Mold Remediation Blog

10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Mold

"Did you KNOW", illustrated with a lit lightbulb

With all of the mystery surrounding the topic of mold, it may come as a surprise that mold is actually quite interesting and not all bad! While many of us have dealt with mold at one point or another in our lives, we typically try to eradicate all signs of the mold and wish to never speak about the topic again. 

While mold can cause serious health concerns for certain groups of people, on the other hand, mold is sometimes used in the production of lifesaving medications. 

Whether you absolutely despise mold or are slightly intrigued by it, we hope you find these facts about mold as interesting as we do!

1. Mold Is Everywhere, Literally

While you may not have visible patches of mold growing in your home (fingers crossed), there are actually millions of microscopic mold spores floating throughout the air in your home. The problem occurs when these mold spores find a suitable living area, such as areas that accumulate moisture. 

Many of these mold spores come from the outdoors, although there are five types of mold that commonly grow indoors: Penicillium, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, and the ever-famous Stachybotrys.  

2. Mold Requires Moisture To Thrive

The best way to prevent costly mold remediation services is by monitoring the amount of moisture buildup within the home. Mold loves dark wet places, limit the amount of dark wet places in your home and the chance of a mold outbreak is minimized. 

Running a dehumidifier in the basement, attic, crawlspace, or other moisture-prone areas of the house is a great way to prevent excess moisture buildup throughout the day.

3. Dead Mold Spores Are Just As Toxic As Live Spores

When removing mold from a home, many people think spraying chemicals on mold growth will solve the issue. Unfortunately, if mold growths have not been properly removed then those dead spores still present in the home pose serious health risks. 

Not to mention, it’s even easier for new mold growths to thrive since the original spores are still present. Here at Valor Mold, we completely remove ALL traces of mold growth from the home without using a single chemical. 

4. Mold Is Picky Where It Grows

Mold loves to grow on porous surfaces such as wood, drywall, carpets, cardboard, or curtains. Porous surfaces allow mold spores to embed themselves deep in the material to gain a stronghold and can be extremely hard to eradicate without discarding the entire wall, carpet, or floor. 

Non-porous surfaces, such as glass, metal, rock, and concrete offer no safe haven for mold. While mold spores can attach themselves to particles on non-porous surfaces, they will not completely infest these surfaces throughout. During mold remediation, most porous surfaces are removed from the home to reduce the risk of re-growth.

5. Not All Species Of Mold Are Harmful

Most people cringe at just the thought of having mold within their home, let alone the potential health risks involved. Well, you may be relieved to hear that not all types of mold are harmful! In fact, mold has been used in the production of Penicillin for almost 100 years. And if you are a fan of bleu cheese, you are actually eating live mold growths! 

6. Mold Can Cause Serious Health Issues

This fact about mold has been well known for quite some time now in the medical research field. Nowadays, research indicates that mold is one of the highest contributing factors for ALL sinus-related issues. 

People with asthma or other respiratory diseases are far more likely to suffer from symptoms related to mold exposure. Once you have discovered mold in your home, be sure to start the mold remediation process as soon as possible to avoid further exposure.

7. Mold Removal Does Not Always Require Professional Remediation

If you have discovered mold in your home, don’t panic! Depending on the severity of growth, many mold issues can be resolved with at-home treatments. If the infected area exceeds 10 square feet, we ALWAYS recommend professional mold remediation services. 

Small mold patches can be removed by scrubbing and removing all visible mold growths and continuously treating the area with white vinegar to discourage mold from regrowing.

8. Don’t Use Bleach - It Does Not Work!

While bleach may remove the sight of mold from your roof or floor, it will not actually remove the mold spores. Bleach quite literally “bleaches” the growths white without killing the source. Even if you use bleach every day, harmful mold spores are still a very real danger. 

Using bleach to “kill” mold is a waste of time and money, not to mention very ineffective! Unlike bleach, white vinegar can easily soak into porous surfaces and does a much better job at eradication. 

9. Keeping Humidity Under 50% Slows Mold Growth

As you may have gathered by now, mold absolutely LOVES humid environments. The wetter, the better when it comes to a suitable home for most types of mold. Keeping humidity levels in the home below 50% will drastically reduce the risk of mold growth. 

Having multiple dehumidifiers around the home will ensure each room stays below 50% humidity. 

10. Mold Is Found in 70% Of Homes

Now, remember not all types of mold are harmful! That being said, many of the types of mold that find themselves living indoors do pose some sort of health risk. It may come as a shock that some type of mold is found in roughly 70% of homes in the United States, but it shouldn’t. 

Oftentimes, mold is growing SOMEWHERE in the house without you even knowing it. A full home mold inspection from our experienced remediation team at Valor Mold can accurately paint a picture of the severity of mold growth in your home.

Do You Think Your Home Has A Mold Problem? Give Us A Call!

With mold, it’s always better to start the remediation process as quickly as possible to avoid mold from spreading to other areas of the home. Once contained, the mold removal and remediation process can be quite quick, depending on the many variables associated with your home. 

Is it time to have your home tested or treated for mold? Give the mold nerds a call! We obsess over mold and pride ourselves on being the best in the area when it comes to mold remediation. If you are ready to start the journey towards a healthy living environment, give us a call at (703) 897-7121 today! 

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96% Success Rate

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