Water Damage Everywhere, Can You Prevent It?

We all hate it when the bathtub or the toilet overflows, but what about the long term consequences of such an occurrence? Not cleaning up spilled water completely can do a lot of damage to the floors and walls of your home, not to mention creating a good environment for mold to grow in.

Clean up as much of the spilled water as you can. If you have carpet, soak up all the water on the surface that you can and after that, pull up the carpet so you can get underneath it. Drying the carpet as thoroughly as possible is the most important thing. Mold and mildew grows in carpet and once it starts to grow, there is not a whole lot that you can do to remove it. Carpet is a bad thing to have inside a bathroom and most people know that. If you do have carpet there, remove it and install tile or laminate that is caulked around thoroughly.

You need to have a vent installed in the bathroom, preferably above the bathtub or the shower stall. This will allow the steam and heat to escape the bathroom, go through the attic, and outside into the atmosphere. Letting the steam stay locked up in the bathroom with the door closed while you are bathing or showering is a bad idea because the ceiling and walls soak up the moisture and then dry that way. This is another cause of mold growth.

Keep a check on the plumbing that goes to your dishwasher and to the washer in your laundry room. Either of these household appliances can malfunction and leave your kitchen or laundry room floor flooded and if it happens while you are not at home, you will have lost quite a lot of time that could have been used cleaning it up before your floor has a chance to absorb it.

Any plumbing underneath the bathroom and kitchen sinks should also be examined for leaks on a regular basis, around once a month just to be safe. A leak can spring up overnight, so it is important to catch these as soon as you can to prevent any damage from occurring.

A leaking roof is also another regular cause of water damage and the signs of it are well known, especially when the water seeps through the sheetrock and stains the ceiling.


Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Los Angeles water damage and restoration services and Denver water damage restoration companies.

Techniques Used to Clean Up Mold

While there are a lot of different ways to kill and remove mold from your home, depending on what the mold has gotten on or into, you may want to use one technique before trying the other. Note that killing mold and removing it is not one and the same thing. Killing mold is just that: terminating the life of the mold so that it ceases to continue growing. Since the mold is dead, it cannot cause infections if it gets onto your skin because it must be alive to change into yeast. However, the bad thing about simply killing the mold is the fact that it does not have to be alive in order to cause an allergic reaction in a person. The mold spores remain intact and in their same physical condition as before, so when the spores enter the body, the body does not realize that the spores are dead and pose no threat.

You can use a wet vacuum to clean up standing water in areas of your home where it exists, since this is where mold likes to grow the most. This is especially true if there are any cellulose-based materials that have been soaked by it, such as paper, cardboard, and anything else that can be decomposed. You should only use these vacuums when the surface is wet, so mold spores do not get tossed into the air. The equipment should be cleaned and dried thoroughly after you use it, since mold and its spores can attach themselves to it.

Sometimes you can use a damp paper towel or damp cloth to clean mold off of surfaces that are nonporous, like countertops or a vinyl floor, but if you are going to do this, using chemicals that kill mold are a must. Trying to clean mold off of porous surfaces like drywall usually ends in heartbreak, because most of the time they cannot be saved. The entire item is usually too contaminated. Clothes can be saved sometimes, but this is only because of the very thin nature of the item. Thick porous surfaces like drywall are simply too thick for it to be feasible to try to save them.

HEPA filter-equipped vacuum cleaners are good to have around if you are trying to remove as much mold from your home as possible, since these vacuum cleaners will filter clean air back into the room as you vacuum. The mold spores and dirt particles will get caught in the filter and are easily disposed of afterward. When you dump the contents of the receptacle, do not touch it with your bare hands. Wear gloves if you can and do not let it come into contact with your skin. Try not to stir the contents up and do not breathe them.


Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.

Respirators Needed For Mold Remediations

When you are trying to kill and remove mold from your home or your business establishment, there are a number of different things that you need to purchase before this remediation can begin. Depending on the size of the infection, what you will need to buy can vary. Not stirring up mold spores and having as few in the air that you are breathing as possible is one of the most important concerns when you are doing this remediation on your own, because you are probably not trained in how to do this effectively. Any porous material that has become infected with mold can stir up mold spores when you begin to break it apart, such as drywall or contaminated wallpaper. If you are going to do any invasive procedures in the home to remove mold such as trying to remove mold from the inside of your walls by removing drywall, you will want to have a good respirator on hand and a protective body suit to keep the mold from coming into contact with your skin.

If you want just the minimum amount of protection from mold, then what you will probably need is an N-95 type respirator. This will cover up your nose and mouth and will effectively keep around 95 percent of mold spores and other particles in the air near you from entering your sinuses. You can find these in most hardware stores and also in some department stores.

If you want something that will help protect you just a tad better, then a full or even just a half-face APR (air purifying respirator) will help you out. These have HEPA filters on them and will filter the air that comes into your respirator so that no mold spores or other particles in the air around you get inside the mask. You will want to make sure that whatever respirator you choose to buy is approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. These will not protect your eyes.

If the mold growth is extensive and you will be exposed to it for a long period of time before the remediation is finished, you will want an APR that is powered by electricity. These are all full-face, HEPA filter equipped respirators and in order to be able to use this kind of respirator, you must be trained. Usage of these in a commercial setting should always be in accordance with OSHA’s regulations.


Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.