Despite the dry climate of Albuquerque, NM, mold can still grow anywhere in your home. Thanks to plumbing leaks, appliance leaks, roof leaks, sewage backups, and even flash flooding, mold can grow almost anywhere. When it develops, it will continue to spread throughout your home or building until it has been removed with professional products.
While mold is not always considered an emergency, it is still dangerous to your health, especially if you already suffer from allergies. The presence of mold will only make things worse, causing various symptoms including headaches, itchy eyes and throat, coughing, sneezing, and even respiratory infections.
Calling for a professional mold remediation contractor is the best way to ensure all mold cases have been removed from your home. They will be able to detect the presence of both mold and moisture, removing the mold and helping to prevent it in the future.
Can I stay in my Albuquerque, NM home if there’s mold?
So, let’s say you set up the appointment for the mold remediation service in three days. What do you do until then?
The question of whether you can stay in your home largely depends on the location, size, and type of mold you have in your home, but it is ultimately based on your own comfort level and how you react to the mold.
Although you may want to stay elsewhere if the mold…
- Is located in your bedroom
- Covers more than 10 square feet
- Has already triggered allergies or breathing issues
- Has spread to other areas of the house
How to Prevent Mold from Spreading
The key to preventing mold growth is monitoring humidity levels in your home. Living in Albuquerque, NM, this should be a piece of cake. But manmade causes of water damage like pipe leaks, sewage backups, and appliance leaks can quickly set the perfect conditions for mold.
Mold can appear just 24 hours after water damage has compromised the building materials. Especially for porous materials, like insulation, drywall, wood flooring, furniture, and other materials with tiny holes, mold spores quickly gather in these wet areas and feed off the cellulose, an organic food source, within them.
You may also notice mold growth from a musty smell, a natural odor that occurs in the presence of moisture, mold spores, and bacteria.
The key to preventing mold is to respond to water damage right away. This includes:
- Repairing pipe leaks
- Calling a professional for sewage cleanup services
- Repairing roof leaks
- Wiping up spills
- Identifying and removing the source of musty smells
- Checking for and repairing any appliance leaks
What Happens When Mold Grows in My Home
Mold requires two ingredients to survive: moisture and an organic food source, such as the cellulose contained within your home’s building materials. In other words, it only needs moisture.
As soon as mold grows in your home, it will spread by dispersing its spores and search for other areas to inhabit. It can travel by air and even the air ducts of your HVAC system. From here it can travel anywhere.
Common places mold grows include:
- Crawlspaces
- Attics
- Basements
- Bathrooms
- Bedrooms
- Kitchens
Why are these areas so prone to mold growth? Because they all contain moisture. The steam from cooking, steam from showers and baths, spoiled food in bedrooms, lack of ventilation in the basement and crawlspaces, and roof leaks in the attic are the most common reasons why mold grows in these areas.
Health Effects of Mold
When it spreads, mold spores trigger numerous health issues, especially for those with allergies, asthma, and compromised immune systems. Common symptoms of health issues related to mold include:
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Coughing
- Sneezing
- Itchy eyes and throat
- Nasal congestion
The long-term effects of mold exposure can even include respiratory infection. This is why it’s crucial to call a professional for mold removal services as soon as you find it.
Why It’s Important to Contact a Professional
While mold is annoying, dangerous, and destructive to your home, it’s critical to not try to remove it yourself. This is because over-the-counter products are not 100% effective and likely won’t remove it at the source.
Also, if there is still moisture present in the area, it won’t be long before it grows back. Mold is also a living organism, meaning it can become “aggravated” when disturbed and release more spores into the breathing air which can spread it to other areas. But without the right equipment, you can compromise your own health and safety.
When professionals remove mold, they do so wearing a full hazmat suit, or personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect themselves throughout the process.
While you are waiting for the professionals to arrive you can do the following:
- Keep the air flowing throughout your home by turning on fans and opening windows
- Run a dehumidifier if needed
- Turn on the HVAC unit
Professional Mold Removal Services
Again, it is always best to leave the mold removal project to the professionals as they are licensed, trained and experienced to remove it at the source. They will ensure it won’t spread and even repair the affected building materials if needed.
ServiceMaster of Albuquerque and West Mesa is available in Albuquerque, NM and the surrounding areas to provide mold removal services. Our products are specifically designed to remove mold at the source as well as eliminate the remaining mold spores.
Upon arrival, we will conduct a thorough evaluation of your home and identify all mold cases and areas with excess moisture using moisture detection meters. We will then create a containment chamber to prevent the mold spores from spreading during the remediation process.
Then using advanced products, equipment, and methods, we will remove the mold at the source. We will also remove any soiled building materials and install replacements. If needed, we can also provide water damage restoration to dry out and restore damaged areas.
Finally, we will apply anti-microbial while the area is drying to ensure it won’t grow back during or after the process.
Contact Us
For more information regarding our mold removal services in the Albuquerque, NM area, contact ServiceMaster of Albuquerque and West Mesa at (505) 257-6922.
