Scheduling Regular Mold Inspections for Your Business

4/17/2019 (Permalink)

We’ve all seen ugly mold patches in corners and smelled musty odor in the bathroom. We’ve also heard that mold can sometimes be harmful, and we know that it thrives in humid environments, spreading very quickly and easily. But do you know that mold colonies needs less than 48 hours to begin growing? Or that dead mold spores are just as harmful as live ones, and that modern-day building practices actually promote mold growth?

Mold is a fungi that reproduces by making tiny spores which can survive extremely harsh weather conditions and spread easily over large areas. Mold spores exist everywhere in the outdoor environment and can get indoors through open doors, windows, air ducts, vents, etc. or even attached to clothes, shoes, and bags. Once the mold spores get into your business, they will wait for the right conditions to start developing.

The purpose of mold colonies in our ecosystem is to decompose dead organic material, and so it thrives in warm, humid conditions where organic “food” such as wood, paper, leather, fabric and upholstery, grout, paint, drywall, insulation materials, carpet, etc. is available in abundance. As soon as there is any source of moisture – like flooding, leaky roofs, pipe leaks, condensation, storm damage, or steam from cooking, the mold spores will begin reproducing and spreading all over your business.

Mold will begin growing within 24 to 48 hours when the right conditions are present. However, it can often remain hidden until the spores have already affected large areas of your property and caused considerable structural damage. This is because mold usually starts growing in very inconspicuous areas of the house – inside walls, behind leaky appliances, within insulation, throughout the HVAC system, in crawl spaces, and in other damp, dark places that humans don’t normally see. Scheduling regular mold inspections for your business will help you identify these areas right away, along with practices that could be encouraging the growth of a mold colony in your business spaces. A few of the most important precautions you can take:

• Ensuring good air circulation – keeping windows open, running bathroom fans, keeping air ducts clean and in good condition – can help reduce the risk of mold growth
• Keeping indoor humidity levels below 45 percent can inhibit mold growth
• Keeping your property in good repair (roofs and foundations, plumbing system, HVAC system) can prevent excessive moisture from entering your home and causing mold growth
• Inspecting your property at regular intervals, especially after a damp weather season, can help detect mold growth in its early stages and prevent it from spreading any further
• Adding mold-inhibitors to paints before the application can reduce the potential for mold growth

Here at SERVPRO of Huron & East Seneca Counties, we are mold remediation experts as well as fire damage, water damage, and storm damage remediation professionals.