What Happens to Furniture During Professional Mold Removal?
It’s known that mold is prevalent in Florida homes. Homeowners invest thousands of dollars into mold prevention and removal across the state, but sometimes, a mold infestation is inevitable. When mold takes over your home, it’s time to call in professional mold removal experts. They’re equipped to effectively remove and remediate mold, often detecting the source. But what happens to your furniture and other belongings during the mold removal process? Keep reading to learn more about mold removal, how we do it, and the steps we take to protect your belongings.
What is Mold?
Mold is mainly known for its musty odor and spotty appearance. You might even recognize its use in medicines and food products, like yeast and cheese. However, mold growth in your home is problematic due to its hazardous and destructive nature. Mold forms from microscopic spores that are present everywhere, like air, water, and most indoor and outdoor surfaces. It’s incredibly helpful in nature because it helps in the decomposition of organic materials like leaves and wood. However, what makes it helpful in nature is precisely what makes it a problem indoors.
When mold finds its ideal environment – a damp or humid area with a food source – it thrives and spreads. If you recently experienced flooding, a leaky roof, or even just higher than average humidity, your home could be at risk for mold growth. It’s tricky to remove because it can often grow in areas you don’t see every day, like behind your walls, which allows it to get out of hand quickly. Mold will quietly grow and eat away at structural and cosmetic parts of your home, like wood beams, carpet, and wallpaper. It can get into your clothing and furniture, too, creating a hazardous environment. Once it takes hold, the only way to get rid of mold for good is with professional help.
How Professional Mold Removal Works
There are several steps to the mold removal process, which is why it takes a trained professional. Unfortunately, when homeowners try to remove mold themselves, they often make the problem worse without knowing. On the other hand, a skilled professional has all the tools and knowledge needed to handle even the most severe mold infestations.
Inspect
Before your team starts the removal process, an inspection is necessary for a few reasons. First, they need to locate all the mold around your home. As mentioned before, that could include areas that you don’t know about yet. Then they’ll use technology like moisture meters to locate the mold source, like a water leak or improperly ventilated area, to prevent the issue from returning.
Contain
After the inspection and third-party testing, it’s time to get to work. Since mold spreads so easily, it’s essential to contain the affected area. Unfortunately, this is one step that is typically neglected during DIY mold removal, and understandably so. When homeowners attempt to remove mold themselves, they might think they’re taking all the proper precautions. But during removal, they instead spread mold spores throughout the air and onto their clothes, then wonder why the mold returns. Instead, a professional will properly seal and contain the area after removing any affected items.
Remove and Clean
Once the affected area is contained, the real removal can start. Professionals have access to cleaning tools and solutions that you can’t buy in a store; in fact, most store-bought mold cleaners aren’t effective at killing or removing mold. That’s because mold can grow beneath surfaces, and cleaning sprays will only clean what’s on the surface. After the home is fully cleaned, it’s time to move on to your personal items and belongings, like furniture. Professional-strength cleaners can often restore belongings, but you should also expect that you might lose some items.
Remediation Repairs
Finally, the house is mold-free! But what happens when mold causes structural and cosmetic damage? If that’s the case, you’ll probably want to repair the damage so your home can return to normal. Some mold removal companies like iMold work closely with a contractor who can get the job done all at once, allowing you to get back to your life in a safe, mold-free home. By the time repairs are complete, they’ll return your cleaned and repaired belongings.
Prevent
Even after successful professional mold removal, it’s possible for mold to return. That’s where your job as a homeowner starts. Depending on the reasons you had mold to begin with, it’s important to be vigilant to stop it from returning. Regularly check for leaks around your home, including under sinks, on the roof, and around your foundation. If your home has poor ventilation, consider a dehumidifier. Some HVAC systems allow for a built-in dehumidifying system, or you can buy a stand-alone machine. Whatever the case, you can always ask your mold removal expert for more tips on keeping mold out of your home.
Professional Mold Removal in Southwest Florida
Got mold in Southwest Florida? Then you need iMold! We’re the all-in-one professional mold removal service you need to handle mold problems of all sizes from start to finish. We provide fast, free inspections, quality removal, and guaranteed results with full repairs. There’s no situation we haven’t seen before, so don’t hesitate to contact us today!
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