Say Goodbye to Molds: Your DIY Project

There are many decluttering and cleaning tasks that you can postpone but when your home is pestered by household molds, then you had better roll up your sleeves and see what needs to be done. Molds can cause a plethora of health issues and they can even destroy the place where they are growing on.

Molds are fungi spores that commonly float on air. They then cling to surfaces that are damp. There, they grow and then gradually consume the very surface where they have been residing at. The key to a mold-free environment is to do the cleaning even before molds take root.

More on Molds

Molds are able to produce allergens that cause allergic reactions in a few people. Some of the indicators include hay fever-like symptoms. What’s worse is that not all biocides or chemicals can kill molds. In fact, there are cleaners that are not able to annihilate the mold population and these end up causing more allergic reactions.

Apart from killing the mold, it pays to have them removed. Here are some cleanup tips –

Find Their Hideouts

The most common homes for molds include leaky plumbing, roofs, damaged floors, and even indoor humidity can lead to molds on your furnishings. Water and flood damages also often cause mold growth in just under 24 hours.

Just think of any place in your home where it is dark, damp, and unventilated and you already know the potential mold-forming zones. These are areas where water often travels including plumbing arteries, drains, crawl spaces, and walls that have plumbing from the ground bathroom to the bathrooms on the upper floors.

Mold Hot Spots

Regions that are also humid or damp tend to be the best spots for molds to grow. Arid areas are still not immune, though. Even buildings that you think are tightly sealed can still be improperly ventilated which can still cause moisture and eventual mold buildup.

Clean up cellars, basements, those areas behind or under your fridge, underneath the bathroom and kitchen sinks, behind walls, around your air-conditioning units, under your carpets, and around the window sills.

Mold can also go undetected behind wallpapers. Sometimes, it takes mold inspectors to find where they are hiding. Glue can actually act as a food source to molds.

What Is Mildew?

Mildew is a kind of fungi coating that forms on any damp surface. This generally grows in flat patterns and looks powdery gray or white.

Mold is much darker in color and is usually green or black. Unlike mildew that just grows on the surface, molds tend to take root and penetrate the surface where they’re at.

Time to Clean Up

If the mold buildup is on ceiling tiles, carpeting, wallpaper, drywall or any porous surface, then make sure that the item gets thrown right away. These materials make it impossible for you to totally remove the mold buildup especially when it has already taken root.

Molds also cultivate on the backside of your drywalls, also in wall cavities. Since this is so, it takes time before you see the problem on the surface.

DIY Mold Cleanup

Bleach. Mix a cup of bleach with ample water to concoct a gallon. Pour the solution to spray bottles and spray on those mold-infested areas. You can also use a cloth or sponge for your bleach solution.

Vinegar. Do not dilute. Use full-strength and spray onto the moldy surfaces. Wipe off with a clean cloth.

Baking soda. Make this baking ingredient your new best friend since it is renowned for its cleaning properties. For molds, mix half a teaspoon of baking soda with a gallon of water. Mix then scrub onto the moldy surface.

Rinse with water.

Tags: cleaning mold and mildew, McCreerys, McCreerys Home Furnishings, mold and mildew buildup, mold cleanup

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 21st, 2017 at 10:05 am and is filed under Home Maintenance, Interior Design 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.