How to Remove Mold Safely – Mold Remediation
It is a well known fact that mold can make you sick – very sick. Symptoms may include shortness of breath, headaches, flulike symptoms, rashes, coughing, disorientation, asthma, emphysema, memory loss and cancer. You may see spots on your basement wall or your attic ceiling and wonder how you can clean it.
Various home cures are available via sources that range from the internet to your Aunt Mary. They include such things as: tea tree oil, grapefruit seed extract, baking soda, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, lemon juice. They all have one thing in common: None of them work. They may provide temporary fixes, but they are not mycocides that kill mold both on the surface and below the surface.
Home Depot Mold Products
Home centers like Home Depot and Lowes sell various products proclaiming their miraculous mold removing properties. These include products in spray bottles and paint. None of them, at least the ones I have tried, actually work. They also sell home testing canisters. These are worthless because all they do is collect whatever mold there is in the air and allow it to grow in the canister. Since mold is usually floating around in the air anyway, there will always be mold in the canister. That tells you nothing. Mold has to be tested by the scientific method which utilizes an outdoor control sample and compares the inside levels to the outside. There must be a defined exposure time and defined quantitative sampling area. A licensed mold assessor will use a vacuum pump to collect indoor samples and compare them to an outside control sample.
Bleach
Most people think bleach is the answer to cleaning mold. It will, in fact, clean surface mold on non-porous materials such as metal, glass, and plastic, but is worthless to use on wood, sheetrock, paper, and ceramic because all it will do is kill the surface mold, quickly evaporate leaving a residue of nitrogen which is plant food, and the mold below the surface can return, feeding on the nitrogen and growing even worse than they did originally. In addition, bleach can be dangerous to handle, both in terms of its fumes and ability to scald the skin.
Identification
What many folks don’t realize is that the mold on your wall may not even be mold in the first place. It may be yeast, accumulated dirt, skin, hair, dust, or carbon that has become electrically charged and is clinging to the wall. The first step a person should take is to hire a licensed mold assessor such as those at Certified Inspections, Inc. The assessor will take samples the proper way, send them to a lab and find out exactly what is going on. If there is mold, he will write a treatment protocol (action plan) for a licensed mold remediation contractor to follow.
Mold Remediation
Mold remediation is a site-specific project. There is no one cure for everything. The work area has to be sealed off creating a containment zone. Negative air machines have to run so as to not contaminate other areas or be a danger to the workers, who have to wear protective clothing. Porous objects like sofas, pillows, stuffed animals and cushions have to be thrown away. The same with insulation and most paper. Sheetrock with mold has to be cut out and discarded in sealed plastic bags. Surfaces of wood, metal, plastic, glass and ceramic need to be treated with a special mycocide disinfectant. Wood surfaces need to be encapsulated afterward with a special paint. HEPA vacuum air scrubbers have to run. After the work has been done, the assessor needs to return to perform a clearance test and also tell you what needs to be done to keep the mold from returning again.
Conclusion
Mold can be a very dangerous and costly problem which is best left to an expert who does testing and removal for a living. A homeowner can cause more harm than good by trying to remove what they perceive as mold by themselves. Mold is a living organism that can rapidly grow and cause a far greater and costly problem in the future if not handled properly the first time. To protect your home and love ones, contact a professional.
