Mold… Mold… Mold. It can be the biggest hype or the biggest threat. Say mold, and it can send chills and heart palpitations to anyone who has 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 home insulation and sealing, it’s harder 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’s death, an acquaintance of mine went to Florida to clean out his house, which had been locked up and had mold growing. Two days after returning to his house, he passed away. It was judged to be a mold-related death. Often the mold will not cause death, but 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 misleading. Often there is fraud, when there is a fear of mold, due to a person’s lack of knowledge and vulnerability. Some companies that represent themselves as mold remediation can charge tens of thousands of dollars for the remediation, 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 because of 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 you don’t pay rent. It was easily cleaned with bleach and water, and the surface was repainted with a washable gloss. Well, I haven’t paid rent yet, so bye-bye tenant.
The EPA has launched a free online course on mold. There are nine chapters, and it is divided into lessons in each chapter. Educate yourself, take the time to take this online course. If you are faced with mold in the future, don’t get hysterical, check out the different types of mold, and if you call someone to remediate or test, check their credentials and get more than one opinion.