Getting your insurance company or your landlord to repair the mold damage to your home or apartment is almost the equivalent of trying to pull teeth without going to the dentist and receiving no anesthetic. Most insurance policies do not cover mold damage to your home unless it is due to something that your insurance policy DOES cover, such as water damage (except when said damage was due to a flood). If you have a landlord and the property that you live on is infested with mold, getting the landlord’s attention and getting him to remedy the problem is sometimes a big problem by itself, even though the property does not belong to you.
Some landlords and insurance claims adjusters will tell you that mold is not as big of a problem as some media stations and remediation companies are making it out to be, but the fact is that the proof is there. All you have to do is research for yourself and the Centers for Disease Control and even the Holy Bible itself says that mold is a serious health threat. You do not have to look very far into the Bible to see its account of what mold infested homes used to go through.
Leviticus 14:37-49 says if you suspected that your home was infested with mold you were to do what anyone else who lived during that time would do for almost any problem occurring in their lives: you would visit the rabbi. The rabbi would come to your house, inspect it, and deem it either diseased or clean. If it was deemed to be diseased or “plagued”, everything was removed from the household. These items were taken far away from town to what the Bible calls an “unclean place”. The house was closed for seven days and the rabbi returned at the end of that period to see if the infection remained. If it did, the house was torn down, the building materials taken to that unclean place, and the home re-built. Clothing deemed contaminated by the rabbi was also thrown away.
So, no matter what any landlord or insurance claims adjuster might tell you, mold is a dangerous threat to yourself and has been a problem since ancient times. Do not agree with them when they tell you that the mold is not a health threat or that the contamination is somehow your fault. Remain consistent in your effort to file your claim or to get your landlord to fix the problem.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York Sewage Damage Clean-up and other states and cities such as
North Carolina Water and Sewage Extraction companies across the united states.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Selling Moldy Real Estate
If you are trying to sell a house that is contaminated with mold, you probably have a pretty short list of possible buyers. You also probably do not want to lose any of those possible buyers and you want the transaction to go as smoothly as possible. There are a few tips that you can use when selling a home like this to make sure that you get the most you can possibly get.
You need to allow the buyer to inspect the house for themselves and find out what kind of mold exists on the property. An environmental inspection clause should be included into the sales contract. If you can have the mold removed from the home at your own expense without taking a huge profit loss, you should do so. A buyer will be much more quick to actually purchase the home from you if you are completely honest about the home’s condition. You will also be able to sell the home quicker if the mold inside it is not toxic. If you can prove that it is not via mold testing kits, then the sale will go by quicker.
Again, make no attempts to cover up the mold problem in the house. Do not be nervous about it. If it is beyond your ability to remove the mold, then tell the buyer so. Explain your situation. If they are sympathetic, they may or may not be more willing to purchase from you. If they suspect you are hiding something, however, they will likely walk right out the door.
In the final sales contract, you need to have a clause that releases you and anyone involved in your end of the deal from any legal liability due to the mold. This states that the buyer already knew that the mold existed on the property and that you are no longer responsible for its presence. Include that the home was sold to the buyer in an “as-is” state and that you are not responsible for the property nor is there any warranty on it, implied or otherwise.
List all past major damage that the home has suffered due to water damage or mold so that your buyer has a complete history. Giving this information to your buyer will show them that they can trust you and that you are hiding nothing from them. This should leave you on solid ground once the final contract is signed.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York water damage restoration and other states and cities such as
Connecticut mold remediation companies across the united states.
You need to allow the buyer to inspect the house for themselves and find out what kind of mold exists on the property. An environmental inspection clause should be included into the sales contract. If you can have the mold removed from the home at your own expense without taking a huge profit loss, you should do so. A buyer will be much more quick to actually purchase the home from you if you are completely honest about the home’s condition. You will also be able to sell the home quicker if the mold inside it is not toxic. If you can prove that it is not via mold testing kits, then the sale will go by quicker.
Again, make no attempts to cover up the mold problem in the house. Do not be nervous about it. If it is beyond your ability to remove the mold, then tell the buyer so. Explain your situation. If they are sympathetic, they may or may not be more willing to purchase from you. If they suspect you are hiding something, however, they will likely walk right out the door.
In the final sales contract, you need to have a clause that releases you and anyone involved in your end of the deal from any legal liability due to the mold. This states that the buyer already knew that the mold existed on the property and that you are no longer responsible for its presence. Include that the home was sold to the buyer in an “as-is” state and that you are not responsible for the property nor is there any warranty on it, implied or otherwise.
