Millions of people in the world suffer from all kinds of allergies, whether it is pollen, grass, foods, animals, or mold. Allergy symptoms are mostly seen from the spring to the late fall because of the fact that most of the allergies are due to seasonal plants and molds. Most plants and molds that cause allergies do not thrive during the winter and cannot continue to grow in freezing temperatures. They simply remain dormant and this is true of mold infestations inside homes. While the mold does not continue growing during the winter, it will thaw during the winter and be just as much of an inconvenience as they were before they were frozen.
There are all kinds of allergy symptoms that are associated with mold. The kind of reaction and the severity can vary from person to person, but the usual signs are runny noses, sneezing, watery eyes, and skin rashes. The presence of mold can also cause what is called Perennial allergic rhinitis. The allergy symptoms caused by mold are often aggravated and made worse by eating any food that has been made with mold or any other kind of fungus, like mushrooms. Even bread and beer, which are made with yeast can cause the symptoms to worsen. Cheeses that are made with mold, particularly gorgonzola and blue cheese, can also bring about the onset of these symptoms.
There are a few dozen species of mold that can cause allergic reactions, but most of the species of mold on the planet are not very allergenic. The majority of allergic reactions are caused by molds in the genii of Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Alternaria. The only genus that has a disease and a medicine named after it is Penicillium.
If you have some allergies besides just mold, you should probably keep an eye out for the allergen reports that appear on the news each day at different intervals. If you are a senior citizen or have a young child that is allergic to these things, you need to be careful about yourself or the child going out if the reports indicate a high amount of the allergen in the air. Depending on the severity of your allergy, it could possibly trigger a serious reaction.
If you discover mold in your home and fear that you may be allergic to it, you should have your home tested for mold immediately and if the test returns positive, you should relocate while the problem is being taken care of.
Dror Klar is a writer and promoter of
Westchester County Water Damage Repair and
Elizabeth NJ Water Damage Repair Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Wood Rotting Mold
A mold that plagues some homes and should not be underestimated is Meruliporia incrassate. This is a fungus that causes a severe amount of rotting in the wooden parts of your home and this is extremely difficult to get rid of, since is has the ability to collect and retain water over a longer period of time than other molds. It typically extends itself through not only the wood, but other porous materials that make up your home and find the water that it needs in order to stay alive.
The news calls this a “house eating fungus” because it will eventually do just that if it is left untreated. The decay of the wood framing of your home is inevitable if this infestation is not removed as soon as possible. This usually shows up in the areas of your home that are the most moist, such as the bathroom, kitchen, and the basement. This mold appears as a somewhat yellowish dust on the areas that are affected. In order to keep this growth from returning, you will need to remove all of the materials affected by it and then some. Simply trying to clean this mold with disinfectants or bleach will not work under any circumstances. Cleaning any other kind of mold off of a porous surface with bleach or any other disinfectant is usually not possible, but this kind of mold cannot be gotten rid of in this way at all.
About two extra feet of infected material needs to be removed from the home before the infestation will be gone for good. This means if the visible infection spans about 4 feet of a wooden beam, then an extra two feet needs to be removed on each side of it to be sure that you get all of it. This mold likes to extend strands of itself out about this length in order to retain the water that it will use to keep itself alive. Getting rid of this extra material may seem like a waste, but it is really the only way to be certain that it does not come back.
As long as your previously affected area remains dry for a long time after the infected wood was removed, the infection should not return. Keeping the previously affected area as dry as possible may help keep the mold from coming back, even if some of the wood remained infected after you removed the majority of it.
Dror Klar is a writer and promoter of
Manhattan Water Damage Repair
and
Elizabeth NJ Wet Basement Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
The news calls this a “house eating fungus” because it will eventually do just that if it is left untreated. The decay of the wood framing of your home is inevitable if this infestation is not removed as soon as possible. This usually shows up in the areas of your home that are the most moist, such as the bathroom, kitchen, and the basement. This mold appears as a somewhat yellowish dust on the areas that are affected. In order to keep this growth from returning, you will need to remove all of the materials affected by it and then some. Simply trying to clean this mold with disinfectants or bleach will not work under any circumstances. Cleaning any other kind of mold off of a porous surface with bleach or any other disinfectant is usually not possible, but this kind of mold cannot be gotten rid of in this way at all.
