Mold. No one likes it and no one wants it in their home – and for good reason! Mold not only looks gross, it’s also very unhealthy to have in the home or in any indoor space.
It can cause a runny nose, sneezing, coughing, and a lot more health problems if not removed. Which is why it’s very important to remove mold before it colonizes into a bigger problem.
You can remove mold yourself (which is the purpose of this article) or you can hire a professional mold remediation company if you want to officially remove all mold and mildew spores.
If you are removing mold by yourself, this can prove to be very difficult, which is why a professional mold removal company is highly recommended. Mold grows within materials, not just on the surface level. This means that in order to remove all of the mold, you need to remove and restore the materials carrying the mold.
It’s not impossible to perform this by yourself, but more often than not, it does become more expensive than just hiring a mold removal company.
What Causes Mold?
Mold is everywhere, there’s no getting away from it. The culprit for mold is moisture coming into your home through avenues like open windows, doors, and leaks. Mold is a collection of spores that sit and colonize in warm, moist places. It can grow in temperatures at a minimum of 70 degrees. Mold doesn’t enjoy the cold, but it does enjoy areas like your sinks, bathrooms, garage, window seals, and pipes! That’s because mold colonizes in moist areas.
The reason that you start to see mold in your home is because it’s been collecting there for some time. When mold isn’t affected in its environment, it thrives, creating more spores and multiplying.
Don’t get confused between mold and mildew . Mold is much more difficult to remove than mildew. Mildew can be found on surfaces while mold likes to dig deeper into materials.
Some mold can’t be seen yet because it hasn’t had time to multiply. Mold that has colonized looks either black or green. That “pink” gunk that you see at the bottom of your toilet or in the shower grout is actually a water-born bacteria called Serratia marcescens. We’re not discussing the removal of these colorful bacteria in this article. However, this is still unhealthy to keep in the home and can stain your surfaces.
1. Wear Protective Gear
To get started on your mold removal, gear up! As you are removing the mold, you are affecting the environment for which the mold has been living. When you clean the mold off of a surface or remove highly infected materials like drywall, more spores are entering the air.
It’s always better to be safe than sorry. Wear rubber gloves, goggles, and a facemask at a minimum. We actually recommend to wear protection to cover up every part of your skin. This is because mold travels while you work to remove it and is dangerous to your body.
Building materials with mold contamination cannot be removed without setting containment with a negative air machine (NAM) for safety, to avoid spreading throughout the air. Once the mold is cut in to, rubbed, sanded – you name it, it sporalizes through the entire property at a rapid pace.
No matter what you may be told by other sources, if you want to safely and effectively remove mold from a space, you need to have a NAM.
2. Don’t Paint or Caulk Over the Mold
You don’t want to put a bandaid on a situation. While covering up the mold sounds like a great idea, it will only make things worse. Mold is able to grow further within the materials of your home if given the opportunity. You don’t want to have a problem with surface mold that turns into causing structural damage.
Do yourself a favor and don’t put a bandaid on a health risk for your family.
3. Use a Mold Removal Solution
Finally, you can start on the removal (also known as remediation) of your mold infestation! Unfortunately, mold removal solutions just don’t cut it when trying to fully remove mold. Sad, right?
We don’t want you to think that by just applying a “mold removal” solution to the infected area and scrubbing as hard as you can that you’ll be able to remove all of the mold. If you have a mold infestation, the problem isn’t on the surface, it’s further within.
At Restoration 1 of Central Denver, we use hospital-grade, plant-based antimicrobial and disinfectant solutions. These are only used after the entire project is done as a final wipe down to help prevent future growth. But if it’s wet, humid conditions, nothing will protect the space from future growth.
With this knowledge, it’s best to steer clear of anything that sounds like an easy option such as a mold removal solution like chlorine or even a labeled “mold removal solution”. It’s a myth that mold removal solutions can fully clear out mold.
As we’ve stated before, in order to completely remove the mold, you must remove the materials for which the mold has colonized.
4. Let the Area Dry
Once you’ve removed the mold (which essentially means removing the materials in the living space), let the area dry and settle. Don’t add water to rinse off your work, that could lead to mold growth… again. The only thing you’d want to spray on the newly restored area is an antimicrobial or disinfectant solution to avoid further growth. These solutions kill off and prevent microorganism growth like mold spores.
Once the area is finished, wait for a few hours to ensure that the area is clean and free from mold.
After a full mold removal, it’s best to air out the room. Open the door and turn on a fan to dry out the area and remove the odors in the air.
Hopefully, all of your mold problems are now solved!
5. How to Prevent Mold
Preventing mold is simply cleaning your home’s surfaces on a regular basis, cleaning up standing water immediately, and keeping an eye out for visible mold.
If water damage occurs, the wet building materials must be mitigated and dried out by a professional company. Anyone who has let standing water or wet materials ‘dry on their own’ – end up hiring a mold remediation company, like Restoration 1 of Central Denver. Mold will always, always form in this case. It’s just a matter of when the property owner notices it and in all of the cases we’ve seen, it’s when the situation has become extensive since the problem is finally coming through flooring or drywall from the backside.
If you don’t want mold to colonize in the first place, it’s best to hire a professional mold inspector to come out to your home in search of mold.
Mold testing is always recommended by an IEP (Indoor Environmental Professional) if someone sees visible mold, or first inspection by a restoration company. A professional can then, determine if testing is needed. What testing does is provide the lab results of type, level of extent, and if remediation is needed, a full written protocol of what’s to be done before clearance testing.
Professionals will have infrared scanners to discover mold that you might not have known was in your home. They can also perform exterior inspections to make sure that the outside of your home doesn’t have a mold infestation.
Contact us at Restoration 1 of Central Denver to take care of your mold removal needs. We offer 24/7 mold removal and cleanup. Our team of certified restoration experts will perform a full mold infiltration assessment to ensure we’ve taken care of all your mold problems. Contact us today to remove your Denver home’s mold problem.
