Water Damage Team Blog

Mold can be not only hard on your health, but also hard to find. To help your protect your home and yourself we’ve collected this list of top 10 signs that you may have a mold problem.

1. Strange Smell
Mold has a foul smell that you should be able to notice. If a certain spot in your home smells odd, check around anywhere excess moisture might be present.

2. Appearance of Mold
It may seem obvious, but sometimes mold will appear in places you wouldn’t normally look. Every once in awhile, check under your sinks and around windows and doors for possible signs of mold.

3. Peeling Paint
Peeling paint means there is moisture in your walls, and the paint will no longer stick. Moisture in the walls is a sign for possible mold as well as structural damage.

4. Wet Spots
If you see any spot on the outside of your home that looks wet, it may mean there is moisture and possible mold in the structure.

5. Health Symptoms
Mold can be hazardous to you health in many ways. One type of health issue mold can give you is allergy-like symptoms. If you have a sudden onslaught of allergies in a certain room, check for mold.

6. Decaying Wood
If wood in the structure of your home seems to be decaying, there is probably excess moisture present. Mold can grow inside holes of wood and spread easily without you noticing.

7. Chalky Substance on Walls
A binding agent in walls will sometimes break down under moist conditions, leaving a chalky residue on your wall. This is a clear sign of water damage and/or mold problems.

8. Leaky Ceiling/Roof
A leaky ceiling or roof means water is traveling through layers of building components. When you have your ceiling repaired, check for mold in your walls so it doesn’t spread and create a worse problem.

9. Standing Water
If you find a puddle of water somewhere in your home and you know you haven’t spilt something, look up. A leak may just be forming and hopefully before mold was created.

10. Drywall Tape Loosening
If your drywall tape is coming loose, water has almost definitely gotten into the structure of your home and you should check for mold and repair damages as soon as possible.

Everyone knows that leaks are not good, but you might be surprised to learn that there are numerous different ways that water can cause damage to your house. Remember this list of 8 ways water can damage your home from the water removal experts at WaterDamageTeam.com

1. If a leak starts in the walls, it can sometimes go undetected for months. Serious damage to the walls can occur within hours.

2. If a water leak gets through to your wooden floors or walls, it can cause structural damage and possible health hazards.

3. Sometimes you get lucky and a leak only gets water on the outside of your walls. However, this can still be damaging because it can fade paint and ruin wallpaper.

4. Pipes break unexpectedly. If a pipe breaks when you are not home, water damage can result in multiple places in your home, resulting in.

5. Failure to properly seal your windows and doors around the edges can result in ruined carpets after a storm. Water can easily creep under a door and soak into the carpet before you even notice.

6. Any kind of water leak can cause a mold problem. Mold is not only is it hard to get rid of, it can also be potentially harmful to your health.

7. Heavy rain often causes pools to overflow sending a wave of water right into the side of your home causing serious exterior and possible interior damage.

8. After it snows big chunks of snow and ice can melt around your home and on the roof, slowly draining water into your foundation that you can’t see.

Although not all molds are hazardous to your health, many are, and it is smart to monitor your home for molds. To help you better understand mold, here are the Top 10 Unknown Facts about Mold from the Water Damage Team

1. Molds can be found almost anywhere; they can grow on virtually any substance, providing moisture is present.

2. 50% of homes contain problem molds.

3. Mold is more common today than it was 50 years ago, due to more airtight building structures.

4. Just a little mold can affect your health drastically over time.

5. You can fix the source of a water problem or leak to prevent mold growth.

6. Workers exposed to large amounts of mold on the job, such as farmers working with moldy hay, are most likely to get the worst affects of mold.

7. The only way to prevent mold from occurring within a structure is to prevent moisture build-up anywhere.

8. 30-50% of all structures have damp conditions that may encourage development of mold.

9. Potential health effects and symptoms associated with mold exposures include allergic reactions, asthma, and other respiratory complaints.

10. Mold knows no geographic boundaries and can be a problem even in cool, dry climates