Where Mold Is Likely To Be Found In Your Home And How Mold Inspections Are Done
If you keep catching whiffs of musty mold odors in your home and you can't find out where the mold is growing, it's a good idea to have a mold inspection done. A mold inspection tracks down the mold and finds out how bad the mold problem is.
This is different from mold testing, which identifies the type of mold that's growing in your home. You can have mold testing done as well at an additional cost. Here are likely places in your home where mold may be growing and how an inspector may track down the mold.
Places In Your Home Where Mold May Grow
Mold grows about anywhere there is dampness. In a typical home, the kitchen and bathrooms are the dampest places in the house and where mold probably grows occasionally. Mold may also grow in your attic if you have a roof leak. You might also have a mold problem in your basement or crawl space, so the mold inspector has to search your house from top to bottom.
Ways To Find Mold
Besides looking in likely places, the inspector might use a thermal camera or a moisture meter to find areas of dampness in your home. Mold doesn't thrive in dry places, so if damp areas are found, the inspector can focus heavily on those areas. They might pay attention to musty odors and look for signs of water damage and mold growth.
Mold inspections are thorough since mold grows in hidden places. The inspector may need to look inside your HVAC ducts or cut a hole in the drywall to see behind the wall. They'll also ask you about incidents of water damage your home has had. If a carpet has been wet, the inspector may raise part of the carpet to check for mold underneath it.
Once the mold has been found, the inspector measures or estimates how large the area is where mold is growing. This is helpful information to know since it could determine whether you attempt to clean up the mold yourself or if you'll need to hire a mold remediation expert to do the job.
While black mold is known to be dangerous, and you may be in a hurry to remove it, that doesn't mean other types of mold aren't harmful. Mold in your home will spread around your house and cause damage to your house and belongings.
Plus, any kind of mold spores can be irritating to your allergies and respiratory system, so it isn't necessarily important to find out what kind of mold you have. However, it's important to find out if your home has mold somewhere that needs to be cleaned up. In addition, the dampness has to be dried out or the mold will come right back.