Just about all of my friends are worried about mold. Black mold, yellow mold, green mold, slimy mold, fuzzy mold, mold spores – there are so many types of mold that can invade your home and degrade your air quality with its mold spores and mold odor. Mold is known especially for having adverse health affects on those with allergies and asthma and can cause headaches, runny nose, sneezing, fatigue, rashes and asthma attacks. If you seem to have these mold related symptoms from a particular house or room, it’s probably not just the clashing color schemes that’s causing you anguish. It’s probably mold.

Mold likes to grow in damp, cool places with little air flow and is especially bothersome on porous surfaces. As we all know by now, there are lots of places in and around the home that fit this criteria. You’ve probably experienced:

• Mold and mildew in the bathroom including:
  • mold on bathroom tile
  • mold on bathroom caulking
  • mold on bathroom walls
  • mold in the bath tub and shower
  • mold in the exhaust fan
• Mold in the kitchen
• Mold on the interior walls and ceiling
• Mold on wooden beams
• Mold on outdoor furniture including
  • Mold on teak
  • Mold on bamboo
  • Mildew on vinyl decking

No matter what kind of mold you have, the first step to removing mold is to locate it. Let’s begin there.

How to Locate Mold and Mildew

Mold is tricky because it often grows in hard to reach, out of sight areas. But if you’ve come down with the mold symptoms discussed above or simply smell a mold odor, you’re probably well aware that mold is present in your home. To find mold, it’s best to check some of these common spots for hidden mold in the home:

• Check in high moisture areas. This includes:
  • bathrooms
  • basements
  • attics
  • kitchens
• Look along the bottom of the wall. Remember to:
  • Pull furniture away from the wall
  • Look in dark corners
  • Check for peeling wall paper, cracked walls or bulging paint
  • Look inside hollow walls and crawl spaces
• Check around appliances and water fixtures
  • Beneath, behind and inside the fridge (check the drip pan and lower shelves!)
  • Beneath and around the sink
  • Beneath and around the dish washer
• Look under loose carpets, beneath floor boards and base boards
• Check ceilings and the tops of beams
• Check shower curtains and the ceilings in bathrooms
• Check the exhaust fan in your bathroom
• Check the insides of vents and air conditioner ducts
• Check inside cupboards and cabinets. Be sure to check the underside of shelves.

Also, remember to follow your nose. If a room smells musty or mildewy, turn the entire place over until you find it. It’s lurking there somewhere and it’ll remain there until you find it. Another place mildew can lurk: inside of drains – especially infrequently used drains.

So, let’s move on to how to clean up mildew and mold.

How to Clean Mold and Mildew in and Around the House

Different surfaces take different solutions. That’s because you don’t want to damage the material. But for an all purpose mildew cleaner, I recommend using straight white distilled vinegar. Zap it with the vinegar and let it rest. Then I dampen a sponge with hot water and sprinkle it with baking soda. Then I scrub away! Usually this does the trick and this is safe for bathroom caulk, wood beams, interior walls, vinyl decking and almost any other kind of hard surface in the home.

If you suspect you’ve got mold inside your drain, flush it out with some vinegar and baking soda. Let it sit for awhile and then douse it with boiling or hot water. Be sure to also read our PSA about bleach and old pipes.

If you have outdoor furniture, such as teak furniture, you’ll want to be a little more careful. Most teak furniture manufacturers recommend using a special teak furniture cleanser as well as a teak sealer to prevent further mildew growth. The vinegar trick works for minor jobs, but I really recommend using the commercial cleaners for heavy mold stains. This is because they are often one-two punches – a harsh acid to eat away the mold and then a neutralizer to stop the cleaner from degrading the wood. One thing I do not recommend is teak oil. Teak oil is what the mildew and mold were chowing down on the first place. Teak oil will make it shine in the short term, but is essentially like drizzling it with chocolate syrup  (i.e. making it much tastier for mold and mildew).

If you have mold on exterior walls such as brick, siding, vinyl and other resilient materials, you can go ahead and use a solution of bleach and water to take care of it. It can be a pain to scrub away heavy mold build up, so your best bet is to control black mold before it gets out of hand. If you see it starting to grow, go ahead and spray it with a little bleach and water. No need to scrub – if done regularly, the mold will simply die.

Once you’ve got the mold and mildew taken care of, you’ll want to prevent mold growth.

How to Prevent Mold and Mildew Growth

The obvious way to take care of mold before it forms is to reduce the humidity in a room. For most rooms, you can simply set up a dehumidifier and remember to turn on the exhaust fan in the bathroom during and after showers. Don’t underestimate how many dehumidifiers you need. I have a dehumidifier just for one largish closet. The rule of thumb is to keep relative humidity below 55 percent. Maybe this means nothing to you – but if it does, you need to buy a humidity sensor. They are pretty cheap and they read just like a thermostat. Pick one up!

Next you want to make sure you don’t have any leaky plumbing or condensation on pipes. The best way to prevent condensation on pipes is to wrap it in insulation. The toughest part is to spot a bad pipe. Look for rust spots or listen for drips or running water when there is seemingly no water running (i.e. washing machines, dish washers). Finding and fixing a leaky pipe can also save you on your water bill, too.

You’ll also want to look for discolored or damaged wall. These often hide major moisture problems, often stemming from plumbing isssues.

Another bugger of place for mildew and mold: the basement. You’ll want to be extra diligent when controlling humidity and leaks. You’ll want to make sure all bricks are sealed and water proof (ever seen those ridiculous commercials where he paints on that sealant and his crappy, musty basement turns into a finished den with a pool table and wet bar? It won’t be that dramatic but it is important). You’ll want to be sure to insulate the ceilings, walls and floors, even if your basement isn’t finished.

Also, you want to make sure that the ground slopes away from your foundation on the outside. Otherwise, when it rains the water will just collect right up against your house and slowly seep in through the foundation. Get out the shovel if it slops inwards. You can also help by installing drain pipes, culverts, French drains and other drainage aids.

If you have a crawlspace with a dirt floor, put some plastic cover over it. That’ll keep some of the moisture out of your home. Also make sure that the crawlspace is well-ventilated.

Lastly, you can invest in an air purifier. Look for one that HEPA filters and ionizers as well as a built-in germicidal UV light. That sounds like a lot, but without it, you’re really just investing in a fancy fan. I recommend the Surround Air Multi-Tech XJ-3000C Air Purifier. Also be sure to change your HVAC filters regularly.

Last reminders:

• Always wear gloves and masks when cleaning mold
• Never mix cleaners – especially bleach and ammonia. Danger!

Also, for your convenience, here’s a mold cleanup aStore:

Also, here are some recommended dehumidifiers:

Photo thanks to Angela Schmediel Randall