In any home, there are numerous areas that are prone to mold due to the presence of a damp environment. And you are at an even higher risk of mold if you recently suffered from a flood or any kind of water damage.

Having mold in your home causes numerous health issues that can eventually become serious if not tended to. This is why knowing the signs of mold in your home is crucial to the health of you and your family.

Take note of these 5 warning signs so that you can take control and stop the mold before it’s too late.

Strange Odor

If you start to notice an unidentifiable musty smell in your home this can be a sign of mold. Mold often emanates a smell similar to old wet clothing, rotting wood or smelly feet.

This smell is one of the first signs that you may have a mold problem. The mold gives off a smell because it is releasing microbial volatile organic compounds, and these MVOC’s will eventually start to irritate your eyes and upper airways.

So if you have noticed a strange smell and are unable to locate what’s causing it, it may be time to investigate for mold.

Visible Growth

One of the most obvious signs of mold in your home is if you can see it growing. Mold is able to grow on virtually any surface and varies in color from white, grey, greenish-brown, and black.

If you begin to notice spots or circles on your wall or ceiling, this is likely mold growing. Even if it’s just small spots, this is still worth further inspection because mold could be growing on the inside of the wall.

Health Issues

If you begin to experience frequent coughing, congestion or irritated eyes and are not prone to seasonal allergies this is another sign of mold in your environment. Health issues caused by mold often mimic symptoms of allergies because your body is having an allergic response from breathing in the toxin.

It can also cause dizziness, headaches, and even concentration issues. Individuals with a weaker immune system are at higher risk of experiencing these symptoms.

Condensation

A common cause of mold in your home is the build-up of condensation around the windows. This condensation, if left untreated, will often create the ideal environment for mold to flourish.

Check around your windows to ensure that mold isn’t already present and stay on top of removing moisture build-up.

Moisture

If you notice bubbling paint, squishy floorboards, or water stains these are areas to inspect further.

Because mold grows best in wet environments, where there is water damage there is likely also mold. Increased moisture is often the first sign of a mold issue.

Look For Signs Of Mold In Your Home

By keeping your eye out for these signs of mold in your home, you’ll be able to tackle this issue before it gets out of hand. If you suspect the presence of mold it’s always best to call a professional to take care of the problem.

And for all your home restoration needs, contacts us!

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source http://www.kten.com/story/41179947/5-warning-signs-of-mold-in-your-home

If you discover a mold problem, there are certainly some things you shouldn’t do. To ensure a safe and efficient mold removal, contact professionals!

If you suspect there’s mold in your home, you might be tempted to try and tackle it on your own, thinking that’s the most cost-efficient and time-effective approach. However, even though there are many things safe to fix on your own, cleaning mold is certainly not one of them. In fact, attempting to remove mold by yourself can actually cause more harm than good.

Finding Mold in the Home

The following are five things you should NOT do if you find mold in your home:

1. Do NOT attempt to clean mold using a normal vacuum. A mold spore is extremely small and will go right through a typical vacuum filter. When working with mold, use a HEPA vacuum. These vacuums are able to collect 99.9 percent of particles larger than 0.3 microns in size and trap them in their filters. Using a HEPA vacuum will also help prevent cross-contamination with other areas of your home.
2. Do NOT remove mold without setting up proper containment. When removing contaminated materials, it is necessary to contain the affected area in order to protect the rest of your home from possible spreading of the mold spores. The area must be properly sealed and the HVAC system should be turned off. The logic behind this is that handling moldy materials disturbs resting mold spores, which then become airborne and are more easily inhaled.
3. Do NOT handle mold without personal protective equipment. When mold is agitated during a remediation project or demolition, it becomes airborne. To minimize your chances of inhaling potentially harmful mold spores, always wear a face mask or a respirator. This is particularly important as, during a demolition or mold removal, you are typically breathing heavily, which can increase the amount of mold you inhale. It is also a good idea to wear coveralls and gloves to avoid touching coming into contact with mold. The safest route is contacting the professionals with the best, most reliable equipment in the industry.
4. Do NOT use bleach to clean mold. The majority of people believe that bleach is a great cleaning agent. While this may be true for bacteria and viruses, bleach is not as effective for cleaning mold. This is because bleach can only kill surface mold, not the mold growing deep within the material. Moreover, because of its harshness, bleach may actually damage whatever surface you’re trying to clean. If you’re looking for an effective but eco-friendly way to clean mold, there are plenty of anti-fungal cleaning products available on the market today. Or, for an all-natural approach, you can even try a solution of vinegar and water.
5. Do NOT ignore a mold problem. Ignoring mold growth, big or small, is one of the worst things you can do. The longer you let mold grow, the greater the damage done to your property and the higher the cost to repair it. The best thing you can do is to call a mold remediation professional, who will be able to handle your mold problem with expertise, care, and the right equipment.

