SANTA ROSA – Upon finding mold in their homes, people often take it upon themselves to get rid of the problem. However, when it comes to removing mold, there are right and wrong ways of going about it. Not only are some methods ineffective, in some cases, they can create a bigger problem than there originally was. That’s why it’s important to know the proper ways to deal with mold, as well as common mistakes to avoid.
The most common way homeowners try to remove mold is by wiping it down with bleach. However, while bleach is an effective cleaner and sanitizer, it’s also a toxic chemical, with a byproduct that can be more harmful than the mold itself. That’s why it’s crucial to exercise proper procedure when using bleach. Most importantly, make sure to dilute it to a 10 percent bleach/90 percent water solution, which will provide ample cleaning power without any hazardous side effects. For maximum effectiveness, spray the solution on the targeted area and let it sit for at least 10 minutes before wiping it off.
Despite bleach’s cleaning strength, it doesn’t always offer a permanent fix for mold problems. One common example is with mold growth on porous surfaces like drywall, where the fungal roots often reach further beneath the surface. Think of it like pulling weeds in your garden: even if you get rid of the visible weed, if you haven’t removed it at the root, it’s going to grow back. The same goes for wiping mold off a porous surface. In this case, you’ll likely need to call a mold removal specialist who can cut into the drywall and remove the mold at its source.
Since mold thrives in humid conditions, some homeowners attempt to dry out a mold problem by putting a fan on the affected area. This may seem like a good strategy, but it can actually cause the mold to spread further throughout your home. Since mold is a spore, when you blow air on it, you’re blowing those spores all over the place, which can create a much worse problem. A better way to combat humidity is to use a dehumidifier, which will dry the area without causing further spore dissemination.
Finally, a good measure to keep mold contained is to cover the affected area with plastic. Using a garbage bag or plastic wrap, cut out a square that matches the size of the area and seal the edges with duct tape. This will keep the mold from spreading until you can bring in a specialist to deal with the issue.

Combating Mold in the Home

Learn effective strategies to detect, prevent and combat mold in your home, ensuring a healthier living environment for you and your family.

Combating Mold in the Home by Dave Keith

by Dave Keith, a Diamond Certified Expert Contributor

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Video: Combating Mold in Your Home

If you have a mold problem in your home, it's important that you learn how to deal with it as well as common mistakes to avoid. Today, we're in Santa Rosa with diamond certified expert contributor Dave Teeth of North Bay Environmental to learn more.

So you've got mold on your wall, what should you do? What I recommend is to put plastic on it. You could take a plastic garbage bag or you could take just visqueen, a piece of plastic cut out the square, and then put duct tape around and seal all the edges. That's what you should do, cover it up so it doesn't spread. 

What shouldn't you do? Don't put a fan on mold. The problem with putting a fan on mold, you may have good intentions that you want to dry out, maybe the wall is wet or the floor is wet, you're gonna dry it out but you're actually causing a lot of harm because think of a mold spore as a dandelion in your lawn and you're blowing those spores all over your house, creating a much bigger problem potentially. So I never recommend putting a fan on mold, the best way to dry out anything that's wet that has mold is with a dehumidifier.

One of the most common things I'm asked about is bleach, should I put bleach on mold and the answer is you can and but I want you to be careful about bleach because the byproduct of bleach is actually can be more harmful than mold. So the proper way to put bleach on mold is to dilute it to a 10% bleach to water solution, spray the bleach on the mold and let it sit for at least 10 minutes, however, if you have mold on drywall, you put bleach on it you can wipe it off but that's like pulling weeds in your lawn, you've got the weed but you may not have gotten the roots and that is why many times the mold continues to grow back in the county that we live in humidity level humidity levels can be more than 60% which is great for mold, so you can pull those weeds you can get the surface of it but the roots are still there in the drywall and the mold can continue to grow even without a normal water source that would have been there but with just humidity in the air.

Another question I'm commonly asked is should I test for mold I want to know what kind of mold I have and the answer is maybe. I don't always recommend testing for mold because from a remediation standpoint I don't care what kind of mold it is, it could be stachybotrys it could be Penicillium but from a remedial standpoint treating it is exactly the same and so I don't always recommend testing ahead of time because you might just be wasting your money if you could see mold it's probably mold so you need to fix it there are a lot of test kits that are out there and you send it off to a lab and you spend money and get it back and say yep, it's mold I could save you a lot of money by just saying it's probably mold let's get it taken care of and figure out the right way to do it to learn more from local top rated companies visit our diamond certified expert reports at experts diamond certified org.