List all past major damage that the home has suffered due to water damage or mold so that your buyer has a complete history. Giving this information to your buyer will show them that they can trust you and that you are hiding nothing from them. This should leave you on solid ground once the final contract is signed.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York water damage restoration and other states and cities such as
Connecticut mold remediation companies across the united states.
Natural Ways To Kill Mold
If you are a person that likes to use organic products and remedies, then using chemically-based mold killers in your home is possibly a taboo subject, but what else can you do? Some people say that we have become far too dependent on chemicals to do what nature can do and they have found some natural ways to kill mold that you might not have thought of before and at least one of them should be readily found in your own kitchen cabinet, even if it is a little smelly.
The most available and cheap way to kill mold without buying a bunch of chemical cleaners is simply white vinegar. This method is pretty simple to use and it does not take a lot of effort to prepare it. Vinegar kills somewhere around 80 percent of the different kinds of mold that will grow in your home and even better, if you spill white vinegar onto your carpet or furniture, there is no risk that it will discolor it. It should kill almost any kind of mold you come across in your home or business and if it does not, you probably have a more serious contamination that you should not be trying to deal with on your own, anyway. The only thing that you will need for this is a spray bottle and a funnel. Pour a sufficient amount of vinegar into the spray bottle and spray it where you find it necessary. The only drawback to this method is that it will be smelly in your house for a few hours. It will go away before the day is over.
Tea tree oil can also kill mold, but it is a bit more expensive than vinegar. You should be able to find it at most health food stores and it will kill a few more kinds of mold than vinegar will. All you have to do with this one is take two teaspoons of tea tree oil and combine it with 2 cups of water. Pour into a spray bottle and spray where you need to. Do not rinse. The shelf life on this mixture is indefinite.
The last say is almost identical to the tea tree oil method. Take about 20 drops of grapefruit seed extract and combine it with 2 cups of water. Put it into a spray bottle and spray where you need to. The good thing about this method is that there is no smell.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and
mold remediation companies across the united states.
The most available and cheap way to kill mold without buying a bunch of chemical cleaners is simply white vinegar. This method is pretty simple to use and it does not take a lot of effort to prepare it. Vinegar kills somewhere around 80 percent of the different kinds of mold that will grow in your home and even better, if you spill white vinegar onto your carpet or furniture, there is no risk that it will discolor it. It should kill almost any kind of mold you come across in your home or business and if it does not, you probably have a more serious contamination that you should not be trying to deal with on your own, anyway. The only thing that you will need for this is a spray bottle and a funnel. Pour a sufficient amount of vinegar into the spray bottle and spray it where you find it necessary. The only drawback to this method is that it will be smelly in your house for a few hours. It will go away before the day is over.
Tea tree oil can also kill mold, but it is a bit more expensive than vinegar. You should be able to find it at most health food stores and it will kill a few more kinds of mold than vinegar will. All you have to do with this one is take two teaspoons of tea tree oil and combine it with 2 cups of water. Pour into a spray bottle and spray where you need to. Do not rinse. The shelf life on this mixture is indefinite.
The last say is almost identical to the tea tree oil method. Take about 20 drops of grapefruit seed extract and combine it with 2 cups of water. Put it into a spray bottle and spray where you need to. The good thing about this method is that there is no smell.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and
mold remediation companies across the united states.
Mold in the Ancient World
If you live in an apartment or a home that has been found to be contaminated by mold due to no fault of yours, then you might have a good reason to speak with your landlord about the problem. Some landlords are quick to remedy the problem, but some are not and either try to blame the mold problem on you or they try to say that the mold poses no threat to your health or the health of your family and pets. No matter what they say, if you want to get any benefits from them, you will have to dispute anything that says mold is not a threat to you or that it is your fault. Agree that it is no threat or that it is your fault will get you absolutely nothing.
If you have to, you can even quote the Holy Bible on the fact that mold was considered to be a threat to the health of people and their animals in ancient times. It was common practice to visit a rabbi if you believed that your home was contaminated by mold and if it was found to be so by the priest, then everything in your home was removed and thrown into an “unclean place” far from where any people lived so they would not suffer from the contamination. The house was shut up for 7 days, says the scripture, and after that period of time had passed, the rabbi returned and re-examined the house. If it was still found to be diseased, the entire house was torn down and all building materials were taken also to that same “unclean place”. If you had any clothing that you thought might be infected, you were to take it to the rabbi, as well. If he deemed them unfit, then they were to be thrown to that unclean place, also.
