Left untreated, mold can quickly spread through your Sanford, Florida home, putting everyone and everything at risk. The sooner you call in a company specializing in mold remediation, the less likely you, your family, and your home will be subject to serious health and structural hazards.
Whether it’s from a leaky pipe or natural flooding during storm season, stopping mold in its tracks reduces the damage it can do. Central Florida Restoration Services delivers mold remediation services that include removing all types of mold from your home. In this blog, we’ll talk about the four types of mold to look out for and why working with a professional mold remediation company is your best course of action.
Mold Remediation in Sanford, Florida: Leave It To the Pros
Mold can grow anywhere and everywhere in your Sanford, FL home, including in the following locations:
Mold remediation removes the source of moisture that’s allowing mold to grow in your home. If you don’t remove the moisture as soon as possible, you’ll soon find all the mold you cleaned up yourself growing back. When you work with a professional mold remediation company, technicians remove the mold source.
Mold removal is not a DIY job, as complete mold removal requires specialized tools, chemicals, and techniques. Many homeowners find that when they treat mold with everyday store-bought products or homemade remedies, the mold continues to spread, creating more costly issues in their home—especially when dealing with black mold.
CFRS provides fast mold remediation services that lessen the damage, limit further damage, and reduce mold damage-related costs. Our immediate response to your home’s mold problem helps minimize damage, cleaning, and restoration costs. Because we understand how and why mold spores grow, multiply, and spread, we’re equipped to handle any mold situation. Once our crews identify the source and the hidden places mold may be hiding in your Sanford, FL home, we create a mold removal plan that includes containment of affected areas to control and limit mold spread throughout the house.
4 Types of Molds Sanford, FL Homeowners Should Look Out For
If your Sanford home experiences water damage from a leaky pipe, natural flooding, or fire extinguishing, it’s likely it’ll also develop some degree of inside mold growth. How much mold grows and how far it spreads can depend greatly on how quickly you call in a professional mold remediation service.
There are over 100,000 species of mold ranging in color from white to pink, yellow, green, and black. The common mold you see in your shower or tub is simple to remove yourself. To avoid structural and health damage, other types require removal by mold remediation experts.
Most homeowners encounter 12 different types of mold in the house. But the four you’re most likely to see after water damage are:
- Stachybotrys chartarum or atra: This greenish-black mold is usually found growing on materials like paper, fiberboard, and dust, which have high cellulose and low nitrogen content. It requires constant moisture to develop, so you’ll typically see it in areas with water leaks or excess humidity.
- Aspergillus: A mold that’s black on the surface with whiteish or yellow undertones, this mold is behind a group of diseases known as aspergillosis, often characterized by breathing and other lung issues.
- Cladosporium: An olive-green mold with touches of brown and black, Cladosporium typically forms in small dots. As it grows, the small dots merge to form large patches. It’s usually found in bathrooms, under sinks, and around faucets, but after a water incident, you might find it growing on other materials such as sheetrock, flooring, carpets, furniture, and walls.
- Alternaria: This mold is usually found outdoors, but once it becomes airborne, it can enter your home and grow in walls, attics, garages, and crawlspaces. It has avelvety appearance and ranges in color from olive green to gray or black. You might also notice longer, hair-like growths on it.
It’s always helpful to understand what type of mold you’re up against, but knowing the species of a mold is less important than knowing how it might affect the health of your family and pets.
Top Signs of Black Mold
Most homeowners reach for the nearest cleaning product and scrub brushes when they see mold growing in their homes. Believe it or not, though, that can make the problem worse! You want to know what type of mold you’re dealing with before you begin removing it. That’s because many molds, particularly black mold, pose more significant health risks than others. It’s critical to have an experienced mold remediation company assess the mold in your water-damaged home before removal starts.
Like other molds, black mold is usually found in dark and humid areas of the house. If your Sanford, FL home experiences water damage, mold can begin to grow and spread within 24 to 48 hours. As it multiplies and disseminates, it releases microscopic spores into the air that you or others in the house can inhale or absorb through the skin. Unfortunately, if the spores attach themselves to clothing, shoes, or pets, they can be spread even more widely throughout your home.
The more quickly you remove black mold from your home, the better. How do you know if you have a black mold problem? Look for:
- A distinct musty smell: Some people refer to the odor mold gives off as “earthy.” Others say it reminds them of rotting vegetation. The smell can be present even if you can’t see any mold. Because mold often grows in unexpected places, if you think you smell it, you’re probably right, and your house could have water damage that needs remediation.
- Various colored growth spots: Black mold isn’t always “black.” Some black molds are dark green, brown, or flecked with white or orange. But in nearly all cases, black mold has a slightly furry appearance.
