How Does Mold Grow in Indiana Homes?

10/4/2017 (Permalink)

How Does Mold Grow in Indiana Homes?

Perhaps you are walking through your home and notice a dark spot on your ceiling. Upon closer examination, the area around the spot is soft and it looks like the dark spot is mold. How does mold get into your home and grow? How do you remove mold growth from your home? How can you prevent mold from occurring in your home again? These are just a few of the many questions Indiana homeowners ask when mold is found in their home.

Where Does Mold Growth Most Often Occur in Homes?

Mold growth can occur anywhere in a home. The most common place mold is found, along with mildew, is in the grout between shower and tub tiles. If you don’t wash and clean your shower and tub files, the moisture from the bath and shower can promote growth from mold spores. These most often happen in the grout due to the porous-nature of the grout allowing the mold spores to collect and grow with moisture.

The most common places where you might discover mold growth is around areas of your home where moisture or water may be present. This can include around toilets, sinks, dishwashers, clothes washers, and water pipes throughout your home. The water pipes can spring a small leak or water can condense on the outside of the pipe, gather and drip behind the walls. While mold can be spotted pretty quickly around bathrooms and sinks, mold can be hidden from view for a long time if it’s the result of a leak inside your walls or a small roof leak.

Mold growth that’s hidden usually doesn’t get spotted until it’s spread to a more visible area or in the scenario at the beginning where it’s on the ceiling, will only show once the mold has spread through the drywall on the ceiling causing the visible dark spot on the ceiling.

How Does Mold Get Into Your Home and Grow?

Mold occurs when mold spores mix with moisture. Mold grows best in warm, damp and humid conditions. That is why you’ll find mold most often in bathrooms and damp basements. Mold spores can be found almost anywhere, both indoors and outdoors.

Mold spores can lie dormant in dry conditions for years and years until they are exposed to moisture where they grow. Mold spores are usually harmless in their dormant condition but can cause asthma attacks and allergy problems for certain people if they are inhaled. The best way to prevent mold spores from growing is to keep the humidity down in your home. If you take a shower or bath, turn on the ceiling vent to pull the moisture out of the room. When done, leave the door open to allow the room to air out and the moisture to dissipate.

Can You Remove Mold Spores from a Home?

While a dehumidifier can help reduce humidity in basements and homes, they won’t remove or kill mold spores. Mold spores will continue to float and travel through the air in your home. To remove mold spores from the air, you will want to look at air filters that are capable of trapping or killing these tiny particles. For most people and homes, mold spores are not harmful and won’t be noticed until someone with mold allergies or asthma enters the home. The best advice is to reduce the opportunities for mold spores to cause mold growth by eliminating or reducing moisture and humidity in the home.

How Do You Remove Mold from a Home?

Small amounts of mold on hard surfaces can be normally cleaned with household mold cleaners or a bleach and water mix. This could be mold found around the tile of a shower. If you find mold growing on porous surfaces like walls, ceilings, wood floors, carpets, wood surfaces, and upholstered furniture; it’s best to call mold remediation experts like those at SERVPRO of Indianapolis West. Mold growth on porous surfaces can easily spread and grow not only along the visible surface but below the surface. Mold growth could also be hiding a bigger problem like a roof leak, pipe leak, or condensation on pipes behind walls. A mold remediation expert will remove the damaged materials, pinpoint the origin and cause of the growth, and remove the cause of the moisture or high humidity.

If you discover mold growing in your home, call SERVPRO of Indianapolis West today at 317-243-3149 to learn how to stop it and reduce any further damage from occurring.