Prevent Mold and Protect Your Health

Regardless of how healthy you are or feel that you are, it’s not possible to completely escape or bypass the negative effects that long-time exposure to mold has on your health. 

Many professionals in the field of environmental medicine, peer-reviewed literature on the topic, and victims of mold exposure themselves encourage prevention or, in other words, demand action.

Do your part to ensure mold doesn’t have the opportunity to grow and continue to produce deadly volatile organic compounds or toxins in your home. Do your part to prevent permanent injury from chronic exposure.

The debate over mold in your home and your health

Considering there’s an ongoing debate over a causal relationship between mold and symptoms associated with exposure to mold, families chronically affected by mold are left with unanswered questions and they’re shelling out their dollars for what may or may not help them on their journey back to health. Insurance plans neither recognize environmental illness, like mold, nor advocate for your child if the state of his or her health suffers as a result of the environment.

The debate over mold in your home and remediation

If there is, in fact, a mold problem developing in your home, proper remediation also invites debate, as there are no government guidelines dictating how professionals must clean, to ensure your home is left safe when the job is declared finished. Unfortunately, for many, this controversy lends way to disbelief and lack of action, when in fact, action is exactly what everyone must do to prevent mold growing out of control in your home or workplace.

source https://baltimorepostexaminer.com/five-things-not-to-do-when-you-have-a-mold-problem/2019/10/15

source https://www.kztv10.com/news/community/vista-semanal/local/update-pods-company-reimburses-military-family-for-damaged-property

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Cedar Hills, Utah Inspection Service Uncovers Mold During House Sale  StreetInsider.com

source https://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Advantage/Cedar+Hills%2C+Utah+Inspection+Service+Uncovers+Mold+During+House+Sale/16008283.html

source https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/demand-new-molds-could-improve-moderately-2020

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It does not matter how large or small  it is or what the state of your property is if it is hit by a disaster such as flooding, storms, fire, mold or the sewers backing up into your home, damage will be caused and you will need to arrange for it to be restored back to a good and liveable condition. It does not have to be a huge disaster to cause a lot of damage. Water, for instance, can create an untold number of problems and it could be that a pipe has burst rather than anything more major. How do you deal with things when your property needs restoring? Here are a few suggestions that might help.

Stop More Damage

Before you do anything else you should see if you can stop the damage becoming from worse. Can you move more items away from any water, for instance, so that the damage is minimized? Could you prevent more damage by boarding up windows that have been blown out in a storm? There may be several things you could do to ensure the damage does not get any worse.

Use Professionals

If the damage is extensive, it is best to use restoration companies that are experienced in this type of work. If you are unsure how to find the best one in your location, there is information to help you at Service Restore, who are disaster cleanup experts when it comes to damage caused by floods, mold, fire, sewage or storms.

Not using professionals can delay the time taken to put the damage right and cause you more stress while you are having to live with the situation.

Call Your Insurers

Not all home insurance covers all disasters. For example, sometimes flooding is excluded if it is caused by storms but is covered if it is burst pipes. You need to speak to your insurers to find out if your damage comes under your policy, and if it does, ask if you have to use their recommended repairers, as often this is the case.

If they are happy for you to use which restore company you want, get onto the task of finding a good one right away as the insurers will not want the damage to get any worse and could refuse to pay the extra if neglect causes more harm.

Do It Yourself

If the damage is not too great and you are a handy type of person, you may want to repair the damage yourself. Be wary, though, because if you do not get it right and create more problems, any insurance you have could become invalid. Decorating and straight forward tasks like that are not so bad, but if there is water or electrical damage you should not attempt the repairs yourself unless you are in the trade the repairs need.

Sometimes, doing the repairs yourself can seem the quickest and cheapest solution, but this is not always the case.

Disasters of any sort can be a shock to your system as well as making life difficult for a while. It is best to get it put right as soon as you can and let your life get back to normal.

source https://augustafreepress.com/how-to-deal-with-restoring-your-property-after-a-disaster/

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Thank you for reading.

source https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/marijuana/marijuana-a-q-and-a-for-those-who-ve-never/collection_7cbbbe9b-caa8-55ce-a957-5fd226b5b311.html

In a document attached to the email, which lists updated FAQs for residents, Granville said residents will have to leave their suite by 9 a.m. on the day that work on their suite is scheduled and will be relocated to a hotel for the next two nights. 

