Mold – Real Danger or Hype?
Mold… Mold… Mold. It can be the biggest hype or the biggest threat. Say mold, and it can send chills and palpitations to the heart of anyone with a financial investment in real estate. This includes bankers, sellers, buyers, landlords, and homeowners. Why is there more advertising now than 30 years ago? Because along with better insulation and sealing of the house, it is more difficult for any area that gets wet to dry out. This is especially crucial in areas of the world with high humidity.
Some types of mold can be serious. After his father died, an acquaintance of mine went to Florida to clean his house, which had been sealed up and had mold growing. Two days after returning to his house, he passed away. This was considered to be a mold-related death. Often the mold will not cause death, but it will cause or aggravate a respiratory problem, such as asthma.
Why don’t we get rid of mold? Mold is always in the air. It only becomes a problem when it has a moist environment, food, and the right temperature to grow.
This is why air mold measurement tests can be a hoax. There is often fraud, when mold is feared, due to a person’s lack of knowledge and vulnerability. Some companies that represent themselves as mold repairers can charge tens of thousands of dollars for the repair, when it could have been done with bleach and water.
A couple of years ago, a tenant of mine who was hoping to make a lot of money tried to exploit me for mold in the bathroom. It was black mold. They had repainted the walls around the shower with matte paint, didn’t use the fan and tried to present it as the reason he doesn’t pay rent. It was easily cleaned with bleach and water, and the surface was repainted with a washable gloss. Well, he still didn’t pay his rent, so bye-bye, tenant.
The EPA has launched a free online mold course. There are nine chapters, and each chapter is divided into lessons. Get informed, take the time to take this online course. If you do face mold in the future, don’t freak out, check out the different types of mold, and if you call someone to remedy the problem or to run a test, check their credentials and get more than one opinion.