- Water damage spots: This comes from a burst or leaking pipe, or roof leak, which are perfect breeding grounds for black mold spores.
Is Black Mold Making You Sick?
Today there’s little debate that black mold poses serious health concerns, though, to date, no research has found it causes severe conditions like cancer or lung disease. What we do know is that some people are more sensitive to mold spores than others. They often develop respiratory symptoms after inhaling mold spores and can develop mold poisoning or mycotoxicosis. If you develop any of these concerning symptoms after water damage occurs in your Sanford home, we recommend talking to your doctor about whether mold might be to blame:
- Aches and pains
- Headaches
- Memory loss
- Mood changes
- Nosebleeds
No less than the Florida Department of Health has found that mold exposure can cause a wide range of health problems, including:
- Allergies and irritations like watery red eyes, wheezing, skin rashes, a dry cough, and a sore throat.
- Shortness of breath in people with severe mold allergies.
- Increased infections in those with weakened immune systems and at a risk of fungal infections.
- Worsening of asthma or lung problems in people with preexisting conditions.
Black mold gets a lot of attention because its effects can be so severe. But many types of molds have been shown to cause health problems in some people. Whatever type is present in your home, long-term exposure to it can be unhealthy for everyone. The best way to reduce allergic reactions to mold is to remove it as quickly as possible and take steps to prevent it from coming back. Mold remediation and restoration services from CFRS help get your home back to normal much more quickly than when you attempt to do it yourself.
Can I Stay in My House With Black Mold?
The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in toxic mold have been found to interfere with the body’s respiratory and nervous systems. That’s why if your Sanford, FL home has a serious black mold problem, most experts recommend staying somewhere else until it’s removed, so you don’t experience mental and physical health issues. A reaction to black mold can include nausea, vomiting, and nose and lung bleeding, serious side effects that are best to avoid.
Is Your Home’s Mold Infestation an Emergency?
Unfortunately, mold growth and structural damage often go hand-in-hand. Once wet, walls, floors, ceilings, windows, and wood beams are susceptible to mold growth. Mold can even make its way into your home’s HVAC system, chimneys, and fireplaces. In homes that aren’t adequately ventilated, mold rapidly grows in attics, crawlspaces, and garages.
No matter where mold is growing in your Sanford, FL home, it can be more hazardous for you to try and remove it yourself. If you suspect mold growth in your home, your best bet is to hire a professional mold remediation company.
Call in the Professionals to Remove Mold in Your Sanford, Florida Home
Wherever there’s dampness, there’s the possibility mold will appear. It can be incredibly difficult to get rid of and, though you might be able to eliminate some surface mold yourself, if it isn’t completely removed from all areas of the home, including those where you can’t see it, it’s likely the mold will return. That’s why it’s so critical to remove contaminated materials and other affected items from your home before the damage becomes much more extensive. When you leave the job to professional mold remediation experts, you have the peace of mind that comes with knowing the safest and most efficient methods are being used to remove mold and solve your mold problem permanently.
Our qualified technicians understand the science behind mold and mold growth. They use the latest tools, products, and technologies to remediate and remove mold, returning the degree of interior mold to its normal, natural level as quickly as possible.
Mold infestations vary from house to house, so if your Sanford, FL home experiences water and mold damage, it calls for a customized solution. CFRS’ mold remediation process includes:
- A thorough inspection of your entire home to determine what equipment, resources, and technicians are needed. We search for visible and hidden signs of mold infestation and use state-of-the-art equipment to detect hidden water leaks and mold infestation.
- Advanced techniques to contain mold and prevent its spread.
- The isolation of contaminated areas with physical barriers and negative air pressure to keep mold spores from spreading during cleanup and removal.
- The use of specialized air filtration equipment, including HEPA vacuums and “air scrubbers” to capture microscopic mold spores from the air.
- Removal of mold-infested materials and objects like drywall and carpeting.
- Application of antifungal and antimicrobial treatments on various surfaces to eliminate mold colonies.
- Cleaning, sanitizing, and removing odors from home contents.
- Any necessary restoration work, such as drywall replacement, new carpet installation, and painting.
- Advising you if major repairs such as reconstruction are required.
Rapid and early mold remediation steps go a long way in preventing you and other family members from getting sick and protecting your home from further damage. To ensure mold remediation is done correctly at your home, leave it to the professionals at CFRS. We’re Central Florida’s most trusted mold damage remediation and restoration company, and our friendly teams are known for restoring mold-infested homes back to normal as quickly as possible after water damage. We also offer smoke damage and fire damage solutions you can trust.
Contact Central Florida Restoration Solutions today for the mold remediation and restoration services you need to keep your Sanford, FL home and family safe and healthy.
