Sunday, January 8, 2012

Guidelines When Testing for Mold

Never think that mold is easy to deal with. Mold is unpleasant to look at and it can also lead to some serious health issues. The only way to avoid these potential ailments is to have your home tested for mold on a regular basis.

Mold can cause all kinds of respiratory discomforts. Be wary if your family starts sneezing for no apparent reason - it might be an indication that mold is present. Watery eyes, coughing, sneezing, troubled breathing and skin irritation are all indicative of mold.

The majority of mold tests require a thorough analysis of the air in and around your home, particularly in at-risk areas. The process is quite involved, so you may have to call in a professional who has all of the right equipment and know how. Don’t be shocked if there is mold in your air - not all molds are dangerous.

Whilst most molds are not likely to upset your health, certain toxic variants can be fatal. The presence of mycotoxins is what makes mold harmful. These are what toxic mold testing kits hope to identify and detect, since experts believe that mycotoxins can cause neurologic illnesses and even deaths.

In some cases a standard mold test is not enough, and you have to take the extreme option of a mold inspection. If you choose this option, an expert will come to your home to carry out visual inspections. With the help of specialized tools, the aim is to photograph and diagnose the infestation, send off samples to a lab for testing, and then to eradicate the problem.

Unfortunately, these contractors don’t come cheap. Because of the considerable cost, you will need to research other options before undergoing a full inspection Thankfully you have a lot of other options.

One, you can educate yourself, read books about molds and understand how and where they exist. As a safe rule, mold mostly thrives in dark, damp, humid or steamy areas inside and outside your home. One of the best precautionary measures that you can take is to prevent water from dripping into your home.

Mold also thrives in cluttered storage areas. Try to avoid clutter and dust build up - shifting your furniture from time to time is useful too. Changing the lighting and ventilation in your home will also reduce mold.

Preventing mold is simple when your home is neat and open. In nature, mold is found on dead or decaying matter, so throw away the “dead and decaying” from your home. If you wish to check the presence of mold after cleaning up, there are a few online services that provide inexpensive lab analyses.

Know your enemy. If you are well researched you are in a better position to conduct testing. If you make use of this advice you are more likely to keep your home free of toxic mold.

When in search of assistance in your toxic mold testing endeavor, hitting the link will help.