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Mold in the home is a major health threat to household members. It most often appears on the walls in autumn and winter, sometimes hidden under wallpapers or behind furniture. Removing it is very laborious and often costly. Therefore, the best course of action is to prevent it.
Why does mold appear?
Mold appears when the humidity in an apartment is too high. The most important reason is the dampness of the walls and structural elements of the building and insufficient ventilation of the rooms. This explains the occurrence mildew in winterwhen the rooms are not ventilated frequently enough, and there is a large temperature difference between the inside and the outside temperature.
In new buildings, the problem is often insufficient drying out after construction works. On the other hand, in older buildings, the thermal insulation of external walls and the ceiling on the top floor often fails. In the absence of it, water vapor condenses within the so-called cold walls. Errors in its performance are conducive to its formation thermal bridges (thermal), i.e. places insufficiently insulated against cold and moisture.
Thermal bridges are formed around windows, doors, at the junction of two walls or a wall and a ceiling. Moisture enters the interior of the apartment through leaky roofs and broken pipes in the walls. There is also a phenomenon known as earth capillary soaking. Then the foundation or basement walls do not have adequate horizontal waterproofing. We produce the next portions of moisture ourselves when we cook and dry the laundry.
Mold particles will help trap from the apartment Air purifier. Find out about the offer of purifiers available on Medonet Market and order one that will meet your expectations.
It is extremely important to ventilate your home regularly, even in winter.
Check: Cladosporium – a group of mold fungi causing allergies
What is the risk of mold in the apartment?
Mold produces an unpleasant odor that wafts in your home. Mold fungi negatively affect the respiratory system, nervous system and skin. Living in such a room makes it much more difficult for an allergy sufferer. The negative effects of being in such rooms are general fatigue, stomach pain, headache, runny nose, sinusitis, numbness in the legs and arms, problems with maintaining balance. Mold irritates the eyes, causes a skin rash. Long-term complications include kidney failure or even infertility. Additionally, mold can stimulate the formation of neoplasms.
How to fight mold?
As we all know, cleaning the walls of mold is not enough. The most important thing to do is fix the causes of the appearance of mold. The reason may be too high humidity, so we should focus on more frequent airing of the rooms and checking the operation of ventilation in the apartment. Good results are achieved by installing mechanical fans in the ventilators, which increase air circulation in the room.
If the problem turns out to be too tight windows, install diffusers in them or choose those with micro-ventilation. Another idea is to buy a desiccant with replaceable cartridges. An apartment renovation may be inevitable. Efflorescence of the fungus should be removed and sometimes rubbed off with plaster. Often within a radius greater than just where the fungus appeared. The cleaned surfaces should then be painted with a special fungicide. After such procedures, the apartment should be well ventilated. Apply a paint with fungicidal substances or hydrophobic properties, limiting moisture absorption, on the completed plaster.
How to prevent mold recurrence?
In order to minimize the risk mold return we need to remove as much mold as possible from our apartment. Window frames can be wiped with special fungicides. All fabrics, such as curtains, curtains, bedspreads, carpets, should be washed in a special, fungicidal shampoo or replaced with new ones.
We reduce the humidity in the apartmentby using lids on pots, using the cooker hood. First of all, we often ventilate all rooms in the house, even in winter. After washing, we dry the clothes outside the apartment, or at least place the dryer with wet laundry with the window ajar. All furniture should be placed at a certain distance from the wall. It seems like a good idea to buy a moisture sensor.
Worth knowing:
- Silverfish, or organisms that feed on mold. How to get rid of them from home?
- Safe home detergents – which one to choose?
- 5 health problems caused by dry air in mixing
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