Tag:

mold prevention

My Interview With Indoor Air Quality Extraordinaire, Author, and Scientist Jeff May

by Catherine 6:04 pm

How to Know If Your House is Killing You With Jeff May

When you are looking for someone to trust on all matters concerning indoor air quality, hidden leaks, mold problems, weird or unpleasant odors, contaminated mechanical systems, and the overall “health” of your home, Jeff May should be at the top of your list. I know he is at the top of mine. As a matter of fact, I learned about Jeff and became acquainted with his expertise in the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and home inspections fields when my family was going through our mold nightmare. At the time, I was desperate to find information on how to fix our home, and found one of Jeff’s popular books, My House is Killing Me! The Home Guide for Families with Allergies and Asthma, at our local public library. It was the most comprehensive and helpful guide on the myriad things that can cause a home to get “sick” I had ever seen. Needless to say, I couldn’t put it down and later ordered his book, The Mold Survival Guide: For Your Home and for Your Health on Amazon—I can’t recommend it enough to others navigating the confusing world of mold in their home or anyone suspecting that something in their home is making them sick. To this day, I find myself referencing sections of the book when I am working on articles about below-grade spaces, like basements or crawlspaces, or wanting to understand more about proper attic ventilation or ice damming and mold growth. If it has anything to do with mold in a home, believe me, that book covers it!

6:04 pm 2 comments

Mold in the News Mold Prevention Mold Remediation Q & A's

Mold in My School: What Should I Do?

by Catherine 5:23 am

My Advice for Addressing a Mold Problem in Your Child’s School

One of the scariest things for a parent to face is the possibility of their child or children being exposed to dangerous levels of mold while at school. I mean, isn’t there is enough to have to worry about as a parent without having to put something like mold on your radar too? I wish that were the case, but, unfortunately, sick school buildings are a very real and a vey big problem in this country and around the world. Case in point, try to listen to or watch the news without encountering a “mold in schools” story. It is near impossible.

From where I sit these days, writing a mold blog and interacting with people and families facing mold problems in their homes, I hear about and “see” this problem on almost a daily basis. One day, I’ll hear from a teacher who became sick from mold in a school where they worked or are working, and the next, I’ll hear from a parent trying to navigate how to put their child back into school without further harming their health now that the child is mold-sensitive from experiencing a major mold exposure in a toxic home. Many parents who I speak with are even opting to home school, because it is a less stressful (for them and their child) alternative as they can fully control the physical environment at home. But, abandoning school buildings altogether is not a viable option for everyone. For example, many teachers cannot quit their jobs or transfer to other schools immediately just to escape a moldy environment to save their health. And, many families, especially those with a single parent or with two parents that work outside of the home, are not physically able to homeschool. Additionally, if a parent has been made sick by mold, sometimes they are not well enough to home school. Thus, the whole “schools and mold question” must be addressed.

5:23 am 0 comment

Cleaning Tips Healthy Home Mold Prevention Mold Remediation Products

Carpet Removal for Mold-Sensitive Individuals

by Catherine 10:40 pm

Safe Carpet Removal Guidelines for Better Indoor Air Quality, and a Healthier, More Mold-Free Home

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know how I feel about wall-to-wall carpeting: It is not the best design choice for optimum health, especially for mold-sensitive people. (I intend to back this claim up, I promise.) Don’t get me wrong–I do realize that carpet can be warm and comforting underfoot, but, in my opinion, it hides more microbes and immune system irritants than the coziness it provides. From an overall health perspective, but specifically from the perspective of mold avoidance and mitigating mold and allergen exposure, limiting carpeting or not using wall-to-wall carpet altogether significantly improves indoor air quality and helps to decrease mold symptoms. For example, when I compare times when I have lived in a “clean, mold-free home” that had carpet to our current situation of living in a “clean, mold-free home” home without carpet, I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that my family and I are healthier with less mold symptoms in our carpet-free home. In other words, when everything else is the same, but carpet is present, there is a noticeable difference in how much I need to clean and sanitize to successfully keep us well.

