areas or items completely within 24-48 hours of occurrence to prevent the start of mold growth. Remove the standing water, open windows, and use a fan to completely dry out the area (if mold growth has already begun avoid using a fan, it will spread mold spores throughout the house). In addition, because mold growth will return shortly if an effected area becomes re-wetted remove or fix the source of moisture.
Home Remedies
There are a few home remedies you can use to prevent
excess moisture including:
- Deodorant-free kitty litter
- Kitty litter can be used for its moisture absorbent properties. Place bowls of the material in damp areas. Replace with fresh kitty litter every week or so.
- Pure Lime
- Put buckets of lime in moist areas to absorb moisture. Don’t use chlorinated lime.
- If water damaged areas or items have gone longer than 48 hours without being dried and mold has begun to grow there are steps you can take to clean the area, remove and prevent the mold from returning.
Cleanup
Sizing Up
If the moldy area is less than about 10 square feet (less than roughly a 3 ft. by 3 ft. patch), in most cases, you can handle the job yourself. However:
If there has been a lot of water damage, and/or mold growth covers more than 10 square feet, consult the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guide: Mold Remediation in Schools and Commercial Buildings. Although focused on schools and commercial buildings, this document is applicable to other building types. It is available free by calling the EPA Indoor Air Quality Information Clearinghouse at (800) 438-4318, or here at epa.gov/mold/mold_remediation.html
If you choose to hire a contractor (or other professional service provider) to do the cleanup, make sure the contractor has experience cleaning up mold. Check references and ask the contractor to follow the recommendations in EPA's Mold Remediation in Schools and Commercial Buildings, the guidelines of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), or other guidelines from professional or government organizations.
If you suspect that the heating/ventilation/air conditioning
(HVAC) system may be contaminated with mold (it is part
of an identified moisture problem, for instance, or
there is mold near the intake to the system), consult
EPA's guide Should You Have the Air Ducts in Your
Home Cleaned? before taking further action. Do
not run the HVAC system if you know or suspect that
it is contaminated with mold - it could spread mold
throughout the building. Visit epa.gov/iaq/pubs/airduct.html,
or call (800) 438-4318 for a free copy.
If the water and/or mold damage was caused by sewage
or other contaminated water, then call in a professional
who has experience cleaning and fixing buildings damaged
by contaminated water.
If you have health concerns, consult a health professional before starting cleanup.
Safety
- Be sure to wear gloves that extend to the middle of the forearm. When working with water and mild detergent, ordinary household rubber gloves may be used. Avoid touching mold or moldy items with your bare hands.
- Wear goggles that do not have ventilation holes. Avoid getting mold or mold spores in your eyes.
- You may also want to wear a face mask or respirator to avoid breathing in mold or mold spores.
Cleaning
Since mold may cause staining and cosmetic damage it
may not be possible to clean an item so that its original
appearance is restored, but you can remove the mold
and prevent any future growth.
Before disinfecting contaminated areas, clean the areas to remove as much of the mold as possible:
- Wear gloves and make sure the area is well ventilated
- Use non-ammonia soap or detergent, or a commercial cleaner, in hot water, and scrub the entire area affected by the mold.
- You can also use a non-toxic product to clean the
mold, for example:
- Borax Disinfectant and Mold Killer
- 1 teaspoon to ¼ cup borax, up to 2 cups hot tap water
- Place the borax in a container and dissolve completely in hot tap water. Saturate a sponge with the mixture and wash the moldy area. If really moldy, use an even higher concentration of borax and/or leave the solution on for a few hours or overnight, then rinse well. The more borax, the more residue runoff, but borax really works. This can even be used to clean plaster walls that have been penetrated by mold by using an almost straight borax paste. Leave the borax on the walls for a number of days and when it is completely dry, vacuum up the powder.
- Vinegar Mold Killer
- Full-strength vinegar
- Saturate a sponge with vinegar and scrub the moldy area. Rinse well.
- Borax Disinfectant and Mold Killer
- Use a stiff brush or cleaning pad on block walls or uneven surfaces
- Rinse clean with water.
- Absorbent or porous materials, such as ceiling tiles and carpet, may have to be thrown away if they become moldy. Mold can grow on or fill in the empty spaces and crevices of porous materials, so the mold may be difficult or impossible to remove completely.
Disinfecting
After you have thoroughly cleaned and rinsed the area infected by mold or possibly discarded the items that could not be saved you can begin disinfecting:
- Wear gloves when using disinfectants and make sure the area is well ventilated.
- Disinfect the area with a solution of 10% household bleach (1 ½ cup bleach per gallon of water.) Never mix bleach with other cleaning solutions or detergents that contain ammonia because toxic fumes could be produced. Using bleach straight from the bottle will not be more effective.
- You can also use non-toxic products for disinfecting, for example:
- Borax Cleaner
- ½ cup borax, ¼ cup vinegar, 2 gallons
hot water
Dissolve borax, along with vinegar, in very hot water and wash the surface using a mop or sponge, as appropriate. To make a stronger disinfectant solution, add more borax. Rinse thoroughly.
- ½ cup borax, ¼ cup vinegar, 2 gallons
hot water
- Borax and Lavender
- Follow directions for Borax Cleaner but add a few drops of the essential oil of the antiseptic fragrant herb lavender
- Follow directions for Borax Cleaner but add a few drops of the essential oil of the antiseptic fragrant herb lavender
- Borax Spray
- 1 teaspoon borax, 3 tablespoons vinegar, 2
cups very hot tap water, spray bottle
Combine the ingredients in the spray bottle and dissolve completely with hot water. Spray the area, let it rest for awhile, and then rinse if the borax has left residue.
- 1 teaspoon borax, 3 tablespoons vinegar, 2
cups very hot tap water, spray bottle
- Never mix bleach with Ammonia the fumes are toxic
- For spraying exterior large areas, a garden hose and nozzle can be used
- When disinfecting a large structure, make sure the entire surface is wetted
- Avoid excessive amounts of runoff or standing bleach
- Let disinfecting areas dry overnight. This time is important to kill all of the mold. Be careful if using a fan, if mold is not completely gone the fan may spread spores.
- Remember that dead mold may still cause allergic reactions in some people, so it is not enough to simply kill the mold, it must be removed. Therefore, if during the cleaning step you are unable to remove the mold from the item (stains are okay) even though you’ve killed the mold you may want to consider removing or replacing that item.
Helpful Tips
- If your home smells moldy but you can see no visual signs of mold growth be sure to check the back sides of dry wall, wall paper, or paneling, the top side of ceiling tiles, the underside of carpets and pads, etc. Other places that may have mold are areas inside walls around pipes, the surface walls behind furniture, inside ductwork, and in roof materials above ceiling tiles.
- However, be careful when addressing these particular mold problems because removal of dry wall or wall paper with mold growth may release spores into the air. You might want to consider hiring an experienced professional.
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