It is also thought that the last plague of Egypt could be attributed to mold-contaminated food that had been stored underground to save it from the plague of locusts. The oldest Egyptian children of that time were given two portions of their meals and would have likely consumed enough of the molded food for it to make them sick at the very least. Jewish children were not afforded this and nor did they consume the same foods that the Egyptians did.
Be careful what you agree to when speaking with your insurance claims adjuster. Even if you are not Christian or Jewish, you can still quote these scriptures as evidence of mold being seen as a “disease” in times long past.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states.
If you have to, you can even quote the Holy Bible on the fact that mold was considered to be a threat to the health of people and their animals in ancient times. It was common practice to visit a rabbi if you believed that your home was contaminated by mold and if it was found to be so by the priest, then everything in your home was removed and thrown into an “unclean place” far from where any people lived so they would not suffer from the contamination. The house was shut up for 7 days, says the scripture, and after that period of time had passed, the rabbi returned and re-examined the house. If it was still found to be diseased, the entire house was torn down and all building materials were taken also to that same “unclean place”. If you had any clothing that you thought might be infected, you were to take it to the rabbi, as well. If he deemed them unfit, then they were to be thrown to that unclean place, also.
It is also thought that the last plague of Egypt could be attributed to mold-contaminated food that had been stored underground to save it from the plague of locusts. The oldest Egyptian children of that time were given two portions of their meals and would have likely consumed enough of the molded food for it to make them sick at the very least. Jewish children were not afforded this and nor did they consume the same foods that the Egyptians did.
Be careful what you agree to when speaking with your insurance claims adjuster. Even if you are not Christian or Jewish, you can still quote these scriptures as evidence of mold being seen as a “disease” in times long past.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Deducting Mold Remediation And Water Damage Restoration From Your Taxes
Fortunately, if you are a homeowner or a business owner and you need to have mold removed from your property, the fact is that you can probably deduct this from your taxes at the end of the year. The remediation is recognized as a repair that you have to do to safeguard your home, because your home is considered an investment.
Depending on the size of the contamination, the remediation costs can be fairly large, especially if you choose to hire a professional remediation business instead of doing a lot of it yourself. If you know what you are doing and are careful enough, a lot of the mold remediation can be done by you, but hiring a professional is usually the best thing to do.
Sometimes an entire wall or perhaps even more has to be taken out due to a mold infestation on a property and then there is the cost of the professional help that you will probably need to do this on top of the cost of protection equipment and chemicals.
What the IRS has decided is that the cost of the remediation of the mold in your home is a necessary expense. To be counted as a business expense, an expense must be both necessary and ordinary, no matter how great the cost may be.
There are guidelines to this tax deduction, however. If the mold removal and remediation is part of a larger renovation of the household, then you cannot count it as tax deductible at the end of the year; you must capitalize on it. The removal of the mold cannot increase the financial value of the home or property in any way.
Hiring a professional mold remediation company to do the work for you is usually the best thing to do and whatever they bill you at the end of the work is what you will count as deductible. Building materials that you need to buy after the remediation is completed are deductible as well, since you will need these items to finish up the repairs.
Relocation expenses could possibly also be deductible if your family had to relocate while the remediation was taking place, since the relocation is a direct result of the mold removal. Talk to the person who prepares your taxes every year and ask if this is an option.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Orlando water damage restoration companies and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states.
Depending on the size of the contamination, the remediation costs can be fairly large, especially if you choose to hire a professional remediation business instead of doing a lot of it yourself. If you know what you are doing and are careful enough, a lot of the mold remediation can be done by you, but hiring a professional is usually the best thing to do.
Sometimes an entire wall or perhaps even more has to be taken out due to a mold infestation on a property and then there is the cost of the professional help that you will probably need to do this on top of the cost of protection equipment and chemicals.
What the IRS has decided is that the cost of the remediation of the mold in your home is a necessary expense. To be counted as a business expense, an expense must be both necessary and ordinary, no matter how great the cost may be.
There are guidelines to this tax deduction, however. If the mold removal and remediation is part of a larger renovation of the household, then you cannot count it as tax deductible at the end of the year; you must capitalize on it. The removal of the mold cannot increase the financial value of the home or property in any way.
Hiring a professional mold remediation company to do the work for you is usually the best thing to do and whatever they bill you at the end of the work is what you will count as deductible. Building materials that you need to buy after the remediation is completed are deductible as well, since you will need these items to finish up the repairs.
