When should you call professional mold?

Mold will grow within 24 to 48 hours after being exposed to water. Most people perceive this as a bad thing – which it can be – but some types of mold are safer than others.

There is good mold and harmful mold. Good mold, the kind you would find on blue cheese or gorgonzola, enhances food flavor. Toxic mold is the stuff that grows on your wall because you don’t have a window open when it’s 90 degrees outside and 90% humidity inside during a rainstorm in August in Houston, Texas.

It may be easier for homeowners to deal with non-toxic mildew problems themselves instead of calling in a professional if they understand why the issue happens in the first place and what they can do to prevent mold growth.

Mold needs three things to grow: oxygen, organic material (including wood, drywall paper), and water. As long as you are careful with these three elements of the home environment – no plants near the house because plants are messy eaters of oxygen; keep your car’s gas tank more than half full so that it won’t leak onto the ground below the car; don’t let gutters get clogged up for this exact reason – you will be doing everything possible to discourage mold growth around your home.

If mold does grow on a wall inside your house or basement, there is probably water that has somehow reached that area. Most likely, the water is coming from outside, and if that is true, it can be stopped.
Even after you find where the source of the moisture is, preventing future growth of mold on drywall or wood surfaces will take a lot of work because you must gradually get rid of all the excess moisture in whatever part of your home was affected without letting any new water reach that area until it can safely dry out.

There are a few practical ways to do this: 1 – Evaporate off as much water as possible by using fans . 2 – Pulldown sheetrock and insulation around the area where mold has grown, remove it from the house entirely, seal its surfaces with a fungicide for several days, then carefully replace them before putting the house back together. 3 – The most effective method, which also happens to be the least practical for most homeowners, is to dig up all the affected cement in the basement or crawlspace, pour new concrete over it with waterproofing materials added in, and avoid doing anything that could cause problems with moisture in that area until all of it has dried out.

If you want to stop mold before it starts growing on surfaces inside your home, you need to deal with any wet areas immediately. You can use bleach-based household cleaners if none of the following suggestions work well enough.