How to Spot Mold in Your Home and What to Do About It

Finding mold in your house is a nightmare situation. It can add thousands of dollars to a renovation, make your home unsellable, and become a reoccurring issue if not dealt with properly. Mold growth can also have devastating effects on your family’s health if you don’t catch and remove it quickly.

This unwelcome resident only requires a little bit of moisture to get growing and is especially common in damp, dark areas like the bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, basement, and attic. Knowing how to spot the pesky fungus and ways to safely and effectively remediate it is critical. An online search will help you find a professional to get rid of the mold and prevent it from coming back. In case you find some lurking in your living space, here’s what you should know.

The Ways Mold Appears in Your Home

The first step to spotting mold in your home is to know how it appears. It can grow indoors and outdoors. Sometimes, you can’t easily see it. While some types are fairly harmless, others are more serious and need to be dealt with sharply. Not all cases will have visible spores, so you need to be tuned in to the less obvious signs of mold.

Factors that allude or can lead to mold in the household include:

• Water Damage – Water damage can result from broken pipes, roof leaks, sinks overflowing, and basement flooding. Where water damage happens, mold often follows within 48 hours.
• Musty Odor – Either the affected room in your home or your heating and cooling system can carry an odor, which often resembles old wet laundry.
• Dark Tile Grout – Mold growth in a kitchen or bathroom may appear as dark or speckled grout between tiling.
• Dark Spots or White Fuzz – Depending on the type of mold, the color and texture will differ. Mold spots and fuzz can grow on walls, appliances, and floors.
• Using a Humidifier – Frequently using something that increases the humidity in a room can increase the chance of mold growth.

To check for mold, start by looking anywhere that’s damp or where water damage has occurred.

Common Household Molds

Knowing which strains of mold are most common in a household will help you determine which one you may have. Here are five of the most common types:

• Alternaria – Has a velvety texture with dark-colored hairs.
• Aspergillus – Has many different species and can vary in appearance.
• Aureobasidium – Typically takes on a pink, brown, or black tone.
• Penicillin – A blue and green color with a velvety texture.
• Stachybotrys – One of the most common forms of black mold.

That is not a full list of the potential molds you could find. Please consult a professional and search online to find out more about the different types, especially if you’ve found some in the home that you can’t identify.

How Mold Can Affect Your Health

Mold has been linked to a number of health issues. In fact, unexplained changes in your health or the health of someone you live with may be indicative of mold in the space. These symptoms include:

• Worsened asthma
• Lingering cold or flu-like symptoms
• Fatigue
• Chronic nosebleeds
• Itchiness
• Severe headaches
• Respiratory issues

The cause of these issues could be unrelated to mold, but you shouldn’t rule it out without looking into it. People with allergies, a suppressed immune system, lung disease, or chronic respiratory issues are more sensitive to mold.

What You Should Do If There’s Mold at Home

If you spot mold in your home, you need to get it removed. While some molds can be removed with at-home remedies like bleach water or products from your local hardware store, more serious types or large patches of mold should be dealt with by a professional. Research online for local companies that specialize in mold remediation. Be sure to read reviews before choosing a company and ask them questions about their remediation process. A good remediation company won’t cover up the mold; they will ensure that it’s completely removed.

Mold can be hard to identify yourself, but identifying the cause will help you prevent more from growing in the future. Contact a professional and get an inspection done – some companies even do these for free! But don’t wait long to deal with the fungus. Start your search – in both your home and online – today.