Relocation expenses could possibly also be deductible if your family had to relocate while the remediation was taking place, since the relocation is a direct result of the mold removal. Talk to the person who prepares your taxes every year and ask if this is an option.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Orlando water damage restoration companies and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states.
Common Water Damage Prevention Tips
Water damage is a very common problem in most older homes these days, but most of it can be avoided if you simply know what to look for. You should do your best to safeguard the investment that is your home and making sure that the interior does not become water damaged to the point that it cannot be repaired without a large sum of money and quite a lot of work is important. Avoiding the causes of water damage is the best thing that you can do to prevent this.
When your bath tub, toilet, or washing machine overflows, you probably are not thinking about the integrity of the structure of your home. To you, this is probably just a big inconvenience most of the time, but the truth is that if you let it happen over and over, it could do some serious damage to your floor and lower walls. It is alright to be a little forgetful every now and then, but try to pay attention to these things.
The steam in the bathroom and kitchen can cause problems for the ceiling and walls, since steam is composed of water vapor. This adheres to your walls and ceilings and keeps them moist almost constantly, which will eventually discolor them and cause mold to grow. Mold is a problem all by itself, but it seems to go hand in hand with water damage. Purchase a steam vent for the bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, and the basement and have those installed either by you or a professional to help keep the humidity in the home down.
Rain gutters need to be cleaned out as often as necessary, although this is usually every fall. These collect rain water and channel them down through downspouts that will carry the water away from the foundation of your house. If they are not cleared out, then the water simply falls to the ground at the base of the house and tends to settle in pockets, which can seep down into your basement and cause cracks in the walls.
Keeping your hot water heater checked on is also a good idea. It should be installed on the lowest floor of your house and sit elevated off the floor in a drain pan connected to the water system of your house. If it starts to leak, the water will be transferred to your home’s plumbing system instead of all over your floor.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Miami water damage restoration companies and
mold remediation companies across the united states.
When your bath tub, toilet, or washing machine overflows, you probably are not thinking about the integrity of the structure of your home. To you, this is probably just a big inconvenience most of the time, but the truth is that if you let it happen over and over, it could do some serious damage to your floor and lower walls. It is alright to be a little forgetful every now and then, but try to pay attention to these things.
The steam in the bathroom and kitchen can cause problems for the ceiling and walls, since steam is composed of water vapor. This adheres to your walls and ceilings and keeps them moist almost constantly, which will eventually discolor them and cause mold to grow. Mold is a problem all by itself, but it seems to go hand in hand with water damage. Purchase a steam vent for the bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, and the basement and have those installed either by you or a professional to help keep the humidity in the home down.
Rain gutters need to be cleaned out as often as necessary, although this is usually every fall. These collect rain water and channel them down through downspouts that will carry the water away from the foundation of your house. If they are not cleared out, then the water simply falls to the ground at the base of the house and tends to settle in pockets, which can seep down into your basement and cause cracks in the walls.
Keeping your hot water heater checked on is also a good idea. It should be installed on the lowest floor of your house and sit elevated off the floor in a drain pan connected to the water system of your house. If it starts to leak, the water will be transferred to your home’s plumbing system instead of all over your floor.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Miami water damage restoration companies and
mold remediation companies across the united states.
Cleansing Molded Fabrics
When we clean out our closets sometimes we run across an old piece of clothing that has a somewhat fuzzy material all over it. Finding something like this in your closet is probably not a good thing and if you picked it up, the thing that you need to do is to put it back down and go wash your hands with some antimicrobial soap. This piece of clothing was probably contaminated with mold and touching mold spores with your bare hands is not advised, since it can cause allergic reactions in some individuals.
Most pieces of clothing that become molded can be cleansed and the mold gotten rid of, but it usually ends up leaving some kind of stain behind. If you are having to clean mold off of white fabric, then you can probably try to use bleach to remove the stain with. Unfortunately, killing the mold with bleach usually does not work very well. Borax laundry detergent should kill the mold effectively after you have removed the majority of the growth with a brush of some kind. An old toothbrush can be used to do this with. Put a pre-wash stain remover on the fabric and let it soak around 45 minutes before you put it in the washer. Wash these items at least twice, but refrain from using an artificial heat source to dry them out. Instead, take them outside and air them out there. Putting the clothes in the dryer can set the stain further into the fabric and you will have a harder time making sure that it comes out completely.
