Seven Key Steps: How to Kill Household Mold

Water Damage Service Restoration Minneapolis

There's no home that's immune to mold growth and while not all mold is dangerous and how can you tell for sure? That's what this video is all about and I'm going to show you the seven key steps for safely and effectively dealing with mold growth and mold remediation whenever it appears at your place.

Step number one assesses the situation. Start by identifying the full extent of mold growth in the affected area and at your place. Now, this could be easy or difficult depending on your situation, as a homeowner you can deal with moldy areas less than the size of a sheet of plywood or so but larger patches or moldy areas that involve some kind of sewage back up are best left to the pros.

Step number two, eliminate the moisture source. Mold only grows in the presence of moisture that's why you need to make the area permanently dry before you can expect permanent freedom from the mold. Regrowth basements are especially susceptible to water vapor infiltration through masonry walls and floors, but ventilation is not always the answer only. Ventilate basements when your door air is cooler than the air inside, your basement. Basement ventilation during hot humid weather only actually encourages mold growth.

Step number three, make removal decisions of mold growth. Some moldy surfaces are ideal for treatment and restoration, but it's usually easier to remove and replace large areas of moldy drywall ceiling tiles carpet, and other nonstructural materials, where a HEPA rated respirator, while you work to protect yourself from airborne mold spores here, a simple tip even seemingly dry basements can allow enough moisture vapor to migrate up through the concrete to trigger mold growth on cardboard so never store anything organic directly on a concrete basement floor especially cardboard boxes.

Step number four, dry the area. Drying out chronically moldy locations is crucial for success and air circulation heat and a dehumidifier are the three most powerful drawing tools you've got. You'll get the best results if you monitor the relative humidity of the space with a hygrometer and allowing more or less outside ventilation to speed drawing, depending on the outdoor temperature and humidity conditions.

Step number five, kill mold by having cleanup and discourage regrowth. This is where the common practice of using bleach to kill mold is actually a mistake, while the toxic nature of bleach does kill mold on hard non-porous surfaces. It can't do a good job on surfaces that are even a little bit porous and that's because all molds send root-like structures called hyphae into porous surfaces to gather nutrients surface tension and prevent traditional bleach and water solutions from penetrating deeply enough into wood or concrete to kill these roots, but this is one place where the new registered fungicide technologies are better than bleach for breaking the molding cycle and the most widely available non-toxic registered product that I found so far is can chromium mold control it's a liquid that kills mold and mold spores by mechanical action physically crushing all aspects of the mold organism as it dries this mechanical action is how a non-toxic product like this can actually kill mold. It also discourages regrowth if the area occasionally becomes moist again.

Step 6, eliminate mold stains. Even dead mold still looks ugly and while traditional bleach can sometimes brighten the moldy surfaces, bleach is also toxic and it often discolors surrounding areas. The best option I've found so far, for removing and remediation of old mold staining as a product called a mold stain eraser. It's an oxygen-based product that comes as a powder. Mix it with warm water, let it sit for 10 minutes then, apply the solution on two discolored surfaces up to 45 minutes. After mixing in, my tests mold stain eraser removes mold stains in many situations without changing the color of surrounding materials. The active ingredient eventually reverts back to oxygen and water so, nothing harmful is left behind.

Step 7, prevent mold regrowth. Even fungicides that offer residual mold control aren't magic ultimately, you need to keep moisture levels down to eliminate an eventual mold relapse and this means different things in different situations and ensure sufficient ventilation to keep indoor relative humidity at or below 50% especially during winter weather, where it's especially cold outside and constantly be on the lookout for roof leaks from ice dams water coming into the basement or chronically leaking pipes especially in hidden places like behind washing machines or under the kitchen counter killing and eliminating indoor mold isn't complicated and you don't have to expose you and your family to harmful chemicals. If you do the work right first dry things out then kill the mold producing organisms, remove any molding staining, and then keep things dry. That's all there and is in you.