The presence of mold and mildew in your home can be a serious concern that many homeowners aren’t even aware of. Mold and mildew and grow anywhere in your home where moisture and humidity levels are too high including:
- Unvented bathrooms
- In and around showers
- Laundry rooms
- Cabinets under kitchen and bathroom sinks
- Boiling water while cooking without the lid on
- Rainwater from roof leaks
- Moisture from plumbing leaks
- High humidity in basements or crawlspaces
- Clogged gutters or downspouts
- Yard with poor drainage that allow water to pool around the foundation
Moisture control is the key to preventing mold, since mold needs humid or damp conditions and moderate warmth to thrive. Get in the habit of checking areas in your home where moisture and high humidity occur. You may also want to buy a hygrometer that measures relative humidity, and try to keep the humidity levels between 35% and 50%.
If you think you have a big mold problem, hire a lab to test your home. A good place to start is by checking with your local health department for references. Then report your exposure to mold to your family doctor.
Watch this video to find out more.
Further Information
- How to Prevent and Remove Mold in Your Home (article)
- Removing Mold and Mildew Inside Your Home (video)
- Removing Mold and Mildew Outside Your Home (video)
- How to Remove Mold After a Hurricane or Flood (video)
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Danny Lipford: I’m taking a look at an older house that a friend of mine is considering buying. And if he buys this, he’s going to have a lot of work updating this old bathroom.
But, also, I found a fairly severe problem that many homeowners are becoming aware of, and that’s the presence of mold. There’s mold everywhere in this bathroom, and that’s not uncommon when you have a bathroom that has no ventilation. Mold will grow so quickly, and it certainly is a health hazard.
So adding an exhaust fan here to move the moisture, while you’re taking a shower, out of the room really makes a lot of sense. Now, they have a window here, but so many times the weather’s just no conducive to opening up that window to provide that proper ventilation.
Now, the key thing to prevent mold in any room of the house is to eliminate any source of moisture. Now that can be a leaky pipe, a leaky basement, or a leaky roof. But sometimes your landscaping on the outside of the home will dam up any rainwater and actually force it into a wall.
I suspect that’s exactly what’s happened here where the water is basically wicking up into the wall, causing a real severe growth of mold there. Now, part of that drywall will most likely need to be removed.
Now, also, if you have a fairly minor case of mold, it can be cleaned with a diluted solution of bleach and water. The main thing, get rid of the mold, it’s not healthy for your family.
I have a problem with my shower I have a mushroom that keeps growing on the out side of my shower. How do I kill it.
We bought a house and on the outside walls of the home we have mold growing You clean it up but every year it comes back what can we do? The homeowners before us had to have known about it is there anything we can do is they did not tell us this was happening Seems like they were trying to be shady
Hi, Alicia,
Wet and Forget is the best product for dealing with mold, mildew, lichen and algae on the home.
We recommend checking out this resource to learn more: https://todayshomeowner.com/video/preventing-mold-and-mildew-on-the-outside-of-a-house/
Thanks for your question!