Unfortunately, if you have an item that is made of real leather and it was covered with mold, it can probably not be saved. These things get discolored pretty easily and mold tends to do a number on this kind of organic material, because mold’s job in nature is to decompose it.
Upholstery and curtains that come into contact with mold colonies can be cleaned with the same method used on clothing. You can use a vacuum with a HEPA filter on it to collect all the mold off of your furniture and curtains and this will give you the peace of mind that the mold spores are not being put back into your air after they are collected by the vacuum. Be careful when you are emptying the container in the vacuum, however, and try your best not to stir up the spores. It is best to do this outside.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Mold Remediation and
water damage restoration> companies across the united states.
Most pieces of clothing that become molded can be cleansed and the mold gotten rid of, but it usually ends up leaving some kind of stain behind. If you are having to clean mold off of white fabric, then you can probably try to use bleach to remove the stain with. Unfortunately, killing the mold with bleach usually does not work very well. Borax laundry detergent should kill the mold effectively after you have removed the majority of the growth with a brush of some kind. An old toothbrush can be used to do this with. Put a pre-wash stain remover on the fabric and let it soak around 45 minutes before you put it in the washer. Wash these items at least twice, but refrain from using an artificial heat source to dry them out. Instead, take them outside and air them out there. Putting the clothes in the dryer can set the stain further into the fabric and you will have a harder time making sure that it comes out completely.
Unfortunately, if you have an item that is made of real leather and it was covered with mold, it can probably not be saved. These things get discolored pretty easily and mold tends to do a number on this kind of organic material, because mold’s job in nature is to decompose it.
Upholstery and curtains that come into contact with mold colonies can be cleaned with the same method used on clothing. You can use a vacuum with a HEPA filter on it to collect all the mold off of your furniture and curtains and this will give you the peace of mind that the mold spores are not being put back into your air after they are collected by the vacuum. Be careful when you are emptying the container in the vacuum, however, and try your best not to stir up the spores. It is best to do this outside.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Mold Remediation and
water damage restoration> companies across the united states.
Cell Phone Water Stickers
While we have to deal with water every single day in some form or another, it can be a nightmare for anyone who has a cell phone or a blackberry. Getting these items wet by rain or dropping them into a sink of dish water is the last thing any owner of one of these wants to do and most of the time, they think that if this happens, they have to get a completely new phone. While this is sometimes the case, it is not always true.
If you have one of the newer cell phones on the market, odds are good that if you get it wet and it stops functioning, your warranty will not cover it and you will not be able to cover up the fact that the phone was in fact damaged by water and not some other means. This is because most cell phones and small electronic devices whose warranties do not cover water damage now come equipped with small stickers on the inside of the phone’s battery compartment that trigger when they get wet. There is a powdered dye on the underside of the sticker and when it gets wet, the dye coats the sticker and changes its color. This is good for the manufacturer to keep people from claiming that there was a problem with the product originally and that it was not submerged in water. This is bad for the consumer, however, because these stickers have been known to trip and change color in areas with high amounts of humidity. This means that if you live in such an area and your phone stops working for some hardware or software-related reason, you cannot get a new phone under your warranty because they will say that the phone was water damaged, often without even doing any real looking at the phone components for signs of it.
If you do drop your phone into water, get it out as quickly as you can. Do not leave it under the water for more than 20 seconds, but if it is plugged into the AC in your house, unplug the adapter from the wall first. Wipe off the exterior, remove the battery, and place both in a bowl of uncooked rice overnight (at least) and wait until the phone is dry before you try to use it again. Try both the AC and the battery; if the battery does not work and the AC does, then you just need a new battery, which can be purchased for a small amount compared to the value of your phone.
While we have to deal with water every single day in some form or another, it can be a nightmare for anyone who has a cell phone or a blackberry. Getting these items wet by rain or dropping them into a sink of dish water is the last thing any owner of one of these wants to do and most of the time, they think that if this happens, they have to get a completely new phone. While this is sometimes the case, it is not always true.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
If you have one of the newer cell phones on the market, odds are good that if you get it wet and it stops functioning, your warranty will not cover it and you will not be able to cover up the fact that the phone was in fact damaged by water and not some other means. This is because most cell phones and small electronic devices whose warranties do not cover water damage now come equipped with small stickers on the inside of the phone’s battery compartment that trigger when they get wet. There is a powdered dye on the underside of the sticker and when it gets wet, the dye coats the sticker and changes its color. This is good for the manufacturer to keep people from claiming that there was a problem with the product originally and that it was not submerged in water. This is bad for the consumer, however, because these stickers have been known to trip and change color in areas with high amounts of humidity. This means that if you live in such an area and your phone stops working for some hardware or software-related reason, you cannot get a new phone under your warranty because they will say that the phone was water damaged, often without even doing any real looking at the phone components for signs of it.
