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Mold Blog

What to Do When You Find Mold in Your Home

Mold Remediation Services Tampa Fl
Mold remediation

Mold contamination can have serious implications for your health and your family members. A health report shows mold can cause red eyes, allergic reactions, skin rash, and a runny nose. Those with weak immune systems, children, seniors, and those with chronic illnesses are at a high risk of mold complications. Throughout the nation and here in Tampa, mold remediation is essential. If you find mold in your home, you should remove it and prevent further growth. Here is a guide to mold remediation and measures to ensure mold does not return to your home.

How Does Mold Look Like?

Knowing what mold looks like is the first step toward discovering what to do when you find mold in your home. Mold can appear in spots with different colors and be smelly and musty. It mostly appears in places with a lot of moisture and may sometimes be challenging to know when there is mold in your home.

How to Remove Mold From Your Home

Locate the Mold in Your Home

The first step to mold remediation is identifying all areas with mold in your home. Look for discoloration spots, especially in high moisture areas. The easiest way to identify mold is by using mold-testing kits. However, it is worth noting that these kits are not always accurate, and you may get incorrect and misleading results. You can get accurate results if you let a professional test the mold for you because they have the right tools and expertise.

Identify the Cause of the Mold

Knowing what causes mold growth in your house will help you take measures after cleaning and avoid having similar experiences in the future. For instance, if there are leaky roofs and pipes, ensure they get fixed after removing the mold. This can reduce the humidity levels and discourage the growth of mold in the home in the future. You do not want mold to return after barely a few days or weeks of cleaning.

Remove Moldy Materials

Many items in your home, such as carpets, cardboards, drywall, wallpaper, and insulation materials, commonly support mold growth and accumulation. It is important to remove these materials and place them outside before you do anything else. Removing the materials will make your work easier.

Clean the Affected Areas

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bleach and other cleaning products can remove mold from surfaces. Without the right tools and cleaning supplies, you may get frustrated at the end of your cleaning if you do not apply the appropriate measures. Here is a guide to cleaning the mold.

  • Get a bleaching agent and soap
  • Open windows and doors before you start cleaning
  • Wear protective goggles, boots, and rubber gloves
  • Clean the affected areas using soap, water, and bleach
  • Clean all the affected materials before bringing them back into the house
  • Seal all leaking areas to prevent mold from growing again
  • Keep humidity levels lower in your home

Avoid mixing bleach with other cleaning products because it will produce poisonous gas that may cause health complications. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on using bleach and other cleaning supplies. You should be careful to avoid spreading mold in other parts of the mold when removing it because it can quickly spread and grow in other areas.

Hire a Professional for Mold Remediation

Knowing what to do when you find mold in your home can help keep your home free from mold. Don’t try to handle the mold situation in your home. If you are looking for mold remediation in Tampa, Lighting Restoration is here for you. Contact us, and let s help clean the mold in your home.

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Mold Blog

How Do I Prevent Mold Growth?

If you have a water leak, it’s important to clean and dry the area immediately to prevent mold growth. Porous materials, such as drywall and wood wall cavity wood framing can appear dry, but still hold a significant amount of moisture that will cause mold damage. Under the right conditions, mold can begin to grow in as little as 24-48 hours. 

As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Some Quick Ways to Help Prevent Mold Growth

Keep your eyes open.  Identify and controlling water problems is the first step in discouraging mold growth.  Here are a few quick tips.

  • Every month, when you change your AC filters, also look at all of your ceilings and under cabinets.  Look for signs of moisture. 
  • Monitor the humidity in your home.  Keep humidity in the low 50’s or less. 
  • Regularly maintain your HVAC system.  A poorly running HVAC system will not sufficiently process the humidity in your home, which could lead to a Mold Bloom. 
  • Properly ventilate your clothes dryer and clean the lint exhaust regularly
  • Use tile, not carpet or wood, in moisture-prone areas.  In Florida, it is common to find older homes that have elevated moisture in the concrete slab due to the high-water table. 
  • Employ dehumidifiers in the home if humidity is regularly elevated.
  • Insulate cold surfaces like walls, floors and windows.
  • Use exhaust fans in bathrooms and kitchens and let them run long enough that you don’t see condensation on mirrors or walls.
  • Improve circulation in the home by using ceiling fans.
  • Above all else, mitigate water damage immediately.  Mold cannot grow without moisture. 

