How To Tell If Your Home Has Mold (And What To Do About It)

So, you’re wondering if there’s mold in your home. Everyone knows that mold can be dangerous to your health, but far fewer people know how to tell if their home has a mold problem. 

What is mold?

First off, let’s get the basics out of the way. 

Mold is a fungus that grows in damp environments. Mold can grow just about anywhere there is moisture, including near windows, showers, pipes, and leaks. Mold grows well on paper products, ceilings, cardboard, and wood. Not to mention paint, wallpaper, insulation, drywall, carpet, fabric. The list goes on. 

The bottom line is that if there’s moisture in your home, there’s likely mold. Or there will be soon. 

Some mold is very obvious. Those green and brown patches you see in your shower, on your walls, and in your window sills? Yeah, that’s mold. The black spots you have to double-check to see if they’re dead ants? Yep, that’s mold too. (Unless, of course, they actually are dead ants…) 

But some mold is invisible to the eye. And this mold is just as deadly, if not more so, than the mold you see at first glance. 

That’s right. Deadly. Some mold is dangerous to anyone living nearby. This means that anyone in your home—you, your family, pets, weird relatives who won’t leave—may be permanently affected if they breathe in too many mold spores. 

Mold spores float through the air until they’re inhaled. Inhaling these spores can lead to chronic illness, including chronic coughing, sneezing, sore throat, and more. Obviously, you don’t want this to happen to anyone you love. Even your weird relatives. 

How to tell if your home has mold:

There are several ways to tell if there is mold in your home. Some of those ways include:

• You can see it
• You can smell it
• People in your home are getting sick
• There is a lot of coughing, sneezing, wheezing, itching, etc. 

The easiest way to tell if there’s mold in your home is if you can clearly see it. Look for small black spots on any surface. Mold may just make a surface look a little bit dirty. If this “dirt” can’t be removed easily or keeps coming back, it’s mold. 

Another way to tell if your home has mold is if you can smell it. If your home has a persistent musty smell, then you may be dealing with a mold problem. Remember, if you can smell it, then there are tiny spores floating around and ending up in your lungs. As soon as you start smelling mold, have it removed. 

If people in your home are sick all the time, you may be dealing with more than just a seasonal cold. If there’s a lot of coughing, sneezing, wheezing, or itching, mold may be to blame. To keep your family members healthy and avoid chronic illnesses, call a mold removal company as soon as you realize what’s going on.  

Why it’s important to remove mold:

Why is it important to remove mold? First of all, mold isn’t pretty. Do you really want small black spots or large green and brown areas ruining the aesthetic of your lovely home? Didn’t think so. 

Secondly, as mentioned above, mold is dangerous. You don’t want your family members, pets, or strange relatives breathing in the spores. 

When to remove mold:

You should remove mold as soon as it is found. If you suspect that there is mold in your home but aren’t quite sure, you can order a mold test kit or call a professional mold removal company to test and remove the mold. 

You can also quickly test for mold yourself. Try dipping a cotton swab or paper towel in diluted bleach (1 part bleach, 16 parts water) and dabbing it on the surface. If the spot quickly lightens or keeps coming back, you can safely assume it’s mold. If the spot disappears for good, maybe you should try dusting more often…

Once you know there’s mold in your home, have it removed right away. There are ways to remove mold yourself, but the most permanent solution is to call a mold removal company. 

How to remove mold:

There are a few different ways to remove mold. You can try the above tip of using diluting bleach to remove mold. Keep in mind that this isn’t a permanent solution. You can scrub to your heart’s desire and get rid of all the black spots, but chances are that the mold will be back before too long. 

If there’s mold in your carpet or furniture, you may be able to remove it yourself by getting rid of the items. As long as the mold hasn’t spread to the flooring beneath the carpet, you may be able to tear it up and replace your carpet. Or throw out that old lumpy couch. 

How you remove the mold also depends on where the mold is located. If you have mold inside your walls, insulation, air ducts, etc., it’s going to be difficult to remove it yourself. In that case, you’ll definitely want to call in a professional mold remediation service. 

This is the best way to remove mold. Mold removal companies know how to get stubborn mold out of walls, carpet, furniture, and more. If the mold problem is too far advanced or the materials too damaged, you may end up replacing it. But isn’t new carpet better than breathing in dangerous spores? Definitely. 

If there’s mold in your home, it’s time to get it removed. And if you suspect that there may be mold in your home, it’s time to have it tested. Since you don’t want your family members breathing in dangerous spores, call Southern Restoration & Construction. We’ll remove the mold in your home quickly, professionally, and affordably. Instead of constantly battling mold that keeps on coming back, let Southern Restoration & Construction give you a permanent solution to your mold removal problems.