Why do Raleigh Homeowners Need a Mold Remediation Company that Understands Air Filtration?

10/13/2020 (Permalink)

For mold remediation, you can rely on SERVPRO of East Raleigh / Zebulon at (919) 250-0455.

Raleigh Homeowners Need Mold Remediation That Does Not Let Spores Escape

No one in Raleigh wants to deal with fungus growing in their home. Unfortunately, for many homeowners, the occasional outbreak of mold is a fact of life. Thankfully SERVPRO of East Raleigh / Zebulon is available 24 hours to deal with fungal growth and restore your home “Like it never even happened.”

To understand why homeowners in Raleigh need a mold remediation company that understands air filtration, we must first understand how mold travels and why it is difficult to capture.

What are mold spores, and how do they travel?
When you see a patch of mold growing in your house, that is the mycelium. Mycelium is a collection of thread-like mold cells. But how does mycelium grow in your home? The answer is that mold spores migrate from one mycelium to another place in your home and propagate there.

Mycelium releases mold spores, which are tiny enough to travel on air currents. They drift through your home, setting on all kinds of surfaces. If the surface happens to have an organic substance the fungus can use as a food source, such as wallpaper and enough moisture, the spores can start forming a new mycelium. The spores generate hyphae (the thread-like cells), which absorb nutrients and allow the mold to grow.

How do you know mold spores are present?
SERVPRO customers sometimes ask us how they can know there is mold in their home. There are certain signs of mold growth, such as patches of decay or a musty smell. However, when it comes to mold spores, they are always present:

    •    Mold spores are naturally-occurring and can drift into your house any time.
    •    If you live near or visit farmland or an area with lots of vegetation, even more spores can drift in through the window or hitch a ride on your clothes
    •    There are more mold spores around on days with high humidity or after heavy rainfall

Why is it so hard to stop mold spores?
Mold spores are microscopic – they are smaller than pollen and narrower than a human hair. That means you cannot see them, and you cannot simply round them up and put them outside. Because mold is naturally-occurring, spores are drifting in and out of your home all the time.

SERVPRO advertises mold remediation rather than mold removal because we know that it is impossible to stop mold spores from entering your home and finding places to grow. However, although we cannot eliminate mold, there are many things we can do during remediation to reduce the number of spores.

What is the role of air filtration in mold remediation?
Proper air filtration can catch mold spores and stop them from re-entering your home. To catch mold spores, we use genuine HEPA filters. HEPA stands for High-Efficiency Particulate Air, and to be a true HEPA filter, it must capture 99.7% of particulates that are 0.3 microns or larger. Because most mold spores are between 3 – 100 microns in size, HEPA filters can trap them.

What equipment does SERVPRO use for air filtration?
Before we begin air filtration, we set up containment around the affected area, using plastic sheeting and duct tape. This keeps mold spores confined to that area so they cannot drift away. Then, we start filtering them out of the air using a combination of:

    •    Air scrubbers, which are air filtration devices designed to trap mold spores and other contaminants in their filters
    •    Negative air machines, which are air scrubbers with ducting attached to vent the contaminated air outside your home, and create negative air pressure so spores cannot escape
    •    Hepa vacuums, which we use to vacuum loose mold from hard surfaces?

What is the role of activated carbon filters?
Many air scrubbers have activated carbon filters fitted alongside their HEPA filters. Activated carbon is treated to make it more porous than regular carbon, which lets it trap more particles. The remediation industry uses activated carbon to trap:
    •    Mold spores
    •    Smoke particles
    •    Chemical particles

Is there a way to reduce the risk of the mold coming back?
Good air filtration helps us remove mold particles during remediation, which reduces the risk of a recurrence because there are fewer spores around. However, because the spores are naturally-occurring, we cannot prevent them from re-entering your home. The best thing is to make sure your home is not a hospitable breeding ground for them:

    •    We will dry the area with dehumidifiers and air movers before we leave
    •    We recommend you run dehumidifiers in your home to lower humidity
    •    Don't allow moisture to build up in your home – deal with leaks or spills immediately. Powerful air filtration removes more spores and leaves your home smelling better, too.

For mold remediation, you can rely on call SERVPRO of East Raleigh / Zebulon at (919) 250-0455.