How to Protect Your Home from Mold

Maintaining your home’s exterior is essential, and seamless gutter systems play a key role in protecting your property. When gutters function properly, they direct water away from your home, preventing damage to the foundation, siding, and landscaping. However, without regular maintenance, gutter debris can build up and cause clogs, leading to potential problems. And these seemingly small issues can quickly grow into bigger and more serious problems.

A routine gutter inspection is a simple but important task that can help keep gutters from clogging. By checking for blockages and ensuring that your gutters are securely attached, you can avoid more serious issues down the line. Inspecting your gutters at least twice a year is good, especially after the fall and spring seasons when debris tends to accumulate. Gutters work all year long, and they need year-round maintenance to ensure they work properly.

In addition to inspections, roof and gutter cleaning is another essential task to keep your gutters in top shape. Cleaning removes leaves, twigs, and other debris that can lead to clogs, ensuring water flows smoothly through the system. By taking these steps, you can extend the life of your seamless gutter systems and protect your home from water damage, ensuring everything stays in good condition year-round.

Mold can be a big problem for a lot of people. It is responsible for the production of at least 200 toxins. These mycotoxins can negatively impact people?s health. In the United States, asthma is one of the most common respiratory illnesses affecting children. This serious, chronic condition can be triggered by mold that is commonly found in homes nationwide. Some experts at the National Resource Defense Council has suggested that approximately 131 million people across the country breathe bad air all the time. If you find mold in your home, you will want to find a company to help you with mold remediation.

If a home mold inspection turns up something suspicious, you should take the following steps:

1. Is the mold near any water source? If you see it near any kind of plumbing (ice maker, water pipes, other plumbing fixtures), you may have a leak that is feeding the mold. Turn your water on and see where it pops up. Water will go wherever it can but gravity is the determining factor. If you find damp areas after running the water for a while, you have a leak. It might not be right next to the mold, so keep that in mind. In fact the leak could even be outside of your home. If you cannot find it inside, check your roof. If you have a leak in your roof, you might have a bigger mold problem than you think.
2. Do not ignore the mold. You can get rid of it with a bleach/water mixture (half bleach and half water) but unless you find the water source for the mold, your efforts at mold remediation may be for naught. This is very dangerous stuff and your health could suffer from breathing it. To improve indoor air quality you need to find the water source and get rid of all the mold in your home.
3. Your ducts could be the problem. Poorly insulated duct work can provide mold with one of its favorite places to live, a warm and moist environment. If condensation appears in your ducts, the insulation can become full of nasty mold. If you find mold elsewhere and you do not find a leak, check your ducts.

After you have completed a mold remediation, there are steps you can take to keep it from coming back.

1. Spray everything with antimicrobial product. This will prevent mold from returning to the spot. For small areas, you can get a spray. If you have a larger area or are doing an entire room, you can use an antimicrobial spray.
2. Paint your home with antimicrobial paint. If you live in a place where mold is an issue, consider repainting the rooms in your home that are problem areas with a paint that has mildew resistant substances or just add them to your paint or primer yourself.

The last thing you need in your home is mold but there are ways to get rid of it and keep it from coming back. See this link for more. Learn more about this topic here.