Mold Removal Tips
If You Are Looking For Mold Removal Tips or on how to remove mold and need helpful information read this article carefully .Removing mold from your home can be a very big and costly job.
But the sooner you address the problem, the easier it will be to remove the mold before it spreads any further. When it comes to mold and water damage restoration, time is money. Some types of mold can cause health problems, and black mold can even be lethal to some people. So you don’t want to wait too long before addressing it.
Overview of Mold Removal
There are several steps you’ll need to take to completely remove all mold from your home. Airborne mold spores can spread throughout your home quite easily, so you’ll need to be extremely thorough. Mold specialists will use infrared cameras to detect moisture inside the walls and ceilings and pinpoint the exact areas that will need to be treated. Once the exposed area is sealed off with plastic sheeting, these are the basic things you’ll need to do:
– Wear PPE to protect your health
– Bag and dump all contaminated materials
– Filter the air in your home
– Kill mold and bacteria with antimicrobials
– Scrub everything and remove top layer
– Completely remove all moisture from the environment
You should have a third party contractor perform a mold inspection both prior to the restoration and after the job is complete. These tests can tell you what type of mold is present and that the mold has been completely removed from the premises.
So here are the basic steps you’ll need to take to get the job done.
- Wear Proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Safety comes first. Breathing in mold spores can cause serious respiratory problems and illness. So it’s important that you or anyone working on the infested area uses full-body, protective suits, gloves and face masks to be fully protected from the spores.
The suits should be worn at all times while in the work area. It might also be necessary to remove the suits when leaving the work area to prevent cross-contamination, since the suits will become covered with spores as you work. It makes no sense to clean the contaminated area, only to track spores all over the rest of the house as you walk around in your suit.
- Dispose of Contaminated Materials
Affected parts of the walls and ceilings will need to be cut open to remove water-damaged and moldy materials. Dehumidifiers and vacuums may also be used to suck moisture out of the wall and ceiling interiors.
The same principle discussed above with PPE also applies when it comes to tossing out all of the moldy drywall, insulation, carpeting, baseboards and other contaminated materials. They will be covered in spores, and those spores will spread to the rest of the home if they are not sealed up properly in heavy-duty plastic bags before removing from the work area.
- Remove Spores from the Air
Air scrubbers will need to be used to filter out contaminants from the air. These are powerful motorized air filters that suck air into one opening and blow it out through another. The scrubbers are fitted with industrial filters that catch mold spores from the air and blow out clean, fresh air that is mold-free.
Some homeowners who attempt to perform mold removal themselves think this step is unnecessary and skip it to save some money, but that is a huge mistake. Microscopic mold spores spread very easily through the air and can land all over the place. They will then lie dormant until they come into contact with moisture, and then they will spring into life and begin reproducing all over again.
The key to removing mold from your home is to do the job right the first time, and air scrubbers are necessary to accomplish this task.
Thoroughly cleansing your home of mold can be a long process, so the scrubbers will usually be set up to run around the clock for at least 24 to 48 hours.
Be sure to keep pets and residents from poking around the air scrubbers for their own safety. The filters should be locked into place to prevent any problems, but just be sure that the machines are able to do the job without interference.
- Kill Mold and Bacteria on Surfaces
Bleach is one of the best antimicrobial substances for killing mold and cleaning up infested areas, but other antimicrobial cleaners may also be used. It should be sprayed directly on the mold and allowed to sit for a little while to fully destroy the mold. You can usually see it begin killing the mold in less than a minute from making contact.
In some cases where mold has been festering for weeks or even months, there will be little point in trying to salvage the drywall, carpets and baseboards. If mold is visible on the outer surface of a wall, chances are good that the entire interior of that wall or ceiling is already filled with mold. So you might find it better to demolish a lot of wall, ceiling and floor material rather than trying to salvage it, since the mold can work its way deep into the materials.
- Scrub Surfaces Clean
Once the contaminated materials are fully removed and the visible mold has been sprayed and scraped away, it is still necessary to scrub wall studs and ceiling beams to get any mold residue. In rare cases, even the wall framing will need to be replaced, but for most infestations giving them a good scrubbing with wire brushes and disinfecting with a microbial solution will suffice.
- Thoroughly Dry All Affected Areas
After demolishing and removing all the affected building materials, killing the mold and scrubbing the remaining surfaces thoroughly, it is then time to completely dry out the work area.
Dehumidifiers will be needed to remove all moisture from the air, from the outer surfaces and from the interiors of the walls and ceilings. Once all the work has been completed and the equipment has been removed, the work area should be given one last mold inspection to verify that no more mold is present.
Mold can do a lot of damage to your home, and it can also cause health problems for some people. To prevent your family and your property, it is important that you take mold removal very seriously.
Small infestations can often be handled yourself, but keep in mind that there is often a lot more mold lurking inside your walls and other areas than you might realize. And failure to kill and remove all of the mold will just give it more opportunity to spread and reproduce, causing further damage.
If you aren’t sure how extensive your mold problem is, don’t hesitate to call in the professionals.