Mold growth in your home is not only ugly, but it can be dangerous to your family. Mold growth presents a health hazard to your family members and can cause asthma and other more serious breathing problems and illnesses. When you encounter mold growth, here are some tips to help you clean up to get rid of the mold and mildew within your home.
Use the Right Cleaning Equipment
To complete this cleaning job successfully, you should stock up with the right types of cleaning equipment. This includes your cleaning solution and a cleaning tool.
You can use a sponge to clean up mold and mildew, but a rag is the best option, as you can throw it out after using it to wipe up the mold spores. The reason for this is because the spores can remain inside your cleaning sponge or rag and regrow later if you don't properly clean them from the material. Otherwise, you will need to clean the rag in a solution of bleach in your washer with hot water. Then, dry the rag in a hot dryer.
Use a cleaning solution to saturate your cleaning surface with a solution of bleach and water or vinegar and water. Both methods are effective in killing and removing mold spores from your home interior surface, however, vinegar works a bit more effectively.
Vinegar will penetrate a surface to kill the mold spores on the surface and below the surface where they tend to hide and regrow later when the conditions are favorable. So, use vinegar to clean surfaces made of fabrics, wood, and concrete, as examples. Bleach on the other hand only kills mold spores on the surface, so use bleach solutions to clean off non-porous materials, such as vinyl, metal, and acrylics.
Clean From Walls
When you are taking a mold growth from your home's interior walls, you should wipe down the walls first to remove any visible mold growth. Use a cleaning rag and a solution containing vinegar or bleach, depending on if the wall is painted or is covered in wallpaper. Wallpaper is a porous material and can harbor mold spores within its pores.
After you have removed the visible mold, wipe a bleach or vinegar solution onto the wall and allow it to air dry. During this time the mold spores will die as the surface dries.
You should never paint over a wall that has mold or mildew growth because this will only cover the growth and not remove it from your home. The mold will continue to grow under the layer of paint and can grow down through the drywall.
For more information or help with mold removal, contact a company like Bio-Remdiation of Virgina.
If your home was being appraised today, would you be alright with the condition of the property? Oftentimes, people don't think too seriously about how much they need to do to the space until problems start to occur with their home, which is why it is so important to stay up-to-date with cleaning.
Check out great tips and tricks about cleaning, and learn when it might be time to contact a professional cleaning company instead of taking care of things on your own. By making the right choices now, you could keep your property in great condition, which could save you money down the road.