10:40 pm 0 comment

Cleaning Tips Healthy Home Mold Prevention Mold Remediation

Landlords, Leaks, and Mold: Fixing Problems BEFORE You Get Sick

by Catherine 6:06 am

When a Leak Occurs, Waiting Isn’t an Option:

Preventing and Addressing Mold When the Situation Is NOT in Your Hands

Mold is ubiquitous and can grow wherever it can find food —the dust on a lampshade, the adhesive on the back of wallpaper, the drywall that makes up your walls, the manufactured wood (plywood, particle board, etc.) that most furniture is built from these days. Just about anything organic can become sustenance for mold. Then, with the right food and temperature, moisture, and just a little oxygen, mold can flourish and thrive. Thus, mold spores indoors are, unfortunately, inevitable. That is why preventive measures, like keeping dust levels lows, finding and repairing leaks, stopping moisture intrusion, and controlling indoor humidity must be ongoing actions to keep those spores from taking hold and threatening the health of our living spaces. Because of this, I like to think of my indoor environment as an ever-evolving ecosystem. It is alive, constantly changing and in flux. I consider it my job to do what I can to maintain a healthy microorganism balance by controlling what kinds of other “critters” can enter, survive, and thrive, so that my family and I can also live there and be well.

Of all of the things that mold needs to grow indoors, moisture is the main one that needs to be monitored and controlled for optimal prevention. Leaks, hidden or otherwise, can be a problematic introduction of water into a home’s building materials, walls, ceiling cavities, flooring, and below-grade spaces. If not dealt with and dried out immediately, even a very small leak can lead to a massive and expensive mold problem. The scary part is that leaks can happen quickly and many times occur without our knowledge until a water stain, musty smell, or mysterious sickness occurs to alert us to mold’s uninvited presence. The truth of the matter is that every home will deal with a leak or water intrusion at some point. It is inevitable and should be expected.

But, what if you don’t own your home and are dependent on someone else to fix the problem quickly to prevent mold growth? When your home’s maintenance isn’t in your hands, how to you stay safe from mold?

6:06 am 0 comment

Healthy Home Mold Prevention

Maintenance REQUIRED: How to Prevent Costly HVAC System Mold Issues

by Catherine 5:58 am

An Ounce of Prevention . . .

Today’s post is going to be all about how to prevent HVAC system mold issues. I wanted to write this post, because some of the most prevalent and costly to remediate indoor mold problems (including the one my family and I suffered from) are caused from mold growth inside HVAC systems. Thus, it should also come as no surprise that, second to reader questions about cleaning their belongings that were exposed to mold, questions about HVAC mold problems are the ones I get most frequently. Often, readers write to me about frustrations with trying to effectively remediate their entire mechanical system and/or ducts (you should ALWAYS do both if this mold issue affects your home) or, because they want to know how to figure out if the musty smells in their homes are related to when their HVAC system cycles on and off—aka if the musty smells are coming out of their vents.

Factors That Can Contribute to HVAC Mold Growth:

To begin, I think it is important to discuss the many factors that can contribute to this major indoor air quality issue in the first place. I am no HVAC professional, building scientist, or microbiologist, but many elements of how we configure, use, and maintain our mechanical ventilation systems seem to me to be the root causes of mold HVAC problems. The reasons for this are many, but if I had to choose my Top 5, they would include the following basic principles:

1.) HVAC systems combine all of the ingredients needed for mold growth (dust, aka organic material, high humidity, and water) perfectly inside one mechanical system;

2.) Most HVAC mechanical systems are set up essentially out-of-sight in our homes and are housed in unconditioned areas, like our attics, basements, or crawlspaces. This makes regular maintenance, leaks, and/or visible microbial growth not something that is glaringly obvious or at the forefront of our minds on a daily basis; (This is in strong contrast to when flooding, or a major leak or water incident occurs in a highly visible or trafficked part of our homes.)

3.) Almost all homes have central HVAC systems these days, so all indoor air is, at some point, channeled through the mechanical HVAC system. Thus, if you have mold growth inside of it, it is going to be blown throughout your home and is going to directly affect almost every, if not all rooms in your home and all of the air that you breathe when indoors;

4.) Most people rely on HVAC professionals to maintain their systems (if they maintain them at all) and do not take the time to regularly inspect, clean, or check on their HVAC system to make sure that is functioning properly—this includes checking for leaks, having the coil and condensate pan cleaned, and changing and properly installing filters;

5.) Visual inspections of an HVAC system aren’t always enough to find the culprit, because most mold problems occur inside the plenum or on the coil and cannot be found without some digging and mechanical knowledge, so that you know where to look.

