Black Mold?
By Jim Palmer Jr.

So, you have black mold in some of the corners of your house? Is it the bad stuff they talk about? Probably not! The black nasty mold that has caused some hysteria in the past is called Stachybotrys and has never been found on the east side of our state, despite what alarmists may think! There are hundreds of species of mold however, all of which can afflict the average household.

The truth is that mold spores are everywhere, inside and outside of your house! When there is a certain combination of heat and moisture, mold can grow into something hard to get rid of. It will even grow through layers of Kilz paint or other coatings designed for such cover ups. New homes are built to be fairly air tight, so without proper air exchange moisture can be trapped inside with no way to escape, and the growth of existing mold spores can be inevitable. Heating and air conditioning units can then spread the invisible spores throughout the whole house in a short amount of time.

Your home could be a magnet for mold, especially if there is a roof leak, moisture problems in a bathroom or water leaks in a crawl space.  Fixing leaks is essential to the solution, since mold can only grow where there are favorable conditions. One solution for moisture in attics and crawlspaces is to create more ventilation so condensation cannot accumulate. Covering mold spots with paint is only a temporary band-aid. Fixing the reason for the moisture is always the best solution, then removal of any items that contain active growing mold, such as sheetrock, will be the only way to be sure it is gone.

There are various methods for removal of mold, but one of the best solutions is to treat the area with an anti-microbial solution made specifically for that purpose, sort of like how Round-up kills weeds on your driveway. You may not want to try this yourself! Hire a professional! Don’t worry about testing for mold because if you can see mold, there is mold, and there is no sense in paying someone to tell you that. Mold cleanups by professionals are very detailed in their scope of work, much the same as asbestos mitigation and can be very costly! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so go take a look in your attic and crawl space, count the spiders and look for mold!