Controlling Humidity to Prevent Mold

There are a number of ways to keep the humidity in your home from building up to a level that it allows mold to grow inside the house. The air in your home should not be made completely dry, however, because both airs that are too dry or too wet can cause you and the other members of your household significant discomfort. Having air that is too dry in your home can cause nosebleeds, but having air that is too wet will allow mold to grow, which in turn can cause some serious health problems.

One thing that you should seriously consider is installing a dehumidifier in your basement, if you have one. This is one of the most difficult areas of your home to keep the humidity down in, so sometimes purchasing a piece of equipment to help is necessary. Other ways to keep the humidity in your basement down are pretty cheap, though, in comparison. If the concrete walls in your basement are leaking, you can usually fix this with an injection of concrete using a caulking gun. Something else that you can do is to install an exhaust fan in the basement to alleviate some of the moisture. If you use the basement to do laundry, one of the worst things that you can do is hang clothes up to dry there, since as the clothes dry out, the moisture evaporates and saturates the air around them.

To keep your house as dry as possible, you need to clean up spills of water as soon as they happen and these spills are most likely to happen in the kitchen or the bathroom. Both of these rooms should have tile installed on the floor that is water tight, so any spills that do occur do not leak water into the sub-flooring. Sub-flooring that keeps getting wet will eventually crumble, leaving your toilet, bathtub, or sink on the ground under the house. Most people have not had to deal with a floor collapse in their home, but water damage or termites are the usual culprits.

Replacing the plumbing in your home can also help with preventing water damage (and thus, excess humidity) in the house. Older homes may have plumbing that needs to be replaced, since these can not only become inefficient due to mineral buildup inside them, but are also more likely to leak. If you notice any discoloration of the drywall in your house near the bathroom, kitchen, or laundry room, you might have a leak behind the wall that needs to be dealt with.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration and
mold remediation companies across the united states.