How to Know If You Have Mold in Your Home Causing Allergies
If there’s mold inside your home, the last thing you want to do is waste any time getting rid of it. Mold can grow quite quickly. In just a few weeks, you may find that it has spread to multiple places within your home. Although you may want to get rid of mold the moment you know it’s there, it’s not always easy to know that you have mold in your house. How can you tell that there’s mold somewhere in your house?
Use Your Eyes
The most obvious way to know that you have mold in your house is when you see it. There are different types of mold that can be found inside a home, and these can take on different colors. To be able to know what you’re dealing with, take some time to learn what the different types of mold look like.
Look Out for a Musty Odor
Mold gives off a distinct musty odor that many people will notice. However, many people associate that smell with certain locations, such as basements, and tend to dismiss this as normal. In a healthy environment, this musty odor should not be present. If you detect a musty odor but can’t see any signs of mold, it may be growing inside the walls or underneath the floors.
Respiratory Problems
In many households, there is at least one person with a sensitive respiratory system or a history of respiratory issues. If you notice that this person seems to be having more respiratory issues than normal, this could be a sign that there’s mold in the house. Mold is known to make asthma attacks worse, and it can also trigger an allergic reaction. Make sure to take steps to mitigate overall allergy exposure such as installing an AllergyGuard® window screen which will block pollen and allergens from entering your home or office.
Conduct Regular Inspections
Mold spores are always present in the air even if you can’t see them. As long as the conditions are right, the mold will start to grow. Therefore, the best way of knowing when you have mold in your home is to regularly inspect parts of the house where mold is likely to grow.
Kitchens, bathrooms, and basements are the usual suspects when you’re checking for mold. These parts of the house tend to have a lot of moisture. In kitchens and bathrooms, mold can grow in cabinets, walls or floors because these places tend to be dark.
Learning to identify mold in your home takes a bit of practice, but it’s worth it for the health benefits of tackling mold problems right away. If you suspect you might have a mold problem in your home, you can also ask a mold removal expert to carry out the inspection for you.
