Why State the Obvious?
This may seem obvious but I’m not talking about a large leak that would slowly flood your home when you see water on the floor. Most people clean that up right away and it would not normally need a ‘Mold Detector’ to come out to the house. It is not just about cleaning the water up.
When a leak occurs (or water intrusion from the outside) things like drywall, baseboards and carpet get wet and need to be dried properly by a certified company which usually has ‘Restoration’ as part of their name. But there is need for caution or scrutiny when choosing to have one of these companies come out to do the work. Make sure they give you a price for what actually needs to be done and not additional work that does not need to be done. One of the best ways to do that is have a ‘Mold Inspector’ or ‘Water Damage Inspector‘ like myself do the inspection and evaluation objectively, meaning I am not making money from what I recommend needs doing and will not ‘create’ extra work to do that. Even then choose the Inspector with the best or right credentials. For example, Certified Microbial Consultant is the highest qualification in the water damage industry for evaluating water damage and contamination issues. That happens to be the Credential I have. So I can be referred to loosely as a ‘Mold Detector’. Most inspectors in the field of this type don’t have this qualification.
Yes, it may cost a dollar to hire someone like me or my company to do this but it can save you money and further headaches down the road. Let me get back to the topic I titled this post for.
The reason you want to make sure the areas get dried properly is so that mold and dangerous bacteria does not start growing and then make you or your family sick. This is no joke! As you may have read before on my posts bacteria starts growing in 3 to 5 days after moisture/water is present and in just 2 more days it degrades to the category of ‘black water’ which is the same category as the water that comes out of your toilet! It is not raw sewage but still in the same category which cannot only make you sick but in the extreme case also kill you.
The bacteria become airborne and you breathe it in. It is as simple as that. Not to mention you may touch an area that is contaminated by this bacteria and not know it. Mold starts growing between 24 to 48 hours after getting a water source. Usually people are affected by mold over a longer period of time depending on your immune system. And there are also mycotoxins that mold will produce and is on many of the mold spores in the air that we breathe in every day which can have an adverse affect on our health and sometimes very badly.
So if you see a mushroom growing out of your carpet or somewhere else (as an example) don’t ignore it. It means there is water somewhere that is causing it to grow and you need to take care of it. Contact me with questions on this.
Steven Mullins
Moisture and Mold Detection, Inc.