5:58 am 0 comment

Healthy Home Mold Prevention Wellness

HVAC Gimmicks vs. HVAC Mold Solutions—What Really Works and What Just Costs a Lot

by Catherine 12:01 am

The Post Your HVAC Contractor Doesn’t Want You to Read…

Are you trying to improve air quality in your home? Have you had an HVAC professional out to assess your current systems and to give you recommendations on possible HVAC mold solutions, add-ons, and enhancements? I’ll bet if you have, you are more confused now about what you should do than before they came. Am I right?

The reason I ask is because I get so many reader questions about various recommended HVAC “extras” and “solutions.” Many seem like viable proposals, but come with hefty price tags and not much explanation.

Fortunately for me, but unfortunately for those in HVAC sales, I have gained a crazy amount of knowledge in this area from personal exposure and experience during our mold nightmare and from experts in the fields of building science, indoor air quality, and environmental hygiene. When the mold issues in my home forced us to rip out and replace our entire HVAC system, ductwork, attic insulation, and ventilation systems, I threw myself into learning everything I could about our options and all of the possible solutions out there for our unique situation. Then, through working alongside the experts I mentioned and their technicians to make our home safe and livable again, I learned how to sort through the things that were worth the time and money and the things that just looked shiny and cool, but produced no significant home-health improvement for the expense. I guess you can say that I was given a peek behind the curtain of HVAC solutions from the perspective of a mold and indoor air quality expert.

Well, today, I am going to try to spread that knowledge. I will first list common HVAC recommendations that, in my opinion and experience, aren’t worth the money. Then, I will list HVAC and indoor air quality upgrades that I can whole-heartedly endorse. I will provide explanations and my experience with each, so that you can go into the conversation with as much inside knowledge as possible, especially if your main concern is mold.

12:01 am 3 comments

Cleaning Tips Healthy Home Homemade Products Mold Prevention Products Wellness

Homemade Mold Wipes 2.0: New Formula, MORE Uses

by Catherine 3:55 am

These New and Improved Homemade Mold Wipes Make Cleaning Your Things, Your Body, AND Your Food for Molds, Bacteria, and Viruses Safer, Easier, and Much More Portable!

I don’t know how long you have been reading this blog, but it is actually almost 3 years old! It is hard to believe that mold can provide such a rich array of subject matter to write about.

When I first started this blog, I wrote almost exclusively about easy, doable mold maintenance (cleaning for mold) and my approach to mold avoidance that includes both body and environmental protocols. I often included homemade recipes and DIY tools and techniques that were self-tested and only proven effective in our home. Along-the-way, those recipes and inventions became foundational pieces of our daily mold maintenance and recovery. This was mostly due to the fact that no one out there was making the products we so desperately desired and NEEDED to help us to get better.

Fast forward to today. As the blog has grown and evolved to become more of a wellness space for environmental and mold illness, I have moved away from my DIY and Homemade Product roots a bit, so that I can focus more on what YOU, the readers, ask me to write about—total body approaches to healing from mold, and practical, safe approaches to testing and remediating your homes and living spaces. And, even though, I absolutely LOVE where we are now, I don’t want you to miss out on some of the goodies from the past.

Today, I want to introduce or re-acquaint (whichever that may be) you with my DIY Mold Wipes, but made BETTER. Better, because in true Catherine-type-A-personality fashion, I couldn’t just make the mold wipes, use them over and over, and let “good enough” alone. I had to keep testing them for success and enhancing and improving them. Truth be told, I have actually been tweaking and refining the formula since the day I first created it. As a result, I now have a new, improved formula that I am going to share with you today: I call these my Mold Wipes 2.0.

For those of you keeping up, but who don’t like clicking around to previous articles for the full story, I will briefly revisit the main reasons why I wanted to create a “mold wipe” in the first place. After you read through my list, you will see why I think that mold wipes are a needed and helpful product, not just for me and my family (mold-sensitive people), but, for EVERYONE.

