If you have found a black patch behind the washing machine, a smell in a closet that will not go away, or a sore throat that started the week the leak did, you are right to take it seriously. Mold is not only a mark on the wall. It causes damage to the house, and it causes trouble for the people living in it. Here is what to check, what it can do to your family, and what to do today. Have you found something on a wall or ceiling that you think might be mold?
What mold exposure does to people
Mold spores in the air are linked to allergies and asthma, and for some people the symptoms go further: coughing, wheezing, sneezing, a blocked or runny nose, a sore throat, irritated eyes, skin rashes, aching joints and tiredness. If someone in the house already has asthma or another breathing condition, they will feel it first and feel it worse. In severe cases people report fever and shortness of breath.
That last point matters more than the rest. If a household member is getting sick and nobody can explain why, look at the building before you blame the season.
Mold moves faster than you think
Mold needs moisture, and once a building is wet it can spread through a whole structure in a matter of days. It grows on paper products, cardboard, wood, ceiling tiles, paint, wallpaper, insulation, drywall, carpet, fabric and upholstery, which is most of what your house is made of.
Anywhere water has been allowed to sit is a place to look: around windows, around pipes, under and behind roofs, in basements, and in any room that was flooded and only got a towel run over it.
How to check your home
Walk every place water could have collected, including window frames, pipe runs, roof lines, bathrooms, laundry rooms and basements. Look closely at anything made of paper or fibre: cardboard boxes, wallpaper seams, ceiling tiles, drywall edges, carpet backing, upholstery. Smell first. A damp or musty odour in one room and not the others usually means moisture is still there, even if you cannot see growth yet. Check rooms that had a leak, a flood, or a period with no heating and no ventilation.
If you find anything suspicious, do not start ripping it out yourself. Disturbing dry mold releases spores into the air and spreads the problem. An inspection tells you how far it has gone and what the safe removal plan is.
What a professional actually fixes
In Waterbury, Connecticut, JP Maguire handles mold removal for homes and businesses: identifying the source of the moisture, removing the growth, and confirming it is gone. The work usually comes with the two things that stop it coming back, air quality testing and repair of the water damage that fed it, plus odor control so the smell does not outlive the mold.
If you suspect mold in your home, act now rather than next month. The cheapest mold job is the one where the wall is still dry behind it. Call 877-576-2484 and we will look at it with you.
Where to go from here
If this is happening in your house right now, these are the pages Connecticut homeowners reach for, each one saying what the work involves and how to get a crew rolling: water damage restoration. Water extraction, drying, then the rebuild. fire damage restoration. Soot, smoke odour, and putting the rooms back. mold remediation. Finding it, containing it, and removing it properly. storm damage restoration. Wind damage, fallen trees, emergency tarping. burst pipe repair. Stopping the leak, then repairing what it reached. 24/7 emergency restoration. A person on the phone, any hour of the night.
Also from the blog: Spring Cleaning Is Not Enough, Check for Hidden Moisture and Mold, Why Checking for Mold Matters, and Where to Look First and More on mold removal.