Living in Daytona Beach, Port Orange, Saint Augustine, Melbourne, or Jacksonville and its surroundings in Duval County, most people should be familiar with mold assessment and remediation benefits for your property and overall health. However, they may not be that familiar with humidity control and the crucial role these two tasks play in controlling indoor humidity levels and air quality.
Controlling moisture inside your property is fundamental to preventing mold from growing on your surfaces and supporting structures and saving you from costlier remediations and restorations in the long run. This is especially true in these cities along Florida’s east coast, where summers are long and humid. It’s better to be safe than sorry, and hiring mold inspection services is the best way to prevent extensive damage and repair expenses.
Mold can grow on any surface with organic materials such as wood, drywall, paper, food, or insulation and thrives in almost any environment as long as oxygen and moisture are present.
Although the ideal conditions for mold are temperatures between 70° F and 80° F, mold has appeared in temperatures as low as 32° F and as high as 95° F. Likewise, if your humidity is higher than 60%, mold will grow. Hence, regular humidity mold prevention practices are crucial to prevent mold spores from developing.
Summer months significantly contribute to mold growth inside your property. Humidity levels increase during these months, particularly in coastal areas, because water evaporation levels increase, charging the air with more vapor and moisture. Thus, getting a mold assessment during the summer is crucial to controlling humidity levels and remediating minor patches before they wreak havoc.
Measuring humidity in areas prone to moisture, such as kitchens or poorly ventilated areas, such as basements or insulated pipes and ductwork, also prevents mold from growing. However, getting mold inspection services to assess these areas is not a bad idea, as a typical person hardly checks areas such as their sink pipes or HVAC ducts.
Residents in cities along Florida’s shoreline, such as Port Orange or Saint Agustine, or near beaches like Jacksonville, are familiar with heavy thunderstorms and hurricanes occasionally striking their hometowns. Therefore, they should also be familiar with humidity mold prevention practices and inspections. These events cause strong winds and rain, increasing humidity and moisture levels on surfaces and belongings.
Mold assessment can help you control your humidity in these situations and all year round because it also measures your humidity levels besides determining if mold is growing anywhere on your property. It also discovers moisture and water damage you may not have noticed, such as roof leaks or condensation in poorly ventilated pipes.
People often consider water damage a significant emergency, like a flood or a faucet bursting. However, water damage can happen quietly and unaverted until you notice your ceiling sagging or cracks in your basement floors. These subtle leaks result in increased moisture in your building structures, and mold grows out of sight, eating away at your building and compromising air quality. Hence, mold assessments become a form of humidity mold prevention.
When you get a mold assessment from professionals, you prevent the funding from extending to and infecting other parts of your property. You can also repair the source of the water damage to prevent new infestations.
Mold inspection services will determine the source of your mold problem. If the cause is inappropriate ventilation or condensation issues around your property, this information can help you take restorative and proactive measures to enhance ventilation and prevent new mold from growing.
For example, suppose mold sprouts start around home appliances like stoves, clothes dryers, or kerosene heaters, which produce moisture when used. In that case, you can hire professionals to vent these appliances outdoors directly or by connecting them to your roof or HVAC ventilation ductwork. This way, a mold assessment kills two birds with one stone and ensures you don’t have to call mold remediation services every month.
Therefore, getting mold assessments at least every two years will correct mold infestations that may have started on your property. They will also help you repair leaks and ventilation issues to control humidity levels and prevent costly mold remediations.
Besides regular mold assessments, there are other EPA-approved practices to help you control your humidity levels, which are affected by temperature, leaks, and daily activities such as showers and cooking. Keeping your humidity and moisture levels below 60° F will help avoid frequently calling for mold inspection services.
1. If your property has crawl spaces, cover the dirt with plastic to prevent the ground’s moisture from entering. Likewise, ensure they have proper ventilation.
2. Move furniture out of corners and open the doors in your rooms and closets to increase heat and air circulation around your property and prevent condensation on cold surfaces. Always ensure your building has fresh air that can expel excessive moisture, contributing to mold growth, and call for a mold assessment.
3. Put exhaust fans in your kitchens and bathrooms to vent moisture from hot showers, cooking, and cleaning tasks to the outside. Avoid venting them into the attic, as excessive moisture in your attics can damage your roof deck and overload your HVAC systems.
4. Dehumidifiers and air fans are great allies in humidity mold prevention. They reduce moisture levels in the air, especially in hot climates such as Jacksonville, Melbourne, or Daytona Beach. However, keep these appliances clean to ensure they don’t become a source of biological pollutants.
5. If you have carpets on concrete floors, wash and dry them completely often. These porous materials can absorb moisture and contribute to biological pollutants growing on them. In some climates, you may need to install a vapor barrier and cover it with sub-flooring to prevent moisture.
6. Insulate cold surfaces, such as cold water pipes or air conditioner ducts, to prevent condensation and potential mold sprouts, and hire mold inspection services.
Comprehensive mold inspection services can benefit everyone, whether you’re already dealing with a mold problem or just want to ensure your property is free of mold and has no vulnerable spots to grow mold. We’ve been doing this since 2002, helping our fellow Floridians identify and remediate mold sprouts in their homes and businesses.
Our mold assessments are holistic and tailored to your needs. This allows us to determine the accurate extent of your mold problem and provide you with customized removal or humidity mold prevention solutions. Hence, they all include a thorough visual inspection, moisture detection, and, sometimes, air and surface sampling to prevent mold spores from growing.
Call us today for a free mold inspection, or visit us in Jacksonville, Port Orange, Melbourne, or Daytona Beach!
Visual Inspection by our professional Team