Mold Inspection – How to Inspect Your Home for Mold?

Mold belongs to the fungi family, but it’s not a mushroom and it’s not eatable (so be aware). However, this tiny organism can spread extremely fast in places with a high level of humidity. If there is any moisture around your house, around your kitchen, bathroom, basement or garage, you should immediately perform mold inspection because there is a high probability of you being in deep “mold trouble”. You guys should understand that due to its nature, mold can grow on almost any surfaces or existing materials. If it is made of cellulose, expect mode to develop on it with the speed of the light. Sometimes mold ca takeover your house so easily that you won’t even notice. There are cases when people, just because they haven’t performed their inspection for mold inside their house, in time, had to either run a general repair and to sell it afterward or to sell it for a miserable price. If you don’t detect mold in time, you will have a lot of problems trying to find a solution to get rid of this living organism. Instead of just facing your moisture problems in certain spots of your house, you are going to be required to also fight mold, which is considered to be toxic for our health. In this blog post I’ll share a few ideas about how to inspect your house for mold. If you are a beginner, you should carefully read everything till the end.

I’ve ran upon some recent scientific studies that claim that most homes have at least some kind of mold because of unknown indoor humidity issues. While a responsible homeowner will still be able to sooner or later identify the causes of moisture and will take care in this house, this should be done in time. When action is not being taken appropriately, the growth of mold can be active in places like your bathroom, garage and basement (if it has been previously damaged by a floor or something). It looks like plenty of my readers have no clue about the great health threats that mold posses. Yes, mold is quite dangerous and toxic for our lungs and for our general respiratory system. Sometimes it is necessary for you guys to remove it as quickly as possible and to do everything that is in your hands to stop it from spreading so fast. If the moisture conditions are favorable, it can easily takeover the lower parts of any room in your house in just several days. This is why I decided to start these series of articles on mold inspection. I believe that being able to detect mold in time can save you a lot of money in the long run, when you will be necessary to invest in repair and mold removal. I guess that most experienced and advanced owners of houses already know most of the inspection techniques that I am about to share. However, if you are a beginner, you are more than welcome to try read everything attentively and to learn what taking appropriate action in case of mold appearance is all about. Learn how to stop mold from mushrooming in your own home right now.

So while others might talk about outsourcing the work of mold inspection to professional mold removal companies, I honestly don’t think that you should give your money away for someone else to perform this easy task, unless you are a very busy entrepreneur and have no free time whatsoever. Hunting for all the visible mold in your home is not big deal and can be done extremely easy. If you are able to recognize the natural characteristics of this organism belonging to the fungi family I don’t think that you’ll have a lot of trouble trying to get rid of it from your house. However, this is the most compulsory first step in do it yourself mold inspection. Here are a few simple yet very important steps that anyone can perform in order to become a professional mold inspector. You are not required to have years of experience in dealing and removing mold to be able to decide if the black bad smelling steins that you have on the walls in your bathroom is mold and should be cleaned or not. So stay tuned on my mold inspection blog on this particular page and you are going to be able to learn a lot of interesting strategies!

1) How to hunt the existing mold? Try to recognize the visible mold!
Understanding and being able to make the differences between simple dirt on the walls of your basement and mold is crucial if you want to be able to detect it properly. Any mold inspection campaign should start with hunting for visible mold, first of all, by taking into consideration all the natural characteristics of this fungus. So if you have no previous experience at all and you never saw mold in your life than I guess you should at least know that they appear similar to a cotton type of element. There are even several colors that mold can appear in. You’ll often recognize gray, white, black, green or purple mold. Don’t worry if you notice some other nuances as well. It all depends on the light that you are able to get in the darkness of your basement. However, I don’t think that its color matters a lot. Now it’s important to locate it.

2) Does mold have any smell? Learn how to smell for mold inside your house!
Yes! Mold smells really bad and I guess that most people won’t like it just like this. Its smell is considered to be another straightforward method when inspecting and you should use it as a default trigger in your head. Whenever you plan to run a mold detection campaign either in your house or for someone else (in order to help) you should always know that the very moment you stumble upon this strong earth-musty odors combined with the smell of moisture you are dealing with nothing more or less than mold. You should not wait any longer when such a smell reaches your nose in your house. Take immediate action because mold is what you are going to be dealing with. Start to investigate the very first moment you stumble on it because it’s just a matter of time regarding who hits first. Is it you or the mold who wins? However, I had to deal with various situations when there was plenty of a mold in the bathroom and still not smell. It might happen for two various and very simple reasons. Either the ventilation system in that particular good is extremely good and functions properly, or you are dealing with behind walls type of growing mold with usually stick to panels and other empty channels inside the walls themselves, thus hiding from your eye and nose at the same time. One has to realize that even if your house doesn’t smell like terrible mold, this still doesn’t mean that it is absolutely mold free and that you should never investigate for its presence. I recommend running a mold inspection from time to time!

3) Should I investigate my basement? Yes, your basement can be primary source of mold!
No matter if you like it or not, researching your basement for possible mold is one of the very first things that have to be done. While your house is above the ground level, your basement is usually underground, thus it is exposed to a higher probability of water leakage and can suffer from a higher level of moisture more than other spots in or outside your house. Even more, if you know that your basement has suffered from any water damaged in the past months, years, you should immediately check for mold because it is more than probable that you are already dealing with a serious mold infestation. A simple flood produced after a powerful rainstorm or a water leakage from a pipe that goes through your basement can be the main reason of the appearance of mold. When inspecting your basement for this fungus you should check its ceiling and walls for any possible water stains. If you are experiencing certain strong odors of mustiness than you are more than likely already dealing with mold. Never let it grow in your basement because this is what your house is based on. If the roots rot, so will the main “data center”. Be aware of mold in basement!

4) What should I do about hidden mold? Treat it as fast as possible!
If it’s invisible to your eyes it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist or cause damage. In fact, hidden mold is a major problem for most homeowners and mold inspectors that are having some really unpleasant experiences trying to clean everything out. In can spread extremely fast due to the simple fact that it grows behind walls, floors and ceilings and is hard to be spotted or “smelled”. The physical barriers that it is hidden behind make its odor hard to detect. While detecting unseen mold in a house can be quite a challenge for the person that has little to no experience, you can still be able to do it. Be attentive to any nasal congestion or even simple stuffy nose. If you have the feeling of something that needs to be constantly eliminated is sitting inside your throat, you are more likely dealing with a hidden process of mold growth somewhere in unseen places.

So this is what you should do when being concerned about mold inside your house. While it is always recommended to have a certified mold inspector do the whole work, I don’t see a reason why you won’t be able to do it on your own. Mold inspection should be done periodically in order to stay away from trouble and from unnecessary future repairs!