“The New York Times” recently reported that the Department of Housing Preservation and Development issued over 14,000 violations for mold infestations in residential buildings in 2010. Not just found in NYC’s older buildings, the Stachybotrys chartarum strain of mold was found along with other molds linked to respiratory tract illnesses in buildings that are not even five years old. New York City investigates approximately 500 cases of mold each year.
The cause of the mold infestations in newer buildings in the city is linked to water damage caused by poorly installed plumbing or insulation. While one may think that the mold problems are isolated to low-income neighborhoods, the “Times” states that spores were recently found in brand-new, multimillion-dollar condos.
Mold-Resistant Drywall
To help prevent the growth of mold, some contractors are looking to mold-resistant drywall, which they install in kitchens, bathrooms or near HVAC units. These areas tend to have the most water damage or are more prone to leaks. Mold-resistant drywall is a little more expensive than its, gypsum board counterpart, but its use can save thousands of dollars in mold remediation in the future.
In 2010, the Green Codes Task Force proposed requiring contractors to use mold-resistant drywall in new buildings. The city council is still considering the proposal. “The New York Times” adds:
“The use of mold-resistant drywall alone is not enough to ensure that a home will be mold-free. The exterior needs to be impermeable; all the building materials need to remain dry during the construction process; and condensation should not form inside the walls.”
Many mold problems in a home are out of sight as the family within it blames their coughs and breathing problems on allergies, viruses and unexplained asthma. If you see mold in your home, call a mold remediation specialist in the near future for mold removal services. Chances are that the visible mold is only the introduction of a widespread mold infestation.
Does your lawn still have a grayish-white fuzz on it even after the winter snow melts? If so, you have snow mold on your hands. Snow mold happens when deep snowfall occurs early in the cold weather season and prevents the ground from freezing. The cool, moist area between the ground and snow becomes the perfect breeding ground for snow mold to become active. As long as the ground stays moist, the mold will stick around. This type of mold is sometimes also seen in piles of un-raked leaves.
While snow mold will just cause gray patches of grass that are slow to green, there is a chance it could affect your home if tracked inside. The mold may continue to grow if it is tracked into a cool, damp area of a home, such as the basement or garage. If you have items stored in these rooms, such as important documents or books, snow mold could damage them. When you have mold-damaged documentsorbooks, you will need the help of a mold remediation specialist to restore them.
To help avoid the growth of snow mold, avoid using a fertilizer that contain a lot of nitrogen during the fall months. Additionally, the University of Minnesota suggests fertilizing your lawn around Labor Day. If your lawn is particularly prone to snow mold growth, however, do not fertilize it in the fall at all. Finally, when mowing you lawn, do not trim it shorter than two inches.
Holly Martinez of Kewa Pueblo witnessed firsthand how detrimental mold can be to a child’s health. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that for the first time in over two years, Holly’s child, Dominique, has slept through the night. The young mother reports that Dominique, who has cerebral palsy, would wake up on a nightly basis with difficulties breathing because of the mold in the home.
The realization about mold’s harmful effects came after a devastating hailstorm earlier in the month damaged Martinez’s home, along with the homes of 66 other families. Left homeless, the family now resides in a community shelter that helps displaced family. Martinez states, “I never knew (mold) was affecting her so much. At our house, she would wake up at night, gasping for air. Here, she sleeps through the night.”
The homes of 600 area families were devastated by water damage after the hailstorm. As a result, the families that moved did so because the damage was so severe that it posed dangerous health risks. It could cost up to $2 million to reconstruct the water-damaged community.
Children and the elderly are the most vulnerable when mold takes over a building. Martinez’s grandmother, Andrea Calabaza, developed a fungal infection in her nose because of the mildew that grew in the home over the years due to continual water damage.
For Martinez and Calabaza, the building lost to mold was more than just a home—it was also their place of business from where the family would make and sell beaded jewelry. When individuals think of business continuity, they often imagine damage to a remote location away from the home. However, when a business is run out of a home, emergency disaster plans must be made for both the family and enterprise.
If your home or office building was affected by recent water damage, such as floods, you may not be done with the cleanup process even though the water may appear to be gone. Anything that got wet must be completely dried to prevent structural damage and mold.
Federal Coordinating Officer Gregory Eaton from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stated in a news release today, “People are anxious to get on with their lives after a flood, but if you had flood waters in your home take the time to clean thoroughly so problems don’t arise later that affect your home or your health.”
Mold and Health Symptoms
Ranging in color from white to black and orange to brown, mold quickly multiplies and grows in damp environments, particularly flood damaged buildings. Cleaning it is crucial to the health and safety of those in a building or home. Mold exposure is particularly dangerous to children, infants, pregnant women, the elderly, immune-compromised patients and those who have respiratory conditions. Symptoms of mold exposure include coughing, attacks in those who have asthma, nose and throat irritation, and wheezing.
Mold Prevention
Unless you hire a professional remediation company, there is no way to eliminate all the mold spores inside a building in a practical manner. However, you can take steps to prevent its growth by stopping leaks and the seepage of water into a building and keeping the building clean, well ventilated, dry and disinfected.
Flooding, extending from the Midwestern states to the east coast of the U.S., has caused unforeseen devastation and cleanup costs. States affected by floodwaters include Iowa, Delaware, Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and more. The causes of the floods are due to severe thunderstorms in the north and along the Atlantic Coast that filled rivers and lakes, and Tropical Depression Bonnie, which brewed in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Reuters.
Clean-Up Tips
Now that the storms are gone, residents in the flood-damaged states are left to clean the devastation in extreme heat. To those cleaning up after the aftermath of the natural disasters, consider the following tips:
Take pictures of all the damage to your property and write notes about it on a piece of paper. When individuals are stressed-out important information can easily slip their memory, and this type of documentation is helpful when making a claim with an insurance company or are seeking remediation assistance.
Use water cautiously. While water from wells may be okay for bathing in, only drink bottled water or water you boiled.
Start cleaning flood-damaged items as soon as you know it is safe to do so. Heat and moisture are the perfect breeding grounds for mold. Mold can grow in as little as three days, so it is to one’s advantage to act quickly, especially when it comes to wet documents, wet books and photographs. This is something business owners need to act quickly on so they can get back in business ASAP.
See if FEMA has declared a disaster in your area. Checkout their mobile site, m.fema.gov, and apply for disaster aid on your Smartphone.
Call in the experts. The assistance of a disaster restoration company can help you make sure your wet items are completely dry and mold-free so you do not have reoccurring mold problems and damage in the future.
While storms are scary and the aftermath is stressful, you have the power get your life back to normal quickly when you clean the water damage correctly. Learn more about what to do after a flood.
“The New York Times” recently reported that the Department of Housing Preservation and Development issued over 14,000 violations for mold infestations in residential buildings in 2010. Not just found in NYC’s older buildings, the Stachybotrys chartarum strain of mold was found along with other molds linked to respiratory tract illnesses in buildings that are not even five years old. New York City investigates approximately 500 cases of mold each year.
