While mold is everywhere and it isn’t harmful as floating spores in the air, it can be very harmful when it finds a habitat inside the home and starts growing. The effects of mold growth inside a home can be severe on the home’s structure and the health of its residents. If you have spotted mold growth in your home, here’s why you need to take it seriously and seek help for mold restoration:
It Can Eat All the Wood
You should be very concerned if you find mold growth in your home since it can eat away all the wooden features of your home. This can include floorboards, wooden furniture, décor pieces, and windows and doors.
It Destroys Clothes and Other Fabrics
Once one corner of your home gets affected by mold, it becomes easy for mold growth to spread to other areas. All mold needs to grow in a place is dampness and oxygen. When mold spores inside your home, they can get fixated on any damp place they find and begin growing there.
Since damp fabrics take longer to get dried, they have higher chances to become mold habitats. Woolen or other thicker fabrics are prone to mold growth if not stored properly or left wet inside the home.
Once mold begins growing on a fabric, it can become impossible to clean that fabric. The only way you will get rid of mold on fabrics is by dumping the fabric away in the trash. You can end up losing expensive coats, cardigans, and other clothes or rugs and curtains around the house.
It Can Collapse the Home Structure
If grown on walls, mold can cause the entire structure of your home to collapse. It can eat away the wallpaper just as it eats away wood. It can destroy the walls from within as drywall is usually made of wood too.
If the walls of your home are insulated, mold can cause damage by growing all over it. Since mold growth within the walls stays hidden, it can grow exponentially undetected.
Once the walls are affected enough, they can crumble and collapse. Mold growth in walls can also reach the ceiling and make the roof of your home collapse.
It Can Lead to Mold Allergy
Mold growth leads to excess mold exposure, which can cause you and other members of your household to develop mold allergies and skin irritation. Skin irritation causes itching and redness on the skin and can spread to the eyes and mouth too.
On the other hand, mold allergy has flu-like symptoms, and hence most people affected by it treat it as flu. However, since mold continues to grow and affect people, the symptoms continue until they become severe. Lasting cough, running nose, and sneezing can be exhausting and lead to other allergy symptoms.
Not to mention, the immunity system of those affected by mold exposure stays constantly engaged in fighting its symptoms. Eventually, the immunity system weakens, and it becomes easy for other bacteria and viruses to attack the body.
One can stay permanently sick and develop multiple allergies in the long run as mold exposure keeps affecting their immunity system.
It Can Be Fatal
Constant exposure to mold for a long time can result in severe health complications. These health complications include neurological damage. Children, immune-compromised, and elders are especially at risk around the mold.
These people can experience damage to their cognitive functions and dementia. They can also experience lung damage on inhalation of mold.
Lung damage due to mold can result in respiratory issues, especially asthma. The continuous attack of mold on their immune system also makes them prone to other diseases, leading to death.
Keeping mold away is essential to maintaining a healthy home. You can keep your home clean of mold by regularly running a dehumidifier around the house. While it may feel drying, removing all dampness around the house is essential so mold cannot grow anywhere. Keep moving the dehumidifier around the house in all areas and rooms to remove all moisture from your home’s structure. You can also keep mold away by maintaining the sewage lines of your home. Regularly inspect and maintain the pipes for any leakage.
Contact a restoration service if you notice signs of mold growth despite ensuring all measures to keep it away. Restoration services not only free your home of mold but will also treat the dampness that allows mold to grow. If you live near a large water body, getting your home regularly inspected for mold is even more crucial. Click here for mold restoration in Palm Beach.