Granville said in the FAQ that this remediation process, which involves addressing over 350 HVAC units, will take their contractors several weeks. Three companies — Matrix Health & Safety, Enpuricon and HVAC Improvements — will be performing cleanup and repairs. Granville is working with Enpuricon and HVAC engineers at Moore’s Mechanical to develop a plan for remediating and re-engineering all of the HVAC units.

Hayer said in the email that Granville has put together a systematic plan to treat clusters of rooms each day, starting in the West Tower and then moving to the other towers. On Thursday, the Granville Towers maintenance team began installing HEPA Filter Air Scrubbers to rooms awaiting remediation.

Granville said in the FAQ that residents will stay in The Carolina Inn, The AC Marriott or The Franklin Hotel, all of which are within walking distance of Granville. Residents will not be charged unless they damage anything or charge items to their rooms, the FAQ said.

“Carolina is committed to ensuring that all students have a safe and clean place to live,” Media Relations Manager Kate Luck said in an email. “We apologize for any inconvenience and concern this causes our students and parents. We are confident that Greystar will fully remediate all affected areas.”

In the Oct. 9 email, Hayer advised students to schedule an appointment with Campus Health if they have certain symptoms such as eye irritation, nasal stuffiness, wheezing or skin irritation,  or if they are taking medication that might affect their immune system. 

First-year Tyler Parker, a Granville resident, said he had known something was wrong with the vents since he moved into his room in August — but he said the first time they were told about the mold was with Granville’s recent emails.

“I moved in, and there was stuff on the outside of my vent,” Parker said. “I didn’t really think it was mold, but in retrospect, it definitely was.” 

While he isn’t sure whether it’s related to the mold, Parker said he has been sick in the past two weeks with what he doesn’t think is a cold or the flu. He said he’s heard other residents coughing a lot through the night.

Parker said he thinks what Granville has been doing in terms of maintenance has been fine but found their communication lacking.

“We didn’t know if they were coming through every single tower and cleaning out every single room, or if it was a contained problem or if it was in every room,” Parker said. “They’ve kind of been sporadically updating us on it, but it wasn’t, I don’t think, as good as it could have been in terms of communication.”

university@dailytarheel.com

source https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2019/10/granville-mold-1014

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The city of Neosho is making a smart choice in an attempt to resolve a recurring threat to some residents of the city and their homes.

The city is seeking federal Community Development Block Grants for funding to buy out properties subject to repeated flooding and to provide relocation assistance to renters. While a number of questions about the buyout plan remain, the approach is the right one.

Interest in the buyout plan was tepid when it was first proposed, but repeated flooding this summer changed many residents’ minds.

«Our house is protected by a levee that is supposed to protect us from a 500-year flood,» Neosho resident Tracy Clements told the Globe in an interview recently. «It’s come over the levee twice now, and when it does that, it’s like a tidal wave that comes across our yard in less than a minute.»

Southwest Missouri is no stranger to disaster, as Joplin residents well know. And models show flooding events such as the ones Neosho has experienced are going to continue to become more frequent.

On top of the threat to the life and safety of residents, risks of repeated flooding include damage to structures, fungal and mold infestations and illnesses, rot, pests and more. While we rightly help those affected by a disaster, it is time for our communities, our state and our nation to carefully consider the best way to address disaster relief given the rising cost of recovery assistance that is inundating our nation.

Disaster recovery can be done in a way that cuts the risk that taxpayers will have to pay to rebuild again. Adjusted for inflation, the 1980-2018 annual average for weather and climate events that result in more than a billion dollars in damage is 6.3; the annual average for 2014-18 is double that, 12.6 events, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

Buying out properties that are threatened with recurring flooding is wise. It not only helps those harmed by the rising waters and helps them to find safer abodes, it also reduces the risk of costly future damage by converting the properties to uses that can readily recover from inundation.

Additionally, floodplain maps must be redrawn to take new realities into account. We should work to limit damage and harden properties against disaster. Disaster preparedness and recovery require that our communities and agencies at various levels of government work to stave off future damage while helping those hit by disaster to recover.

We must stop rebuilding in flood zones. We need resilient buildings in areas around the floodplain and the buyout of structures that have repeatedly flooded will rightly reduce repeated disaster payouts.

The Neosho City Council is displaying good leadership by pursuing this program. Recovery dollars will go to ensure that over time, floods will do less damage. And most importantly, people will be safer.

