It’s vital to keep your home free from mold and moisture to maintain a healthy indoor environment.
Most people spend a substantial amount of time at home. Accordingly, the air quality of your home can affect your health greatly.
However, it’s not always easy to make the connection between signs of mold and the remedy for the problem.
For instance, you might observe structural deterioration if your crawl space or basement is damp. Furthermore, you might notice that your basement is prone to flooding.
Even worse, a damp basement or crawl space could circulate mold spores throughout your home. Resultantly, your family could suffer from respiratory problems.
To learn more about how much mold is too much mold in a house, keep reading.
What Are the Effects of Mold on Health?
Mold can cause a range of health complications. It’s especially problematic for people whom physicians have diagnosed with allergies. Likewise, mold is problematic for people with respiratory problems or weakened immune systems.
For example, mold can cause breathing problems. When mold grows, cells, spores, fragments and other unstable organics enter the air. As they do, they produce allergens, irritants and mycotoxins.
Sometimes, mold can prove especially harmful. For instance, if someone in your home has a sensitivity to mold, they can exhibit advanced symptoms of indoor mold exposure.
Where there’s mold, there’s dampness. Dampness promotes material breakdown. Resultantly, you’ll notice more dust and particles in the air if there’s mold present.
Furthermore, mold can irritate your lungs, nose and throat. Again, this outcome is especially problematic for people suffering from asthma or a chronic lung condition.
Mold can also cause allergic reactions. If you or a family member has an allergy to mold, any mold particles can cause symptoms. Mold can also make seasonal allergies worse.
How Much Mold Is Too Much Mold in a House?
A small amount of mold isn’t problematic. However, excessive mold can prove especially harmful.
The more moisture and mold that builds up in your house, the poorer the air quality. Furthermore, this risk is present for people of all ages.
For example, you might notice skin irritation if you have too much mold in your home. This condition occurs because of growing bacteria and fungi.
What’s more, mold growth creates a vicious cycle. The more moisture present, the more mold will grow. Meanwhile, the more mold in your home, the more moisture it will retain.
Alternatively, you may suffer from eye irritation if there’s too much mold in your home. As an example, you might feel the need to rub your eyes regularly.
In some cases, mold growth can create bacteria that will irritate your eyes and cause redness. This symptom is an allergic reaction.
You may also experience throat discomfort if there’s too much mold in your home. For instance, you’ll feel the need to clear your throat often.
You may not feel a choking sensation. However, your throat might feel very uncomfortable and irritated.
How to Remove Mold From a Crawl Space or Basement
When it comes to mold, preventing moisture buildup is a top priority. If there any leaks in your home, they’ll promote more mold growth. Accordingly, you want to repair any leaks immediately.
You’ll also want to clean your kitchen trashcan regularly. Kitchen wastebaskets are fertile for mold growth. You may also want to think about using a dehumidifier to reduce the moisture in your home.
If you only have a small amount of mold growth, you should clean it right away. You’ll want to wear rubber gloves to avoid a reaction to the mold.
You must kill mold rather than simply wiping it away. You can use pure white vinegar to kill the mold in your kitchen and bathroom. Bleach also works well for killing mold.
If you use bleach, you want to mix one cup of bleach with every gallon of water. You’d then apply it to the surface without rinsing.
However, you could find that mold comes back repeatedly. In that case, you’ll need to seek the help of a professional mold removal service as soon as possible.
A professional remediator can conduct a thorough basement or crawl space inspection. They’ll help you find the issue that’s causing mold growth. Furthermore, a remediator has special mold removal equipment.
You may need a mold inspection if you notice a musty smell in your home no matter how many times you clean. You may also notice cupping or sloping floors
Furthermore, you might notice that your indoor air quality is diminishing. You may also notice structural problems such as sticking windows and doors. All these signs can indicate that there’s too much mold and moisture in your home.
Will a Dehumidifier Help With Radon?
Mold isn’t the only substance that contributes to poor indoor air quality. Radon is another compound associated with excessive moisture. Accordingly, you might wonder if a dehumidifier will help if you suspect that there’s radon in your home.
Radon is a serious problem, whether you want to stay in your home where you plan to put it on the market. However, fixing a radon problem can prove quite expensive. Accordingly, it makes sense to want to find an affordable solution.
For this reason, there’s a lot of discussion about using a dehumidifier to remove radon. However, a dehumidifier isn’t an effective tool to remedy the issue.
You can only remove radon using a remediation method such as active soil preparation (ASD). As a bonus, however, it’s even more effective at removing humidity than a dehumidifier.
Effective radon mediation will remove both radon and humidity from your home. Conversely, a dehumidifier will have no impact on interior radon levels.
A dehumidifier can only deliver an 8% to 25% level of moisture reduction compared to ASD. In other words, ASD does the work of 4 to 13 dehumidifiers.
How to Make Your House Worth More
Nearly every home has some form of mold. Whether you simply want to increase the value of your home or you want to put it on the market, you might wonder whether moisture remediation will help.
There’s been growing concern about mold in the real estate industry. More serious mold can significantly diminish the value of your home.
More serious molds include Stachybotrys chartarum or black mold. If you sell a home with this kind of mold present, you can expose yourself to liability.
Whether you stay in or sell your home, you cannot allow mold growth to continue. However, nothing will cause a deal to fall through faster than mold.
Just about everybody is familiar with household mold. This kind of mold shows up in various kinds of moist areas.
However, mold also grows in attics, bathrooms and basements. In fact, mold can grow on nearly any surface in your home.
If you see black spots developing on a wall and a room with poor circulation, you most likely have the early stages of a serious mold problem.
A Trusted Moisture Remediation Service Provider
Maintaining your crawl space or basement is especially important for limiting mold in your home. This area regulates the atmosphere of your entire structure.
Accordingly, it’s essential to ensure that your basement or crawl space is ventilated properly. It’s also vital to ensure that your basement or crawl space has an appropriate ground covering or moisture control system.
Without treatment, moisture can create fungal growth. Eventually, fungal growth in your basement or crawl space can deteriorate the indoor air quality of your home.
A professional inspector can evaluate your crawl space or basement quickly. More importantly, they can help you to come up with the best long-term solution to keep mold out of your home.
If you observe pooling or standing water in your crawl space or basement, you may have a mold problem. Alternatively, you might observe watermarks on your foundation. A professional moisture and mold remediation company might suggest a French drain system and a sump pump to remedy these kinds of issues.
Ideally, you’ll want to keep the moisture in your crawl space or basement below 20%. A professional mold removal service can also help you achieve the correct moisture level by selecting the appropriate thickness barrier to prevent mold.
Finally, basement and crawl space ventilation is vital for maintaining the right moisture level. Accordingly, a professional crawl space and basement service can help you to select the right encapsulation system to maintain a healthy relative humidity in the space.
Let Us Restore Your Home to Safety
Now you know more about how much mold is too much mold in a house. What you need now is the best local basement and crawl space moisture remediation service.
At Crawlspace Medic, we’re experts in moisture remediation. We provide exceptional and ethical service.
We don’t sell our service—we provide solutions. We’ll never use high-pressure sales tactics.
We’ll gladly inspect your crawl space or basement. If you choose not to hire us for remediation service, at least you’ll know more about the state of your home.
We’ll provide you with easy-to-understand reporting. Furthermore, we warranty all work.
Every home is different. When you trust Crawlspace Medic, you can rest assured that we’ll provide you with a customized long-term solution for your mold or moisture problem.
Contact Crawlspace Medic today at (866) 882-7295 to learn more about making your home safe and free from mold.
