Is Your Home a Death Trap? How Mold Affects Your Health and Your Home’s Value in Victoria, Cowichan, Duncan, Nanaimo, Parksville, Qualicum, Comox, Courtenay, Campbell River, and Port Alberni.
If you think your home is mold-free, you’re probably wrong. Mold infestation is very common for home owners living in Victoria, Cowichan, Duncan, Nanaimo, Parksville, Qualicum, Courtenay, Comox, Campbell River, and Port Alberni.
How do you sell your home on Vancouver Island when there’s mold? Any kind of major defect discovered during a home inspection can break a deal or have a big impact on negotiations when buying a home, and mold is no exception. Mold will simply continue to devalue your property until the problem becomes so rampant that the home is uninhabitable. Nobody wants to purchase a seller’s mold issues.
Understanding Mold:
As a fungus, the mold is in soil and spreads to new locations by releasing spores into the air. It can travel through an open window or follow you inside through the front door.
Generally speaking, mold only becomes dangerous when it can attach itself to organic material and grow and spread with the right humid conditions. Black mold is a good example. Moisture allows the mold that’s already there to grow and colonize, and reproduce and spread. And we all know, moisture on Vancouver Island is like “wetness to water”.
Airborne mold spores are not visible to the human eye. Mold spores are tiny structures produced by molds for reproduction purposes. They are so small that they can hardly be seen…even when magnified 400 times. One cubic meter of outdoor air may contain as many as 1,000,000 spores. The volume of air we inhale at rest is estimated at 10 litres per minute. Therefore, in an hour we inhale close to 600,000 spores. The air in some working environments including moldy buildings may contain up to 1,000,000,000 spores per cubic meter of air.
People’s reactions to mold vary depending on individual predispositions to mold and the type of mold growth, from no symptoms to sore throat and itchy eyes, heightened asthma problems, skin rashes, sick building syndrome, and in some cases autoimmune disease from prolonged exposure. Because medical issues can vary so greatly, it doesn’t matter which type of mold may be growing or how you’re feeling, all visible mold growth in your home should be removed, and the source of moisture repaired to ensure growth does not occur again.
Health concerns are the first reasons to rid a building of mold. The second reason is the resale value and marketability of a property. Nobody wants to purchase a seller’s mold issue. This is where Pacific Decontamination Services has developed a service that kills the mold and mildew up to 99.99999% and leaves an invisible residual covering to protect the re-growth for up to 3 months.
Finding the root cause of your mold and mildew problems is critical in the problem-solving process. What is causing the mold and mildew to grow? It could be a leaky pipe, humid basement or a heavy rain storm that flooded your crawl or basement. The size of the problem is less important than your ability to repair the source of moisture. The key is to stop further moisture intrusion. Otherwise, the mold will just grow back.
Mold growth in a basement, attic or crawl space is relatively common, because residents don’t see these areas often, and they can be very humid. However, there are tell-tale signs you can see and smell in advance of your problem expanding. With mold and musty crawl spaces, basements and attics, there are several warning signs: Click Here for warning signs you can be watching for.
It is important to note that mold and mildew are both fungi, and they can cause health problems. If it looks like mold or is described as a mold-like substance, considers it mold and have it removed. Do not differentiate between mold and mildew – they both are just as risky as the other.
How Do We Kill Mold?
We neutralize your mold and mildew by applying our eco-friendly, safe chemical into your attic, crawlspace, residence, or basement. Depending on the job, we apply our formula by spray, mist, foam, or fog. We do not use a tent. The average time of our on-site service is approximately one hour. An additional four hours is required to achieve maximum effectiveness. We ask that you stay out of the premise for approximately 5 hours in total. Read more about how we work.
Pacific Decontamination Services uses the world’s strongest, most effective and safe antimicrobial disinfectant, deodorization and chemical decontaminate. Our professional application will eliminate up to 99.99999% of any allergen, germ, bacteria or fungus that it touches. AND as powerful as it is, it is also completely safe.
What do you do next? How do you solve the challenge of mold and associated health hazards?
Call Pacific Decontamination Services at 778-269-0208 or email us!
Serving All of Vancouver Island: Victoria, Cowichan, Duncan, Nanaimo, Parksville, Qualicum, Courtenay, Comox, Campbell River, and Port Alberni.
