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Home & Garden Articles
After The Flood: How To Remove Black Mold From Water Damage
Fri 16 Feb 2007 - 09:12
After The Flood: How To Remove Black Mold From Water Damage
By Rich Fuller
So, you've had a little bit of flooding. The sink backed up, a pipe burst, something terrible happened and there was standing water somewhere in your house. After all the headache of dealing with THAT problem and getting rid of the water, you have one more thing to deal with: The Black Mold.
Where to Start
First off, you'll need to deal with it quickly. This may seem obvious (after all, nobody lets a pool of water sit around in their home while they think about what to do), but keep in mind that things are getting worse by the second. Water damage is quick like that.
If the job is too big for you to handle, call a pro. Don't try to do it all yourself. If you have an area of water damage that's more than 10 square feet, you should definitely call a mold clean-up professional. Even 5 square feet might be a pretty big job.
Get Ready to Dive In
A few necessary precautions must be made. First, seal off the area that is water damaged. The water damaged room is Ground Zero, and you don't want the rest of the house to be contaminated. Close doors and keep this in mind during cleanup.
Keep the area sealed off from the rest of the house, but open windows and get some air flowing through. If you're cleaning up the bathroom, run the exhaust fan.
Check the area thoroughly for other signs of mold growth. When you have a room with significant water damage, the mold can find its way into adjacent areas. There's no point in cleaning up the water damage only to have to mold get everywhere else. In particular, check behind wallpaper, around tiles, crawlspaces, carpeting, and anywhere dark and hidden near the mold growth
Be protected! Wear a face mask and gloves at all times during clean-up. Make sure anybody that comes into the room does too. The most important thing is to keep mold spores out of your respiratory system and to keep it from contact with your skin. You may experience health problems caused by mold.
A regular face mask will help, but it's better to get one that is specially designed for mold jobs.
You should also wear rubber boots, if it's a big puddle, and old clothes.
Clean It Up
If you see mold anywhere, scrub it until you don't see it anymore. You can use mold removal products from the store, or you can scrub with good old water and detergent.
Bleach works well, but it's kind of dangerous to use because of the fumes. Also, it can ruin what it comes into contact with. Try to use a cleaner that has no fragrance.
If you have large materials such as tiles or wallpaper that are contaminated with mold, you will have to toss them. Mold loves porous materials, and once it starts growing it never stops.
Use plastic bags to store contaminated materials, especially if you have to go through another part of the house. Be careful with moldy stuff and don't let it touch anything. The plastic is also good for keeping mold spores from getting airborne in another area of the house.
Keep It Dry
After the clean-up, makes sure the affected area has plenty of air flowing through it. You might want to run a dehumidifier in the room for a while. Keep an eye on the water damaged area and make sure the mold doesn't find its way back in again.
Learn more about toxic black mold effects on our site. You'll also find other information such as black mold species. ToxicBlackMoldHelp.org is a comprehensive resource to help individuals to test and inspect, identify health symptoms and removal of toxic black mold.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rich_Fuller
http://EzineArticles.com/?After-The-Flood:-How-To-Remove-Black-Mold-From-Water-Damage&id=456723
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