7 Ways to Beat Mold in your Basement

A mold is a type of fungus that can destroy various items and parts of your home. Apart from being annoying and infuriating, mold growth can also be detrimental to your health and can damage your house completely. They appear in any area of your house and if you don’t get rid of them immediately, they will grow rapidly and can have a huge impact on your living conditions.

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Causes of Mold

Moisture is the main cause of mold growth since molds flourish in damp and warm surroundings. However, there are many conditions that cause moisture in your home. One of these is increased humidity. You will notice that when it is continuously very humid for a week, mold starts to grow in certain parts of your home, especially in your basement. Other factors that cause moisture are leaking pipes, leak in roofs, wet clothes, flooding, damp basement, and poor ventilation.

Types of Mold

Harmful molds can be classified as allergenic, pathogenic and toxigenic. Apparently, allergenic molds are those that produce allergies and cause allergic reactions like asthma attacks. Pathogenic molds, on the one hand, worsen the condition of people with acute illness while toxigenic molds produce substances that may cause death. It helps to identify the type of molds that appear in your house so you will know their health impact, how dangerous they can be and how you can eliminate them.

How to Detect Mold

Not all molds are clearly visible and you won’t always have enough time to check for them yourself. To detect mold, the simplest way is to do a visual inspection. Keep an eye on water leak or burst pipes that may cause moisture and attract molds. Also, pay attention to any area with a musty smell and check all your appliances, furniture, sinks, walls and floor.

If you still can’t find anything, you can do surface tests using a special tape or swabs. This will help you locate the mold in your house especially in your basement where it’s often dark. You can also try to utilize an air sampling test to check if there are some bacteria drifting in the air.

Ways to Beat Mold

You can reduce or get rid of mold in your basement completely through the following methods or strategies:

Use dehumidifiers for proper ventilation.
Clean your basement walls using proper mold-cleaning products and dry the walls after cleaning them.
Rely on natural ways to get rid of mold by using various items such as vinegar, tea tree oil; grapefruit seed extract, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda. All of them are non-toxic and have specific characteristics that help eliminate and prevent mold.
You can use a vacuum to get rid of molds on the floor or underneath the carpets.
Seal the wood surfaces after cleaning and removing the molds from the walls.
Install new insulation and drywall and repaint it after cleaning the wall surfaces.
Make good use of tarps for better insulation.

You can try any of these methods to eliminate mold in your house and to prevent future problems caused by mold growth, make sure that you clean and maintain your home very well especially your basement.