Crawl Space Mold: How It Affects Your Home & Health
Mold loves nothing more than a dark, damp, isolated area, and many crawl spaces fit the bill. It’s often tough to notice, since many people don’t go into their crawl space often.
However, it’s important to keep an eye on your crawl space, or else mold may spread throughout your home. This page is a guide to crawl space mold, explaining how it starts, its negative impacts, and how local crawl space repair professionals can help you prevent it to create a safer home.
Mold 101: How it Begins
Your crawl space is the perfect environment for mold to move right on in and start growing. Most molds begin to grow when the temperature is at least 40°F and has a relative humidity of 60%.
Relative humidity is the amount of water vapor present in the air. This moisture that provides life to your crawl space mold comes from water vapor passing through the pores of concrete, groundwater flooding, crawl space vents, and the dirt floor in your crawl space.
As mold advances into its reproductive age, it releases seedlike spores into the air. These spores can last for years, waiting for the right conditions to begin growing. When these conditions present themselves, they can begin to grow in as little as 24-48 hours.
How Mold Hurts Your Home
Mold prefers dark areas, limited airflow, and little disruption.
It feasts off of damp and organic materials. This means any glue, paint, cardboard storage boxes, dust, fabric, and fiberglass resins can become mold food. Because of this, mold has been known to cause various types of structural damage as it eats away at floor joists.
This is one more reason to act sooner, rather than later, when it comes to mold. As the damage gets worse, the expense to repair the damage will increase.
How Mold Hurts Your Health
Mold not only harms your home, it also harms the people living in it. Here’s how:
Health Impacts
- Headaches
- Stuffy nose
- Sneezing
- Fatigue
- Respiratory issues
Who’s At Risk
- Those with asthma or allergies
- Pregnant women and infants
- The elderly
- Individuals taking medication
- Children 6-12 years old
Hundreds of thousands of mold spores may be present in a single cubic meter of air, with the average person inhaling 10 to 12 cubic meters of air each day. Approximately 50% of homes have at least one resident with allergies, and 90% of people with allergies show sensitivity to mold spores. These people can react to mold when they are exposed through inhaling, ingestion, or skin contact.
How to Eliminate Mold
There are many different temporary solutions for mold cleanup, including bleach solutions, biocides, and specialized cleaning agents. Unfortunately, these solutions tend to be ineffective on porous surfaces like concrete, wood, and mortar. These solutions also do not target the root of the problem. Instead are just creating a delay until the mold returns.
Mold cleanup can also be hazardous to your health. One type of mold, black mold, can have spores with a fungus that produce carcinogenic “mycotoxins” that are linked to liver cancer, lung cancer, chronic liver damage, endocrine problems, and many others. This is not a problem that will go away when ignored!
This is why it is best to call a mold remediation specialist to effectively remove the mold.
How to Prevent Crawl Space Mold
Once the mold is removed, you can focus on preventing its return. That’s where crawl space repair and encapsulation experts like Dry Pro Foundation & Crawlspace Specialists come in.
Our comprehensive crawl space encapsulation solutions eliminate excessive moisture that encourages mold growth, creating a safer, healthier home. These solutions include:
Trust Dry Pro to Tackle Your Crawl Space Issues
It is best to call in the professionals when dealing with crawl space mold. Protect your health and home by enlisting help from trusted local pros at Dry Pro Foundation & Crawlspace Specialists.
We’ll assess your crawl space and recommend customized repairs to create a safer and healthier home. Contact us today to scheudle a free crawl space inspection and encapsulation estimate.
FAQs
Our specialists at Dry Pro have visited thousands of homes in North Carolina. The overwhelming majority of homes in the state have at least a little bit of mold in the crawl space. Many homeowners don’t take mold seriously, but when left unchecked, your home and health face dangerous consequences.
While DIY methods are tempting, they often fail to fully eliminate mold or address its causes. We advise against entering potentially hazardous crawl spaces alone. Rely on Dry Pro for professional mold treatment and moisture management in your crawl space. Contact us for a free inspection.
Regular inspections help identify problems early, preventing extensive mold growth and other issues. Dry Pro offers yearly maintenance services after crawl space encapsulation to ensure continued safety and efficiency. Learn more and schedule a free inspection with us.
Holly Richards-Purpura
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