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source https://www.joplinglobe.com/opinion/editorials/our-view-neosho-s-flood-buyout-plan-is-the-right/article_5558673c-85fa-5fbd-b0e5-ed8997911e7c.html

Retired soldier had initial concerns of being charged after leaving to care for terminally ill sister

After conversations to determine who’s responsible for mold in a Fort Bragg residential unit, housing officials say they will not charge the resident for the damage.

Earlier this month, Randolph Pointe resident Michele Robertson reached out to The Fayetteville Observer with concerns that she would be responsible for mold found in her apartment.

Robertson retired as a master sergeant in 2018 after being in the Army for 33 years,

She was in the middle of her lease at Randolph Pointe that began last September, when she needed to go out of state to care for her sister, who is battling terminal lung cancer.

Robertson said she notified property managers in February that she was headed to Ohio because her sister’s terminal lung cancer had spread to her ribs.

“While I was in Ohio taking care of my sister,  the cancer spread to her brain, liver and hips,” Robertson said. “I contacted (the property manager) at Randolph Point and let her know I was going to be staying in Ohio for quite some time to take care of my sister.”

By May, Robertson said her sister needed emergency surgery.

During that time, Robertson said she remained up-to-date with automatic electronic payments toward her rent.

Once her sister’s condition stabilized, Robertson returned to Fort Bragg, and that’s when she discovered mold in her front-entrance closet.

Robertson said she suspected the mold was caused by a leak within the heating and ventilation unit that she was not aware of before leaving for Ohio.

Robertson said maintenance arrived to take photographs, and the property manager also visited the apartment and made arrangements for her to stay in other lodging on Fort Bragg.

“I want to make it clear: I do not blame the property manager or maintenance workers,” Robertson said.

Yet Robertson said she felt the employees were bearing a message from officials higher up. Robertson said she initially was told that she would be responsible for the costs to remove the mold because she was not consistently in the unit to see it or report it.

“They asked about my insurance covering it, which my insurance won’t,” she said last week. «All I want is for them to back off and not bill me. I’m not asking for anything but that.”

In reaching out to Corvias officials this week, representatives said the Fort Bragg housing partner places the well-being of its residents “above all else.”

“After further investigation into the report of mold, we will not hold Ms. Robertson responsible,” Corvias representatives said, expressing condolences for Robertson’s “challenging time.”

Representatives said immediate repairs will be made to the source of the moisture and remediate any mold noted.

“Until repairs are complete, we will provide the resident with temporary lodging, and the resident will not incur any out-of-pocket expenses,” Corvias representatives said.

Robertson said she already had plans to move out of state, and her initial concerns were whether she would be charged for the cost of mold remediation and repairs.

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Asked what Corvias’s policy is for residents reporting damage to a unit, representatives said leases state that residents are responsible for reporting issues that may result in damage.

“Additionally, the resident is responsible for taking appropriate steps to make sure that in their absence that their home is in the care of someone and periodically checked on,” representatives said.

If a service member is deployed or not present for personal reasons, Corvias can check on the residence, representatives said.

“We want to be able to offer peace of mind that their property is being looked after and that they will return home to the place they call home,” representatives said.

However, the service member should notify management of the absence, representatives said.

“The lease does have provisions that hold residents responsible for any damage that comes as a result of unreported maintenance issues,” Corvias representatives said.

Robertson said she did notify management of her absence and that she would have reported any issues in the unit once noticing them.

Provisions are outlined in the lease and Resident Responsibility Guide, which tell residents what is their responsibility and what could result as a damage claim, Corvias representatives said.

“Corvias will only charge a resident when there are damages in excess of normal wear and tear during a resident’s term of residency,” representatives said.

Representatives said Corvias will conduct a “pre-walk” with residents for preliminary move-out assessments, and the resident can take steps to make repairs if any excessive wear and tear is noted.

“Residents are never charged for normal wear and tear, and we only require that the home be minimally cleaned and broom swept,” representatives said.

In instances of natural disasters or nature causing damage to a unit, Corvias representatives said residents are encouraged to purchase renter’s insurance to protect personal items.

Robertson said her insurance does not cover mold damage to personal items, but reiterated her main concern was about whether she would be held responsible for the mold in Corvias’ building caused by the company’s equipment.

Representatives said the lease provisions and rules help guide the communities so they can “be the best it can be” for military families and residents.

“However, Corvias does not apply this as the rule of law,” representatives said. “Corvias is flexible and strives to always take care of our service members and their families first,  regardless of the issue. As in Ms. Robinson’s situation, we felt the leak and resulting damage was unavoidable so she will not be held responsible at this time.”

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528

source https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20191012/corvias-bragg-resident-not-responsible-for-mold-found-in-apartment