Monday, February 4, 2008

Keeping Mold Out Of The House

There is not really any such thing as an environment that is completely mold free, but you can do quite a lot to reduce the amount of mold in your home. You can get rid of it to the point that you do not even know that it is there, but most people are not quite sure of all the different things that they can do to accomplish this.

If you are moving into a new home that has no pre-existing mold in it, then you are off to a great start. The trick here is keeping the mold away. You can do this by trying to keep the mold spores out of the air in the house, since the spores are what cause the mold colonies to start growing in the first place. Vacuum cleaners and air purification systems that have HEPA filters in them can do a lot to keep mold spores and other airborne irritants out of the air that you breathe. This is really helpful for people who have breathing or allergy problems, like emphysema or asthma.

HEPA filtered vacuums capture the dust and other particles that they extract from carpet and make sure they are not re-distributed back into the air of the house; vacuums that are not HEPA filtered do not do this and a lot of the dust mites, pollen, and etcetera end up getting tossed back up into the air.

HEPA filtered air purification systems are absolutely great for people with breathing problems and allergies, since the filter is designed to remove about 99.7% of particles from the air down to 0.03 microns in size. This is pretty small and to give you an idea of just how small the particles it collects are, take a hair from your head, and divide the diameter by 3. This includes just about everything that you can think of: pet dander, smoke, dust, dust mites, pollen, mold spores, etc.

As long as you have these, mold should not really be a problem in the house unless the home has moisture problems. Try to keep an eye out for water leaks and make sure that any spills of water in the kitchen and the bathroom get cleaned up as soon as possible. Wet clothes should be washed as soon as possible and never thrown into a laundry basket with dry ones, since they are usually forgotten about.

You can avoid mold on your shower curtain often by spreading it out instead of bunching it up at one end of the tub.