3:55 am 6 comments

Healthy Home Mold Prevention Mold Remediation Personal Stories

DIY Preventative Mold Remediation for Minor Leaks and Water Intrusions

by Catherine 10:48 pm

Stopping Mold Growth BEFORE it Starts is the Key to the Long-term Health of Your Home

My personal battle to keep mold out of our home seems never-ending. Preventative mold remediation and maintenance is a huge part of that. The unfortunate curse of homeownership is that the minute I feel like I have solved one issue, another arises to take its place. I guess the challenges are good for the blog, because I am always learning new things and always figuring out more effective ways to improve our home’s health and indoor air quality (IAQ). The more I learn, the more I also want to share that knowledge with you, because there are definite DIY ways in which you can act immediately to take control and manage any potential mold situation. Knowing these DIY mitigation skills will also build your confidence during recovery, because your sense of security will grow with the realization that even an event that feels like a crisis, can be handled and doesn’t have to lead to a relapse into poor health.

A little background for you on our most recent water intrusion issue:

A few weeks ago, visible water markings appeared on our den ceiling after a storm. Just seeing the tell-tale water discoloration sent me into a bit of a tailspin. If there is one thing I have learned about water intrusion, it is that the sooner you find the source and stop it, the less likely you are to have mold growth. We DEFINITELY didn’t want to chance mold growth. Thus, remediation and proactive mold prevention efforts began immediately.

First order of business:

Where is the water coming in and why?

10:48 pm 0 comment

Healthy Home Mold Prevention Mold Remediation

Practical Advice for Home Building or Renovating to Prevent Mold and Optimize Indoor Air Quality

by Catherine 9:11 pm

When you keep moisture out, ventilate properly, and use sound building materials your home can be a very healthy and mold-safe place to live.

Building a custom home is an exciting and, at times, overwhelming adventure. My husband and I collaborated on 2 such adventures when we were first married. Each home was designed and built to our specifications. All materials that were used were chosen by us. My husband was working in the building industry at the time and was able to be onsite for the majority of both builds and served as the general contractor. There was definitely a large amount of security in knowing that our homes were thoughtfully and soundly built. And, even though we were not consciously choosing “healthy” or always the most “mold-safe” building materials (we obviously had not been affected by mold yet at this time), we built beautiful homes where we enjoyed the happy early years of marriage and babies.

Then, the housing/building market crashed, and my husband was forced out of building and to look to other industries for work. We were also forced to move frequently for his work. It was then that we were relocated to homes that were found by his company and were often sight-unseen to us prior to move-in day. It was also during this time that we moved into the home with the toxic mold problem throughout the HVAC unit that made us all so sick. With the mold situation came great upheaval and new building challenges, because we were forced, under tremendous health and financial strain, to take our home almost down to the studs to have it properly remediated. (Note: We were advised that proper remediation required us to gut the interior of the home of anything the mold had touched or penetrated, so that our family could safely return, live there, and continue to recover our health. This may sound extreme; however, when someone has mold sickness and increased sensitivity, all mold, down to microscopic spores and hyphae, must be addressed. This is precisely why there are so many failed remediations.)

Even though we had built our own aesthetically-fit homes in the past, we realized how much we didn’t know about building an intrinsically healthy home. It was crazy how all of the things that seemed to matter to us before when we were building our homes, like the size of the master bedroom closet, or whether to tray or coffer ceilings, just didn’t matter to us anymore. The things that mattered to us with this re-build and that we poured our resources into were all health- and indoor-air quality-centered, like HVAC design for optimum air flow and dehumidification (dehumidification not being a request most homeowners have), using all metal ductwork to prevent dust and mold, re-grading our yard to route water away from our foundation, and on and on.

9:11 pm 0 comment

Cleaning Tips Healthy Home Mold Prevention Wellness

Improve Home Cleanliness and Indoor Air Quality With a HEPA-Filtered Vacuum

by Catherine 3:20 am

For those of us allergic to mold and other common allergens, improving our home’s cleanliness, indoor air quality and controlling the flow of contamination into our indoor environments is essential to staying healthy. One of the most important tools to help with these goals is a good-quality vacuum with certified HEPA filtration. I think I actually use mine Every. Single.Day. I also think I have mentioned using it on the blog too many times to count. It really is one of the most important tools I have found to keep dust, mold, allergen, and bacteria counts down to a minimum in our home.

Today, I hope to help take the guesswork out of why having a vacuum with certified HEPA filtration is important, especially when mold is a concern, and to help you know what features you should look for if you are in the market for this type of vacuum. I also hope to impart some not so widely known facts about what a HEPA vacuum can and cannot do from an Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) professional to help you make the most of this valuable tool.

3:20 am 12 comments