Mold Expert Fry Suggests Top Ten New Year's Resolutions for Mold-Safe Homes and Workplaces
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New Year's resolutions from mold consultant Phillip Fry to achieve mold safety for houses, workplaces, commercial buildings, and public buildings.
- (1888PressRelease) December 27, 2012 - MESA, ARIZONA. - Mold expert Phillip Fry suggests that homeowners, commercial and public property owners, managers, tenants, and employees at work make one or more of the following top ten New Year's resolutions for effective toxic mold inspection, mold removal, and mold prevention:
1. Inspect home and workplace roof, attic, siding, walls, ceilings, floors, basement, crawl space, heating/cooling system, and plumbing equipment and lines carefully and on a regular basis for any visible signs of water leaks, water damage, and or toxic or household mold growth that can endanger residents and employees. Read free building mold inspection directions and view how-to pictures at www.buildingmoldinspection.com.
2. Make sure that the ground around the building slopes away from the building and not toward it to keep rain runoff from entering into the building. Clean out roof drain pipes and make sure that roof drains take rain water away from the building foundation, basement walls, and crawl space, and not toward and into such areas.
3. Scan the floors and walls of residential and workplace bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, and utility room walls and floors with a moisture meter to locate concealed water problems which can allow mold and bacteria to grow.
4. Make sure that the dryer vent, kitchen exhaust vent, and bathroom exhaust vent take the moist air directly to the outdoors and not into the attic, walls, or floors of the house or workplace, and thus allowing hidden mold growth.
5. Run the bathroom exhaust fans during showers and baths to exhaust to the outdoors elevated bathroom humidity that results from taking showers and baths. After taking a shower, use a squeegee to remove water from shower walls.
6. Mold test the room air and the outward air flow from each heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) duct air supply registers to locate and document any elevated levels of airborne mold spores, which is a sure sign of a serious mold infestation.
Do mold air testing at least every year with the help of a Certified Mold Inspector or Certified Environment Hygienist, who uses an air pump with a test cassette that takes in 15 liters of air at each test location to collect airborne mold spores on the cassette's internal sticky slide surface. A certified mold laboratory then identifies and counts the different types of mold species spores collected in the air sample.
7. Do mold air testing of all three locations: residence, workplace, and vehicle. If one or more of these areas is mold-infested, the other areas will also become mold cross-contaminated because airborne mold spores will land and be deposited and transported on occupants' skin, hair, clothing, and shoes from one location to another.
8. Use a high quality digital hygrometer (about $50) to check and monitor the indoor relative humidity year-round in all rooms and areas such as a building's crawl space, basement, and attic. Indoor humidity exceeding 70% some or all of the time leads to humidity-caused mold growth.
9. Use programmable dehumidifiers to keep indoor humidity to a mold-discouraging 60% or less.
10. Run one or more high-capacity HEPA-filter air room purifiers, an electronic air cleaner, and mold-spore capturing 3M brand Filtrete filters in the building's HVAC return air duct to filter out airborne mold spores and other airborne pollutants such as dust, dirt, and bacteria.
11. To prevent the accumulation and proliferation of dangerous toxic mold spores and bacteria inside HVAC equipment and ducts, run the connecting hose from a high output ozone generator into the return air duct and inject ozone for four hours every six months. There can be no people, pets, or plants inside the ozone treatment area during the ozone process and for two hours afterwards. Read the benefits and use and safety instructions for ozone treatment at www.ozonegeneratorkillsmold.com.
For free answers to your mold questions call the Mold Advice Hotline 1-480-217-7173, email phil ( @ ) moldinspector dot com, and/or visit www.moldinspector.com.
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