Found Mold In Your House? Remove It With These Five Steps

If you found some mold growing in your house, it is vitally important that you act as quickly as possible to remove the mold. The sooner you remove it and treat the mold, the less chance the mold has of spreading and creating further damage in your home. You are going to want to use these five steps if you ever find mold in your home.

#1 Be Sure It Is Safe For You To Remove The Mold

The first thing that you need to do is determine if it is safe for you to remove the mold from your home on your own. If you have a health issue such as allergies or asthma, cleaning up mold in your home is most likely not in your best interest. If you have a compromised immune system, you should also not remove the mold yourself.

In the case that you have health issues that would be negatively impacted by cleaning up the mold, you should find someone else or hire an outside service to deal with the mold, regardless of how small the area is.

#2 Find The Right Protective Gear

When dealing with mold, it is important to protect yourself. You don't want get mold spores on you and transfer them to other areas of your home and you don't want to get them in your lungs either, which is why wearing protective gear is so important.

You should wear a mask over your face to protect your lungs along with goggles. You should also cover up your entire body with clothing, which you should remove and wash right after you finish cleaning up the mold to ensure that the spores don't transfer to other parts of your home.

#3 Obtain Proper Cleaning Tools

Third, you need to make sure that you have the proper cleaning tools. To clean up mold, you are going to want to have a strong bleach solution. You may want to have some of that bleach solution inside of a spray bottle, and some of it inside of a bucket to clean with. You are also going to want to have some rags and sponges to clean with that you are comfortable throwing away once you are done cleaning the mold. You don't want to reuse any sponges or rags that you use to clean up mold as it could spread the mold spores to a new location in your home.

#4 Getting Rid Of The Mold

Take the bleach solution and spray it onto the area where you can see the mold. You are going to want to spray where you can see the mold and a few inches around the mold as well. There could be growth around what you can see that isn't visible to the naked eye.  Soak the area with the bleach solution, and let it sit for a while.

Then, go back and scrub away all the visible mold. Rinse the area with clean water. Then, clean the larger area with a different rag, going far around the mold to ensure that you kill all spores that may be in the area. Once again, rinse with clean water and dish soap to get rid of the chlorine smell.

#5 Cleaning Up Process

When dealing with mold, the clean-up process is as important as the mold removal process. You don't want to spread the spores around your home. Ideally, you should strip off your clothes right where you did the cleaning and put them inside of a garbage bag and wash them immediately. Then, rinse off all visible skin.

Put all cleaning rags and sponges in a sealed bag and put them in your outside trash bin.

Because water build up is what causes mold to develop, you may also want to check your home for other signs of water damage. Find and fix any leaks, and also remove and replace damaged walls and carpet. There are companies, like Atlantic Carpet Care, that can aid you in the process.