Mold Removal & Remediation: Stopping Mold Before It Starts
What would a home be without carpet? It’s warm and comfortable in the winter, and just plain comfortable all year round. The issue, of course, is when it gets wet or isn’t properly taken care of. It can be particularly troublesome if your favorite four legged family member needs to go potty in the middle of the night and you don’t discover it until it’s too late.
Mold can grow unseen and unnoticed under your carpet when moisture gets rapped in the base of the carpet or the underlying padding. And because the problem is hidden and you don’t know it’s there until it starts to smell, it’s difficult to remedy since it’s in a place that’s virtually impossible to get at without ripping up the carpet. Knowing simple mold prevention tips and how to recognize the presence of mold can help save you an enormous amount of time and money on mold remediation and mold removal services.
Never underestimate the danger mold presents in your home to you, your family, your children, your guests, and your pets. Toxic mold can kill. And mold, once present, will keep growing and spreading until it becomes virtually impossible to contain.
In this blog post, we start with preventing mold from occurring in the first place. We will talk about other aspects of mold prevention in future blog posts.
Mold Prevention
Keeping mold from gaining a foothold in your carpet and spreading to baseboards and behind walls in your home starts with the basics.
Clean Up Accidents. Clean up accidents as soon as they occur. This will help prevent liquid spills from seeping down into your carpet and creating a breeding ground for mold to start growing. Liquid spills and pet accidents should always be cleaned up immediately, no matter how small. Don’t wait. Do it now. Cleaning up spills or pet accidents “later” is a recipe for disaster. In the case of a pet accident, be sure to spray the area afterwards with a pet accident cleaning solutions. There are a number on the market. Be sure to get one that destroys bacteria.
Take off your shoes. This goes back to the age-old maxim, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” The cheapest way to clean your carpet is to prevent it from getting dirty in the first place. Take off your shoes when you come in from outside, and politely ask your guests to do so as well. This can drastically reduce the amount of dirt and moisture your carpet accumulates over it’s lifetime. If you prefer to wear shoes indoors or feel more comfortable with your feet covered, wear house slippers or keep a pair of “indoors only” shoes nearby that you can slip into when you come indoors. Similarly, wiping off paws from your four legged family members can also keep dirt and moisture at bay. While you may not necessarily want to do this every time you take Fido out before bedtime, it’s a must when its wet and muddy outside.
Perform Regular Cleaning and Maintenance.
When it comes to mold remediation and prevention, regular carpet cleaning is a must. Like moisture, dirt and accumulated dust is also a leading cause of mold in homes and residential dwellings. Regular vacuuming is the best and easiest way to get rid of dirt and debris that can promote the growth of mold. In the case of high traffic areas, vacuum at least weekly. In harder to reach areas such as corners, behind and under furniture, take the extra time to attack these areas at least four or five times a year. Also consider renting a carpet shampoo machine once or twice a year. They do wonders in terms of deep cleaning and helping to prevent mold from gaining a foothold to the point where you need to call a mold remediation or mold removal service.
