Maher Restoration – Water Damage & Mold

If you have water damage in your house, aside from the water damaging your personal property, water damage mold may spring up in your house. If you are planning to hire a water damage restoration business to clean up the water you have to make sure that they get rid of the mold and mildew, which will start growing on wet insulated walls. Why is getting rid of it so important? Although mold is not known as some serious bacterial disease, it, if enough of it is present, can trigger allergies, irritate the eyes and lungs, cause headaches, induce vomiting, and make you tired. You already have mold in your house, particularly in the bathroom, where there is a lot of moisture. It can hide underneath your floor tiles, wallpaper, drywall, carpet…pretty much everywhere. It takes a lot of mold, however, to start causing the aforementioned health problems. You know you have too much mold if you have a musty basement smell. If you want to know for sure where you have mold and if you have safe levels of it, simply search for “damage restoration” at your local business directory or Yellowpages.com. Because most people have water damage, rather than anything else, pretty much all of these services are skilled at detecting and treating mold growth after water damage. Whether you hire a water damage restoration company to get rid of the mold from water damage or you do it yourself, here are some things you can do to dry up your house faster…

Open up your doors and windows so that the air circulates through your house better.

Turn up the air conditioning or heating, if it’s winter time. You want air flowing around your house so that you don’t have the moist conditions, which mold and mildew love.

Dry up anything you can take care of now. In other words, dry up blankets and small carpets. A good idea is to just leave them outside to dry.

Make use of a dehumidifier. On Amazon you’re able to buy one for around $200.

Getting rid of mold from water damage in your house is not as complicated as you think it is. When cleaning it, be sure to wear gloves, goggles, a mask, and protective clothing because you don’t know for sure what stage of growth the mold is in. It may be the toxic black mold, which you do not want to come in contact with.

To get rid of drywall water damage mold you’re simply going to cut away the drywall where you suspect the mold is, throw away the drywall, and clean up any mold you see on the wooden boards or whatever is behind the removed wall using soap and water. Once you’re done cleaning everything you can replace the molded up drywall with a new one.

If you have water damage mold in your carpet the best thing you can do is to replace your carpet assuming the mold & water damage is extensive. If these is minimal water damage (and consequently little mold) you can clean up your carpet with the help of a carpet steam cleaner, which uses a Lysol or soap solution and water. This “minimal” mold growth on your carpet may grow to something a lot bigger. The best thing to do is remove your carpet, clean up any mold you see with a soap or bleach solution, paint the floor with an oil based paint, and get a new carpet. Another idea is to get rid of the carpet in the first place, especially if you have one in the basement or bathroom.

If you have mold in other places, such as under your tiles or wallpaper, clean it off using bleach and a little bit of soap. You have to use your own intuition in deciding whether or not to replace things such as floor tiles and wallpaper. You may have to hire mold and water damage specialists if your mold problem is bad enough. Maybe the mold is too deep inside your walls, ceilings, or floors. Or maybe it covers way to much area.

If you are looking to clean up black mold water damage, it is no different than cleaning up regular mold. The only difference is that black mold is toxic, so you should be weary of getting into contact with it. Just wear the same gloves, goggles, a mask, and protective clothing as you would for any mold clean up and you should be fine.