Mold Remediation In Easton
How It Happens
There’s a reason that Easton is one of the top ten best towns in America. It’s got a history, locale and community that is the envy of the nation. It may not be a large town, but with the festivals, parades and other events that run throughout the year, it’s hard to say “There’s nothing to do.” But even one of Maryland’s best towns isn’t immune to a very quiet, easy to ignore problem, and that is mold. There are mold remediation experts in Easton, and we can tell you everything you need to know, but let’s go over the basics first.
How Mold Works
Mold is not a plant, or an animal, but something that sits between the two—and can behave like both—which is why it has its own kingdom called fungus. There’s a lot of different kinds of fungi, including the mushrooms that we eat, and even the yeast that we use to make bread is actually part of this family. Mold, however, is not the benign, useful member of this kingdom that some of its relatives are.
Mold, like most other fungi, works by sending spores out into the air, which is one of the reasons why it is so tricky to deal with. It’s very difficult rid the average household of all mold, since the spores come in anytime a window, door, vent or piece of clothing is exposed to the outside air. This is why mold forms on bread. It was already in the air in your home, it was just waiting for the proper conditions to settle down and begin forming a colony. Once the colony starts growing, it reproduces by sending even more spores into the air. This is why any mold remediation Easton specialist will tell you that the trick to dealing with mold permanently isn’t just killing it, it’s making sure the conditions that allowed it flourish in the first place are fixed so it can’t return.
Is Mold Harmful?
Potentially, yes. It’s the sort of thing an experienced Easton mold remediation team will be able to easily discover in detail, but all homeowners should be aware that a health risk may be present when mold is in a home. There are different types of threats that mold represents, because different molds have different properties. Roughly speaking, mold health threats can be divided into two groups. There are Allergens, which is what it sounds like, in that this type of mold provokes the same kind of allergic reactions people experience during pollen season, except with molds, it’s “pollen season” all the time.
The second is Pathogenic, which means the mold is more likely to cause an illness or disease, but that doesn’t mean pathogenic mold is automatically more dangerous than allergenic mold. If a particular kind of mold is low on pathogenic toxins, while another type of mold is much higher on allergenic toxins, someone in your household sensitive to allergies is going to suffer far more because of that allergenic mold than a household with a pathogenic mold and no particular sensitivities. There are over 100,000 different kinds of mold, so it’s best to leave this kind of identification to your Easton mold remediation expert.
The real danger that mold represents is from long term exposure, especially for those with some kind of health sensitivity. The absolute, worst case scenario is that a mold is so toxic that it can infect lungs and eventually lead to fungal pneumonia. But those with allergies, people with asthma, and even just more sensitive members of the household such as young children or the elderly may experience unhealthy symptoms from breathing in the mold spores that are being released into the structure every day.
How Mold Is Treated
If you notice mold in smaller amounts, such as mildew in your bathroom, or a few patches in the basement or attic, you may be able to handful these smaller infestations yourself, and you probably should in order to prevent the problem from getting worse. While mold in the bathroom is easy enough to clean with store bought products, mold in other places, such as forming on drywall, or on a rug, may necessitate getting rid the rug or section of drywall entirely to prevent spreading.
In other cases however, the mold may have spread throughout entire spaces such as basements, attics, crawlspaces, the wall to wall carpeting, or even inside a wall. When a mold infestation is this extensive, the best recourse is to find an Easton mold remediation expert, and let them handle what is a complex and rigorous process.
In the event that you need the services of such a team, they will identify the mold, purify the air to ensure the building is at a minimal amount of spores, then use a biocide to kill the mold. Once that is done, they may use a special chemical whitewash on the space to prevent the mold from taking hold again, and finally address whatever conditions may have allowed the mold to grow in the first place, such as high humidity, a leaky basement wall that let too much water in on a regular basis.
Mold is deceptive in the threat it presents. While not as obvious as immediately harmful to a home as something like termites or a fire, it can lead to many health issues if it’s ignored. If you think you have a mold problem in your home, but aren’t sure what your next step should be, get in touch with an Easton mold remediation specialist. We’ll guide you through everything you need to know and do to make sure the infestation is the last one you’ll ever have.