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It doesn’t matter what the season is: your home may very well be under the threat of mold! Though it’s certainly more common to get mold problems in the winter, the environments of homes differ too widely to assume that your home is safe during spring and summer. The bacteria and moisture that help mold breed can fill your household at any time of year, so you shouldn’t drop your guard.
Mold forms in the home due to low air quality, too much moisture, and not enough ventilation. Low air quality can lead to the breeding of the harmful toxins and bacteria that makes the environment in your home ripe for the growth of mold. Moisture in your air creates damp; and if there’s one thing living substances like bacteria needs in order to thrive, it’s water! And the lack of ventilation will exacerbate both problems. Bad ventilation means you don’t a continuous flow of fresh air entering and leaving your home.
When the humidity in your home increases, all of this will lead to condensation occurring in areas you may never have suspected. That will lead to the growth of mold – and mold is not something you can easily dismiss. Mold has been a problem for homeowners since Biblical times and it’s been known for a long time as a hazard to health as well as a hazard to the building itself.
Once mold has settled and starts to grow on a particular surface, the spores it emits into the air can cause a variety of illness. While you’re not in immediate and severe danger, mold can cause quite a bit of damage to your lungs over a long period. So you need to make sure the mold is dealt with as quickly as possible. It probably won’t be as simple as scraping it off; you’ll need to give the surface a deep wash, and will probably have to paint over the surface to resolve the issue. If the problem runs deeper, you may have to take further measures.
But how do you keep mold out of your home in the first place? Getting rid of it can be quite a hassle and may even end up being quite expensive, so it’s best to take all the measures you can to ensure it doesn’t appear. Here are the most essential tips for you when it comes to ensuring mold doesn’t grow in your home.
Open a window
There are a lot of things in your home that sends a lot of moisture into the air. Washing, showering – and, yes, even breathing. You need to make sure your home is well-ventilated, which is where extractor fans often come in so handy. There should be some in your bathroom, as well as installed on or above your oven to catch the steam from pots and pans. Even with these extractor fans, though, you should consider opening a window and letting some fresh air in. This gives the water vapor more room to escape and makes it easier for the room temperature to get regulated. You should also shut the doors of rooms with a lot of water vapor, which will prevent it all from getting into other rooms where ventilation isn’t quite as strong.
Keep things warm
Part of the problem with all that water vapor in the air is that it will turn into condensation once it hits a cool enough surface – and there will be plenty of times throughout the year where the walls are quite cool. During the summer, if you have the windows open, or the fans on, or the air conditioning on, the walls may become cool enough to create condensate. In the winter, the walls are being attacked by cold from the outside! This is why temperature regulation is so important. Resources like Only Radiators can supply you with more information about appropriate home heating, so be sure to research the issue if you don’t think your home is adequately equipped for temperature regulation.
Dry clothes outside
One of the biggest causes of excessive moisture in the air is that a lot of people dry clothes indoors. This may not be that big a problem in the summer months – though that’s only if you have a garden, and more and more people are setting up home in apartments that don’t have a garden! If you do have a garden, then don’t just chuck your clothes on the nearest dryer you have inside – hang it all up out in the sun. If you can’t do this, then hang your clothes to dry in a well-ventilated space, preferably near a window. Some may want to keep them in the bathroom with the extractor fan running. You could also use a tumble dryer, though some may not like the energy use that comes with this.
Source: Max Pixel
Keep your home’s air clean
A lot of people see the outdoors as an environment with more pollution and harmful elements in the air – but the fact is that the air quality in most homes is actually much worse than most outdoors areas. Think about the products you use on a daily basis. Harsh cleaners and bleaches, antiperspirants, hair spray, air-fresheners (a misnamed product if ever I heard of one!) – they all send a bunch of harmful chemicals and toxins into your home’s air. Again, you should ensure you get those windows open regularly. Replace those harmful products with more organic products. The vast majority of the chemicals in those products really don’t do anything that more natural ingredients can’t do.
Clean your carpets
Many families underestimate how filthy carpets can get. Sure, they may not look dirty (though I’m sure if you were to see a picture of how it looked when it was first purchased you’d probably gag), and you may vacuum often. But carpets absorb a crazy amount of dirt, dust, and bacteria. You should ensure that your carpet is properly washed every so often – once a month is probably a good minimum. This will help with the air quality of your home – as long as the cleaning method itself leans towards the organic!
Love,
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