The Hard Mold Truth
Hey everyone, welcome back to another Friday and I hope everybody has had a great week. I have been running into this a lot lately, so today I want to discuss stachybotrys, cladosporium, aspergillus penicillium, acremonium and more.
What are those wonderful words that are as hard to pronounce as they are to spell you ask? They are five types of mold that can be found in our day-to-day lives. Mold by no means is limited to those five types, the last I checked there are several hundred types of mold.
Let’s spend some time on the dos and don’ts when it comes to mold growth if you find it in your home. I am not talking about if you find a quarter sized spot of mold on the corner of the air handler supply plenum in the garage. I am talking about you are getting mold growth on walls or ceilings, around supply registers, along baseboards, places that it shouldn’t really be.
First and foremost, DO NOT try to clean it yourself — please, please, please! Mold spores are invisible to the eye in the beginning stages of growth and just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. If improperly cleaned (if it can be cleaned), you can take what is currently a small problem and turn it into a huge problem. I am in the middle of two current projects that are going to cost the homeowners well over $50,000 each because of improper handling of a mold situation.
Please understand that most molds are often harmless to most people, and as long as any mold growth is caught early and attended to properly, you are not going to find yourself in the position of our two aforementioned homeowners. In both of their cases mechanical failure combined with a lack of attention and improper cleaning attempts spread the mold spores throughout the entire home.
Different types of mold react in different ways. Cladosporium for example is very common in most air conditioning systems and again most of the time that is where it stays. (See earlier article “Blinded By The Light” on UV light systems preventing mold growth in your ac system.) Stachybotrys on the other hand can be quite dangerous in terms of health risks primarily causing lung and breathing problems.
Again for the record, don’t panic. If you do have mold growth somewhere in the house, just make sure you call the professionals to do an assessment. Everyone seems to trivialize mold when found and do things like paint over it, try to bleach it, and a few other crazy things I have seen. This is by far the worst thing you can do when it comes to mold. If you have or suspect a mold issue call us today at 1-800-475-1504 or visit www.artplumbingandac.com to schedule an inspection. Depending on the situation, we may bring in a specialist to perform air testing and/or take tape lifts to determine the types and severity of the issue in your home. Protocols will be established and we will do whatever it takes to get your home back to a happy and healthy state.
House Whisperer out!!
