Before learning how it can affect you and how to successfully get rid of it, it’s important that you understand what is the mold anyway. Essentially, the mold is a type of fungus, significantly different than animals, bacteria, and plants. Mold is created through the process of decomposing the dead organic material and it can infect living animals, plants, but most importantly – people. The spores the Mold posses which can affect your health negatively are too small for anyone to notice with the naked eye. When the significant amount of mold accumulates in one spot, it is usually dark brownish, black or green color.

In order to form and grow the mold needs water (moisture), oxygen, and temperature levels influencing it positively (40 degrees to 100 degrees F). The mold stores and uses “nutrients” needed to support its growth from any organic material, and even though it cannot directly draw nutrients from inorganic materials such as metal, glass or concrete it can however grow on the dirt which is found on those surfaces, thus the reason why we see it on them so often.

So, if the Mold already started growing in the place you really don’t want it to be your guest (your home for example), how can you prevent it from spreading and eliminate it?

Actually, the answer is quite simple – keep your home absolutely dry at all times. If mold does not have the adequate amount of moisture it simply cannot form nor grow. Our homes are inevitably full of organic material such as food or paper faced drywall, which is the reason why the Mold will always have the organic base to grow on. Also, eliminating it by depriving it completely from oxygen is just not an option – oxygen is everywhere around us, and we need it too.

Therefore, controlling moisture is the only effective and reasonable solution for depriving the Mold of much needed element to grow and expand. As Mold can affect the health of you and your family as well as destroy building material such as wood getting rid of it is an extremely important, and often neglected task. So in order to do it the key is, as we said, keeping your home dry. The best way to start is preventing the excessive moisture levels in the air found mostly in kitchens and bathrooms, which is achieved by using the exhaust fans to prevent generation of moisture.

Then, try carefully searching for areas of dampness or wet spots in your home whether it be roofs, windows, basement or any other space. If you find any excessive moisture, or wet materials, dry them as quickly as possible since the Mold spores start growing as soon as 24 to 48 hours after the excessive moisture is available. Dry your house quickly and keep it clean and dry at all times and mold will never present a problem to you.

Make sure you take care of this easy tasks for the sake of yours and your family health, because even though a bit of exposure to mold is not dangerous by itself, “a bit” can quickly turn into “a lot” of exposure and create a serious problem. Make sure to prevent it.