Frequently Asked Mold Remediation Questions
If You Have Mold Issues, It’s Nice To Know What You’re Dealing With
Can I Use Bleach To Kill Mold?
A simple question with a complicated answer! The short version is that bleach can be used to kill mold, but it isn’t always recommended. There are a lot of drawbacks to bleach. It gives off terrible fumes, it’s caustic, and it can be incredibly dangerous when combined with other chemicals. As if that weren’t enough, it also lacks detergency and loses its effectiveness quickly.
However, it can still definitely be used to kill mold. You will want to check whether the mold you’re targeting is on a porous or non-porous surface. Non-porous surfaces are generally safe to use bleach on. This would include things like shower tiles, bathtubs, countertops, etc.
Porous surfaces, on the other hand, should never be cleaned with bleach. Porous surfaces, which include things like wood or drywall, absorb the water in bleach while leaving the chlorine on the surface. This means the mold only gets more moisture to feed off of, and will likely become worse. In this case, it’s better to use a fungicide.
There are a lot of additional factors to consider when cleaning porous surfaces. For example, has the surface been painted or sealed? Has the mold done any damage to the material? If damage has been done, removing the mold won’t fix it, and the material will need to be removed and replaced.
If you still aren’t sure if bleach is an acceptable option for your mold problem, err on the side of caution and avoid it. It isn’t worth the risk.
If you have mold in your home, then mold remediation (which is just a fancy way of saying mold removal) is usually necessary. While you can kill mold with fungicide, even dead mold can be an irritant and cause negative health effects.
This depends on your insurance policy. Some policies cover mold remediation, and some don’t. If you aren’t sure, we would be happy to work with your insurance carrier to get the details on how mold remediation fits in with your policy.
Mold can be harmful in multiple ways, both to your house and to your health. It can eat away at many materials, such as wood, and eventually create major structural issues in your home. To make matters worse, exposure to mold can give you and your family symptoms similar to allergies or the flu, including coughing, sneezing, headaches, itchy eyes and throat, and more.
Mold is most noticeable by the discoloration it causes. If you have a white wall with a big black spot growing out of it, that’s usually a sign of mold. You can also identify it by the musty smell that it tends to leave in the air. If you don’t know if mold is growing in your home but want to be sure, we provide professional mold testing services that will get you an answer quickly.