If you suspect water or mold damage in your home, call Lightning Restoration for a free evaluation & estimate.  Stay safe and healthy Tampa Bay.

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Water Remediation

The Dos and Don’ts of Home Water Damage Remediation

water droplets on a hard surface

The goal is to prevent water damage, but accidents occur every day, even when we are being the most careful.  When water damage occurs, it is important to react quickly to stop the damage from getting worse.  Here are some helpful tips when dealing with home water remediation.  Remember that safety comes first.  In addition, if any of these tips put you or your loved ones in harms way, wait for the professionals to arrive. 

The Dos of Home Water Remediation

  • Try to stop the water flow.  Know where the shut-off valves are for your home. 
  • Remove as much excess water as possible with towels or a shop vac.
  • Towel dry wood furniture
  • Relocate all move-able items to a dry place
  • Slide foil or plastic wrap between the furniture and the floor
  • Pin up draperies and upholstery skirts
  • Contact an Expert immediately.  Water damage will continue to get worse, even after you suck up the standing water.  Experts know how to get your property clean and dry, with the least amount of secondary damage…like MOLD. 

The Don’ts

  • Stay away from contaminated (sewer) water.  Sewer water may contain bacteria, viruses, parasites and other harmful contaminates.
  • Don’t use electrical appliances or outlets in or near wet areas
  • Don’t use your household vacuum to extract water
  • Keep wet items away from any absorbent surfaces
  • Don’t turn on your heating and/or air conditioning system if you think water may have entered the ducts
  • Stay out of rooms if the ceiling is wet or sagging.  Ceiling drywall can contain heavy amounts of water which may collapse on you.
  • Don’t leave absorbent materials like boxes, papers or pillows in the wet area
  • Don’t let children or the elderly enter the affected areas

In short, at Lightning Restoration, we understand the importance of reacting quickly to water damage, for the safety of your family and to prevent Mold from growing. Because of this, we guarantee a 2-hour response time to any emergency call and offer a free evaluation/inspection on every call. 

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Water Remediation

How Washing Machine Hoses Can Cause Damage to Your Home

We recently received a call in the middle of the night for a Florida home that was completely flooded from a washing machine hose that burst. Washing machine hose damage is one of the primary sources of water remediation for our business. There are multiple reasons for this:

  • They are under a tremendous amount of pressure.
  • Washing machine hoses are often squeezed and pinched by the washing machines when they are put in place.
  • The rubber hoses will sometimes have weak spots in them, form bubbles, and eventually burst.
  • Most commonly, when installing the washing machine, the hoses will be over-tightened, which will cause a break in the connection valve.

When a washing machine hose bursts, a tremendous amount of water escapes. In a matter of just a couple of hours, this entire home was flooded with standing water throughout.

So How Do We Fix It?

Thankfully, our crews are experts in handling these situations. They were able to get to work right away, extract all of the standing water, leaving only moisture behind, and then establishing a balanced drying system throughout the home, consisting of dehumidifiers and drying fans.

When it comes to setting up this equipment, too little or too much equipment can hamper the drying efforts. It is important to understand that there is a science behind what we do and calculations for figuring out exactly how much equipment to use. Too much equipment will increase the temperature in the home, which will slow down drying. Too little equipment, and the moisture that’s in the air and in the materials would not get processed quickly enough, again, delaying drying times. The last thing we want is delayed drying times because that is when mold will grow. We expect to have this home dry in three to five days, depending on how quickly some of the materials release the water or moisture.

Can We Prevent Washing Machine Hose Damage?

Some useful tips to avoid this type of water loss:

  • Use steel braided hoses.
  • Check your hoses monthly on the same schedule that you change out your air conditioning filters. Look for cracks or bubbles or weak spots in the hoses.
  • Change your hoses out every four to five years.
  • Do not push the washing machine too close to the wall. Try to keep a four inch gap between the wall and the back of the washing machine. Six inches is ideal, if you have the space.
  • Don’t over-tighten the connector. Hand tighten as much as you can, then with a wrench, a quarter turn will more than suffice. If you do more than that, you take the chance of breaking the connector valve on both sides.

Lightning Restoration Can Fix Any Damage from Washing Machine Hose Damage

Even with all the due diligence and taking all the protective measures, there’s always a chance that accidents may still happen, and you may get a flood. If you do, call Lighting Restoration. We’re available any time and work with every major insurance company in the state of Florida. At Lightning Restoration, our job is to save and salvage your home and your property, so that you can be back to life as normal.

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