Top 3 Warning Signs of Mold Growth in Your Home or Business

Top 3 Warning Signs of Mold Growth in Your Home or Business

Do you own a home or business in Pompano Beach or one of the surrounding areas? Mold is no stranger to the humid temperatures of Florida—if your house or building has been affected, it’s a maintenance issue that you’ll want to resolve immediately. Mold won’t only cause damage to your home or business, it can cause health problems for you, your family, your employees, and even your pets. The good news is that mold removal in Pompano Beach, Florida doesn’t have to be a complicated or expensive process.

Top Mold Warning Sign #1: Sudden Onset of New Allergic Symptoms

Have you or your families or employees been experiencing any new symptoms of allergies lately? Common allergic reactions to mold growth—even if you can’t see it—might include a running nose, congestion, sneezing, and/or a sore throat or eyes. If you aren’t experiencing these symptoms yourself but someone else is, ask them when they typically experience the allergic reactions.

If they tend to feel better when they’re outside the home or workplace, it very well could be that local mold is the cause of their symptoms. Conduct a mold inspection yourself (discussed below), or call Restoration USA as quickly as possible.

Top Mold Warning Sign #2: Mold Smells or Odors

Most mold which appears in buildings has a distinct smell. While it can be odorless, often depending on the size of the mold’s growth and where it’s located, this is sometimes the only way a home or business owner becomes aware of mold. If you smell anything “off” or moldy, this is one of those maintenance issues where it’s far better to be safe than sorry. Hiring a professional mold inspector in Pompano Beach can catch a mold infestation before it becomes a serious problem.

Top Mold Warning Sign #3: Visible Mold

The most obvious of all warning signs is, of course, any visible signs of mold. However, mold can be deceptively difficult to notice—oftentimes, it crops up in places where you might simply think it’s normal dirt or soot that’s built up.

Keeping a close eye out for gray or dark areas on the floor, walls, and especially behind large appliances such as your refrigerator or water heater can be an excellent preventative measure to notice mold before it spreads. And that’s the thing about mold: it spreads rapidly. Even a small patch of mold can rapidly spread to other areas of your home or workplace and quickly become a problem that’s far more severe.

Other Considerations

The three scenarios described above are the most likely indications that mold might be beginning to grow in your home or business, but other signs or indicators of mold are as follows:

Discoloration on floors or walls
Excessive moisture in any area of the home or building
Bubbling, peeling, or warping on walls
Black or gray stains that seem to “come back”
Water leaks or past moisture damage (see below)

Moisture: The Best Friend of Mold

Now that we’ve examined a handful of the ways that you might come to realize that mold has cropped up in your home or place of business, let’s look at the primary cause of mold. In case you hadn’t guessed yet, yes, it’s moisture. If you’ve ever had some kind of problem in your home involving water leakage, particularly if it was a long term problem (such as basement flooding or other common problems), your home or building is at a greater risk for mold. This is true even if the moisture problem has since been resolved, since mold might have formed while the issue was still present.

If you’ve noticed any of the possible warning signs we’ve discussed here, you may wish to conduct an inspection on your own—but remember, if you’re not sure, a Restoration USA can perform a very thorough inspection on your behalf.

How Conduct a Mold Inspection on Your Own – And Why You Probably Shouldn’t

If you’d like to take a stab at conducting a mold inspection on your own, the best way to start is by thoroughly reviewing any area of your home or workplace where moisture may have been a problem in the past. This can include:

• Bathroom and Kitchen sinks
• Showers
• Bathtubs
• Hot water heaters
• Near air conditioning or HVAC units (condensation can cause moisture and thus provide an opportunity for mold to grow)
• Hose outlets (mold doesn’t necessarily always start inside the home)
• Near any other kind of plumbing, pipes, or drainage

Use a flashlight if necessary and thoroughly inspect all areas for signs of mold, which usually appears as a gray or black substance. Try using your sense of smell too—if anything seems amiss, it might be mold even if it’s not visible. This is because mold often likes to grow inside walls, under carpets, or even within your ventilation ducts.

Also, make sure that you don’t forget to inspect “problem areas” such as your attic or basement if you have them. These areas of a building are often forgotten by home or business owners, since there’s no direct usage of water—however, since plumbing likely passes through them, it’s very possible that even a small leak on a pipe can cause moisture and therefore mold.

It goes without saying that if you’re not absolutely sure of yourself, the best, safest course of action is to immediately hire a professional mold removal team in Pompano Beach. After you set an appointment with Restoration USA, specialists will come and conduct a thorough inspection on your home or business.

Restoration USA has special tools and insights at their disposal which most home and business owners do not. Preventing mold from spreading or simply having the peace of mind to know that you don’t have mold is well worth the nominal cost of an inspection fee. And if Restoration USA does happen to find any sign of mold—large or small—they’ll let you know what needs to be done next to remove it once and for all.