You may not think so, but everyone’s home is at risk for mold on one level or another. Mold is everywhere and in the air we breathe, so there is not much that we can do to escape it completely in our homes, but there are some things that you can do to stop it from developing colonies where you live. Some areas in your home are more at risk for mold growth than others and these are the laundry room, kitchen, basement, and bathroom. Of these four rooms, the two the most at risk are the kitchen and bathroom, since these rooms see the most use of the four. We all go to the kitchen and the bathroom at least once a day.
Kitchens are at risk when items like dishwashers or ice makers malfunction or the kitchen sink is allowed to overflow. Pipes underneath the sink can also burst, but this does not happen often if you have good plumbing. If you do have an appliance that uses a lot of water and it malfunctions often, you will be much better off purchasing a new one than allowing it to do damage and cause mold growth to your floor.
The bathroom is the room in your home that is at the most at risk for mold growth and water damage. Everyone in your home takes a bath every day (at least, they should) and this results in a large amount of water flowing through this room on any given date. This humidity buildup can wreak havoc on your ceiling if there is not an exhaust vent in place to take the steam out of the room. Ceilings have been known to become discolored and even collapse after years of steam soaking into them. Local building codes will probably require that your bathroom have either an exhaust vent or a window, but ideally, you should have both. Leaving your bathroom window open all the time is usually not practical at all, since bad weather crops up no matter where your home is located.
Another area at risk is the laundry room. This is mainly because of the washer and the possibility of it malfunctioning and releasing a large amount of water on the floor, but pipes can also burst behind it if you do not keep an eye on them. Make sure the plumbing is securely connected to the washer on a regular basis to help prevent this. You should also wash wet clothes as soon as possible and never throw them in with dry dirty clothes, since they will mold after a couple of days. Who has not covered up wet dirty clothes with dry ones and forgotten about them before?
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors.
