Mold and water go together like salt and pepper or bread and butter. If you find leaky or flooded water in your home, you are likely to acquire mold as well.
And it’s not just major water leaks either. Even minor water leaks can lead to mold.
What is mold? Is It In Long Island?
Mild is a fungus, and it is important to realize that in nature, mold grows by digesting organic material, and as a result, mold helps decompose wood, leaves and plant debris.
Unfortunately, the positive benefits of decomposition in nature may have a decidedly negative effect when it comes to living spaces.
Mold can pretty much live on and inhabit any surface in your home, whether it be wood, floors, ceilings, carpets, and more.
And mold, from mold spores, is very easily brought into the house. Mold spores float in the air, attach to people’s clothes, come in via attaching to your pets, your shoes and more.
Mold spores are virtually everywhere. There are millions of tiny mold spores spread throughout our environment, and according to the Center for Disease Control, there may be up to 300,000 varieties of mold that can invade your home.
Fortunately, most mold simply dies a quick death because the environment is inhospitable for the spores to live. However, when there is enough water in your home to serve these spores, they soon develop into mold.
And it doesn’t take much water either. That’s why health officials even recommend keeping your home from being too humid, as spores can attach to glass, books, toys, and even plastic.
If you think you have water damage, then it may be smart to hire a Long Island water damage company to help with the repairs and prevent mold.
But why is mold a problem?
Unfortunately, mold is not just ugly looking but can cause genuine health problems.
Many people, particularly young children and the elderly are very sensitive to mold, and it can cause breathing problems. Many types of molds produce toxins that may significantly affect the ability of people to breathe.
In addition, many molds produce toxic substances that people are quite sensitive to. They may have an allergy to these toxins and experience everything from constantly running noses, watery eyes, itch throat, and a great deal of sneezing.
If they already are afflicted with asthma, the addition of the mold will tend to accelerate asthma attacks.
In addition, there can be skin irritation, fatigue, nausea, and insomnia brought on by excess mold in the house. So it’s not just a case of mild inconvenience.
Bring in a professional
If you notice a significant amount of mold in your home, perhaps mold on your ceiling, along your baseboards, mold in your ceiling tiles or mold in your attic installation, you actually may need not one but two professionals.
The first is to call in a professional plumber to inspect your home for water leaks. While small amounts of mold may easily crop up anywhere, major mold infestation almost always comes from water leaks. and you really need to have those fixed pronto.
The second professional is for clearing up the mold. Yes, you can try to do it yourself, but professionals have anti-fungal germicides that, when once cleaned of fungus, keep more showing up at bay.
In addition, since many types of mold are quite toxic, professionals have hazmat suits and respirators to clean up the mold. They will also seal off the area with plastic so that mold spores to not spread further.
And regardless of where the mold is, professionals have the tools to get into tiny spaces such as your HVAC system, which may be spreading mold spores everywhere.
A professional mold removal specialist will also be familiar with special anti-fungal paints and materials to insure the mold does not come back.