Do you think your home is mold-free? You might be surprised! According to Comfy Living, roughly 70% of households have mold growing in their living space. Mold causes decreased structural integrity, stains on the walls, musty odors, and all kinds of dangerous health conditions. It's essential to utilize mold remediation services when necessary to avoid these negative consequences. Here are some useful ways to help decrease the chances of mold growth in your home in the future.

Properly Ventilate Your Home

There are specific areas in your home that are susceptible to creating steam and moisture. These areas include the kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom. Simple routines like cooking a meal, washing clothes, and taking a shower can increase your chances of mold growth due to excess moisture. As such, it's essential to have proper ventilation in these rooms to prevent mold. Make sure to consistently open your windows, turn on an exhaust fan, or run a ceiling fan to decrease the steam levels while doing these tasks.

Invest in Mold-Resistant Products

While building or renovating your home, you can invest in mold-resistant products to help decrease your chances of mold growth. Mold-resistant products include mold inhibitor paint, mold-resistant sheetrock, and mold-resistant drywall. Although these features might cost more upfront, you'll save money in over time due to the lack of mold damage repair costs.

Clear and Repair Gutter Systems

Your gutter system can become cluttered with leaves, sticks, dirt, and more throughout months and years of use. Additionally, your gutter system can have cracks or missing parts due to weather or old age. These two factors can cause your gutter system to disperse water incorrectly during rainstorms. This malfunction risks roof leaks and moisture accumulation, resulting in mold growth. To avoid this, actively clear and repair your gutter system annually.

Carefully Monitor Houseplants

Houseplants have moistened soil, which is the perfect breeding ground for mold growth. In light of this, inspect your indoor plants periodically for mold and get rid of growth patches quickly so that the mold can't spread to different areas of your home. An easy hack for repelling mold growth on your indoor plants is adding Taheebo tea to your watering pail. This ingredient will combat mold growth on leaves and the soil's top surface.

Call for Professional Help

It's important to note that your home may have areas susceptible to mold growth that you might not be able to access. Additionally, if mold is in your home, you may need mold remediation services to prevent the fungi from spreading and causing further damage. These scenarios require the use of professional help. Not only will these professionals provide the necessary services, but they can also give you valuable information to prevent further mold growth in the future.

Monitor Indoor Humidity

You can purchase an indoor humidity monitor at common superstores, home improvement stores, and online. If the humidity percentage in your home totals 60%, it's time to take action and find the source of your moisture. When this measurement gets to 70% and higher, mold will have the optimal atmosphere to grow and spread throughout your household. With these percentages and risks considered, continuously monitoring your indoor humidity levels is a convenient and effective way to prevent mold growth.

Inspect Your Air Conditioning System

A malfunctioning air conditioning system is a likely cause of high humidity levels in your home. As a result, it's essential to properly inspect the works of this system in your home periodically. First, consider if the system is at a proper temperature. This temperature should be cool enough for no humidity to accumulate in your home. Plus, check to see if the system is circling on and off periodically. This process is meant to help regulate temperatures correctly. Lastly, ensure that the coils are clean within the system. If a blockage is present in these coils, mold may soon creep into your home.

Search for Standing Water

Standing water can be a breeding ground for mold in your home and cause costly damage. Standing water is common around hot water tanks, refrigerators, windows, basement doors, and freezers. Since some of these areas are not high-traffic areas in your home, it's important to periodically search them so that you don't miss anything.

As you review the list above, consider how you can start taking action to prevent mold growth in your home today. If you do find mold, don't fret. Give us a call at Magna Dry Cleaning and Restoration to schedule mold remediation services as soon as possible. We're here to help ensure your home is a safe place to live.