If you do drop your phone into water, get it out as quickly as you can. Do not leave it under the water for more than 20 seconds, but if it is plugged into the AC in your house, unplug the adapter from the wall first. Wipe off the exterior, remove the battery, and place both in a bowl of uncooked rice overnight (at least) and wait until the phone is dry before you try to use it again. Try both the AC and the battery; if the battery does not work and the AC does, then you just need a new battery, which can be purchased for a small amount compared to the value of your phone.
While we have to deal with water every single day in some form or another, it can be a nightmare for anyone who has a cell phone or a blackberry. Getting these items wet by rain or dropping them into a sink of dish water is the last thing any owner of one of these wants to do and most of the time, they think that if this happens, they have to get a completely new phone. While this is sometimes the case, it is not always true.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Bathroom Vents, Mold, and Wet Laundry
A good shower or a bath can be quite relaxing, but not so much in a bathroom that is contaminated with mold on the ceilings, floor, or walls. This manifests itself is a somewhat splotchy growth on the wall and it slowly moves from one part of the bathroom to another. Leave it untreated and it will eventually go on to infest the entire bathroom. Any drywall that is contaminated must usually be completely replaced, depending on how far along the growth of the colony is. The mold will be able to seep through the entire depth of the drywall because it is a porous surface and unfortunately, all you can really do is replace it with a new piece.
Some homes these days are taking to putting carpet into the bathroom, but this is a serious mistake. No matter how careful you are, the toilet, bath tub, or sink will eventually overflow and both your carpet and padding will be completely soaked in water. If you do happen to have carpet in your bathroom and have no intentions of removing it, get ready for a mold hazard. If the carpet and padding get wet and are not completely dried as soon as possible, mold will start to grow under it. Once carpet padding gets molded, it has to be thrown away. There is nothing else you can do. The best advice is to take up the carpet and have tile installed. This creates a waterproof barrier over your wooden floor.
Leaving damp rags, towels, or clothing on the floor anywhere is a bad idea and these items need to be washed as soon as you can, since if you leave them unattended for more than 48 hours, mold can start to grow on them. Leaving them on a floor that is carpeted and then covering them up with dry clothes is even worse, since you will probably forget about the wet items and neglect to wash them. This will cause mold to grow on everything in the pile, including the carpet and padding. Clothes should be put into a hamper instead of on the floor and dry clothing should never be put on top of wet.
Keeping the humidity down in the bathroom can also be a big problem, especially if you do not have an exhaust vent installed so that steam can escape. The water vapor adheres to the ceiling and is absorbed by it, causing it to be almost continually moist. This is the perfect environment for mold to grow in and if you do not have an exhaust fan installed, this is something that you should invest in, especially if you are going to remodel the bathroom to remove the infection, anyway.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Some homes these days are taking to putting carpet into the bathroom, but this is a serious mistake. No matter how careful you are, the toilet, bath tub, or sink will eventually overflow and both your carpet and padding will be completely soaked in water. If you do happen to have carpet in your bathroom and have no intentions of removing it, get ready for a mold hazard. If the carpet and padding get wet and are not completely dried as soon as possible, mold will start to grow under it. Once carpet padding gets molded, it has to be thrown away. There is nothing else you can do. The best advice is to take up the carpet and have tile installed. This creates a waterproof barrier over your wooden floor.
Leaving damp rags, towels, or clothing on the floor anywhere is a bad idea and these items need to be washed as soon as you can, since if you leave them unattended for more than 48 hours, mold can start to grow on them. Leaving them on a floor that is carpeted and then covering them up with dry clothes is even worse, since you will probably forget about the wet items and neglect to wash them. This will cause mold to grow on everything in the pile, including the carpet and padding. Clothes should be put into a hamper instead of on the floor and dry clothing should never be put on top of wet.
Keeping the humidity down in the bathroom can also be a big problem, especially if you do not have an exhaust vent installed so that steam can escape. The water vapor adheres to the ceiling and is absorbed by it, causing it to be almost continually moist. This is the perfect environment for mold to grow in and if you do not have an exhaust fan installed, this is something that you should invest in, especially if you are going to remodel the bathroom to remove the infection, anyway.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
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