About two extra feet of infected material needs to be removed from the home before the infestation will be gone for good. This means if the visible infection spans about 4 feet of a wooden beam, then an extra two feet needs to be removed on each side of it to be sure that you get all of it. This mold likes to extend strands of itself out about this length in order to retain the water that it will use to keep itself alive. Getting rid of this extra material may seem like a waste, but it is really the only way to be certain that it does not come back.
As long as your previously affected area remains dry for a long time after the infected wood was removed, the infection should not return. Keeping the previously affected area as dry as possible may help keep the mold from coming back, even if some of the wood remained infected after you removed the majority of it.
Dror Klar is a writer and promoter of
Manhattan Water Damage Repair
and
Elizabeth NJ Wet Basement Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Water Damage Tips For the Bathroom and Kitchen
Something most homeowners are aware of is the fact that preventing a kind of damage to the home often takes a lot less effort and money than repairing the damage after it has already been done. It might take some purchased materials and a little bit of diligence on our part to make sure that the rest of the household follows the rules, but in the end it will end up saving you hours of time and hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
Water damage is one of the most preventable kinds of damage that can occur to a home, unless it is caused by some natural disaster like a hurricane or a flood. There are a number of different areas of your home that you will need to pay attention to in order to keep the cost of repairing this damage down. The areas of the home that are the most exposed to moisture are the ones that you have to go into usually at least twice a day: the kitchen and the bathroom.
A precaution that applies to both areas is simply to make sure that sinks and other water receptacles do not overflow. You may forget the water is running while you are on the phone or doing another household chore, but letting this happen over and over can cause some serious damage to your floor. Another way to prevent floor damage is to make sure that tiles on your bathroom or kitchen floor are not cracked or that the floor is completely water tight.
Installing an exhaust fan in both of these rooms in your home will help prevent damage to the ceiling and upper walls, since the steam will have somewhere to escape to instead of just clinging to the ceiling. If your ceiling becomes discolored from water stains, the only real option here is to paint over it. If a slab of drywall on the ceiling becomes cracked due to absorbing water over a long period of time, you can usually repair this with joint compound and some time repainting it, but if the crack is in the middle and is sizeable, the whole slab needs to be replaced.
Carpet should not be installed in either of these rooms, since there are so many water junctions in both of them. Carpet loves to soak up water and get moldy and when the carpet padding underneath becomes molded, it needs to be taken up and thrown out. Even if you clean the mold from the carpet, if you do not take up the padding underneath, the growth will return.
Dror Klar is a writer and promoter of
Queens Water Removal
and
Elizabeth NJ Wet Basement Flooding Emergency Service Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Water damage is one of the most preventable kinds of damage that can occur to a home, unless it is caused by some natural disaster like a hurricane or a flood. There are a number of different areas of your home that you will need to pay attention to in order to keep the cost of repairing this damage down. The areas of the home that are the most exposed to moisture are the ones that you have to go into usually at least twice a day: the kitchen and the bathroom.
A precaution that applies to both areas is simply to make sure that sinks and other water receptacles do not overflow. You may forget the water is running while you are on the phone or doing another household chore, but letting this happen over and over can cause some serious damage to your floor. Another way to prevent floor damage is to make sure that tiles on your bathroom or kitchen floor are not cracked or that the floor is completely water tight.
Installing an exhaust fan in both of these rooms in your home will help prevent damage to the ceiling and upper walls, since the steam will have somewhere to escape to instead of just clinging to the ceiling. If your ceiling becomes discolored from water stains, the only real option here is to paint over it. If a slab of drywall on the ceiling becomes cracked due to absorbing water over a long period of time, you can usually repair this with joint compound and some time repainting it, but if the crack is in the middle and is sizeable, the whole slab needs to be replaced.
Carpet should not be installed in either of these rooms, since there are so many water junctions in both of them. Carpet loves to soak up water and get moldy and when the carpet padding underneath becomes molded, it needs to be taken up and thrown out. Even if you clean the mold from the carpet, if you do not take up the padding underneath, the growth will return.
Dror Klar is a writer and promoter of
Queens Water Removal
and
Elizabeth NJ Wet Basement Flooding Emergency Service Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
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