Did you know that more than 50% of houses in the United States have issues with mold?
You might be picturing mold lurking behind walls or hidden in basements, but mold could actually be a lot closer to you than you think.
Mold could be hiding under your carpet! While it might not be evident in some cases, you’ll know based on the smell alone in other cases. Aside from the smell, spotting this mold before it causes significant damage is possible.
Read on to learn how to spot and treat mold under the carpet once and for all.
What Causes Mold?
It can be helpful to know what causes mold in the first place.
Mold grows and thrives in damp conditions, which is why you will often hear about it growing in basements.
It’s easy to get water under your carpet, too, though. All it takes is a glass of spilled water, a leaky roof, or underfloor water pipes to cause an issue.
There are many different types of mold, and some can have severe impacts on your health if you’re exposed over time. So, it’s essential to recognize the signs of carpet mold.
How to Detect Mold
There will be signs that you can look for that indicate a mold issue most of the time.
Learning them is essential to regularly check your carpets to make sure that they’re in okay condition and you don’t have any major mold issues arising.
Check the Smell
One of the easiest ways to find mold is by keeping a lookout for bad smells. Mold will often smell musty.
Even if you don’t know exactly what smells to sniff for, if your carpet smells off at all, it’s a good indicator that, at the very least, it needs to be cleaned.
Check for Growth
If you aren’t confident in your smelling abilities, aren’t sure exactly what it will smell like, or just want another way to verify that you might have a mold issue, checking for growths on the carpet is another way.
Look closely at your carpet to see if you notice any white, green, or black growths. If you do, it’s likely mold.
Unfortunately, carpet with visible mold growth can’t really be fixed, so removing it and replacing it will be necessary.
Look Underneath
At times mold grows underneath a carpet before it reaches the top and will be visible from that standpoint.
If it’s a carpet that you can lift up, peel up from the edge and check for signs of mold growth. If you suspect mold but have wall-to-wall carpet, you will need to call in a professional to help check without ruining the carpet in case there isn’t actually an issue after all so that you don’t ruin the carpet.
Call an Expert
The best way to check for mold is to have someone come to your house who is well trained to identify when mold is present, the extent of the infestation, and the type of mold in your home.
Mold spreads easily, so what at one point might have been a small patch under your carpet could have spread to other areas without you knowing it.
And again, there are different types of mold, and some need to be taken care of right away, maybe even leading you to have to leave your home for a period of time.
How to Prevent Mold Growth
Mold isn’t an issue that anybody wants to deal with. Thankfully, there are some precautions that you can take to help prevent mold growth from occurring.
While none of these methods guarantee mold prevention, it’s better than any alternative.
Identify Problem Areas
Try taking an honest look at your home and identifying any potential problem areas. Does your basement flood? What can you do to help fix that and prevent mold from growing?
Is your toddler always spilling their juice on the living room floor? What can you do to help prevent those spills from becoming something more sinister?
Knowing the problem areas will help you to keep a better eye on them.
Dry Spills Immediately
If something is spilled, whether it’s on the carpet or not, try to take care of it immediately.
Keeping it from soaking into the floor will help keep moisture at bay and help prevent conditions that are prime for mold growth.
Monitor Humidity
Consider monitoring the humidity level in your home to make sure that things are kept under control. Areas like bathrooms, kitchens, and basements are common problem places.
Knowing when the humidity is out of control can help you to take more preventative measures, such as installing mold-resistant products like special wallpaper or paints.
Treatment
When it comes down to it, mold needs to be handled by a professional.
The process is relatively simple but definitely necessary because once mold gets to the point where you can identify it, it’s already pretty bad.
Hiring a professional who knows how to clean mold under a carpet will give you peace of mind that you and your family are safe and that all of the mold is truly out of your home for the time being.
Handling Mold Under the Carpet Properly
It’s important to understand how to spot mold under the carpet, how you can prevent it from growing in the first place, and what to do if you discover that it’s an issue in your home.
Mold is no joke, so be sure to do your best to prevent it from making an appearance in your home by following the tips here and having someone on speed dial to handle the problem if necessary.
If you believe that mold might be an issue in your home, please contact us today so that we can discuss our mold remediation process with you.
