How to kill Mold Growth in your home and eliminate mold odor
If you are homeowner with a musty basement, moldy attic, or moist moldy smelling garage, you will want to employ some mold remediation to kill the mold and get rid of the smell. Mold remediation can be a pretty challenging project and usually involves very caustic chemicals that can make you sick. As a homeowner and rental property owner, one of the best ways I have found to kill mold and prevent mold growth is to use a mold remediation technique called Fogging. Fogging is a technique that uses environmentally safe products to kill the mold and prevent its spread. The use of these safe products reduces your chances of getting sick, only attacks the mold, and guarantees a resolution to your mold issues. Here is how you do it. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Purchase concentrated MoldZyme
- Rent a mold fogger from Home Depot
- Purchase Concrobium from Home Depot
- Get a 3m respirator with organic vapor cartridge filtration.
- dehumidifier
- carpet drying fan
- OPTIONAL: borate bleach and chlorine bleach
- spray bottle
Instructions
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Like I stated in the introduction of this article, typical mold remediation efforts involve the use of caustic chemicals such as bleach and very strong cleaning products to kill and clean the mold. These chemicals irritate the nose, throat, eyes, and skin - and are very unpleasant to work with. You have probably even used them in the past to try and solve your mold problems. Typical mold remediation can also be very expensive when using professional services. Mold is a very serious issue and can cause many health issues to residents in homes with moldy conditions. You may not see a lot of mold, but if you can smell a musty odor - then you have a mold issue which can cause further health conditions.
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I have tackled mold issues in a few of my rental properties, my own home basement and garage. I have come across pretty bad mold damage that required me to remove drywall, and I have also been lucky enough to only have only mild mold issues that just caused musty odors in my garage. My experiences have lead me to discover that you can tackle and beat mold issues in your own home without the use of professional services (unless you have a really bad water issue that needs repair).
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Let's face it - the most common cause of mold growth and spread is some kind of water leakage issue in your home that promotes damp, cold, moist conditions. This is very common in most basements that have poor drainage systems, garages and attics that are not very well insulated, and even poor roofing conditions. So the first thing you need to do is find the cause of water and moisture in your area. Once you find the cause of the water, take the steps necessary to stop the water leakage (such as filling in cracks in cement, repairing roofing, excavating around your foundation, etc). When these repairs have been made, the area needs to be dried and moisture in the air removed with the use of dehumidifiers and carpet drying fans.
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This step is optional depending on how bad your mold situation is. If you have black mold and a lot of it spread across your flooring, concrete, walls, or other building material - then I recommend that you use a borate bleach solution/chlorine bleach solution mixed with a little bit of laundry detergent and you spray you onto the mold using a household spray bottle. Again, if you do not have visible mold growth, then you can skip this step. If you have to follow this step, wear the respirator before working close to the mold to protect yourself from any mold spores.
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If you do not have visible mold, or if you have just a little bit of mold that is barely visible, but you smell the musty mold odor, then you do not have to use any bleach solution to kill the mold. In this step, we will go right to fogging the area with the MoldZyme. To do this, you will need to purchase MoldZyme from a supplier in concentrated form so that you can mix it into the fogger. If you Google MoldZyme a few suppliers come up, or you can use the link I provided. Once you get the MoldZyme set to your house - go to Home Depot and rent a fogger and buy some Concrobium.
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Once you have your MoldZyme, and your fogger, we can get started! The reason I recommend you use the product called MoldZyme is that is an enzymatic mold remediation product that literally will eat the mold and digest it. The enzyme in the product is natural and will not harm people or cause allergic reactions. We need to use a fogger to basically fog the enzyme throughout the home and any areas that are affected with mold to ensure full coverage of the area. You may have not heard of this because it is a relatively new way to get rid of mold, and there are not a lot of companies out there that do it. I personally know of a company called Guardian Preservation Services that uses a special enzyme to kill mold, but there services are not widely available. Visit their site and read about how they do it to get a better idea how to do this yourself!
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Follow the directions that come with the Fogger and fog your entire house with the MoldZyme starting in the areas that are most heavily affected first. I recommend that you fog every room in your house to make sure that you are killing all mold spores that may have spread. Even if you can not smell the mold - fog the room! Then fog your HVAC system by removing access panels and registers and getting the fog directly into your duct work. You will need to move your furniture around when fogging your rooms to make sure that you get full coverage.
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Once you have finished fogging your rooms with the MoldZyme, allow this to do what it has to do for at least a week. This gives the enzymes time to digest and kill the mold that you have growing in your home.
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Once a week has passed, go back out to Home Depot and re-rent the fogger. Now we will want to fog the entire house again with the Concrobium product that you can purchase from the Home Depot. Concrobium is a protective fungicidal film coating that is applied to areas where there is mild mold growth and also applied to areas that you do not want mold growth. This product literally lays down a clear film that dries over mold and crushes it and kills the mold. It will also kill the MoldZyme by trapping it so that is why you should allow this product to do its job first before killing it with the Concrobium layer.
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Tips & Warnings
Remove all furniture and belongings that couldn't be cleaned from the mold and throw them away.
Fog your HVAC system as kill any spores in your heating/cooling system
Mold needs moisture to grow.
Use a radon seal is basements and concrete flooring to help stop moisture from entering your basement and to seal concrete.
Make sure the humidity level in a home does not exceed 55%. Also monitor humidity levels in bathrooms, attics, crawl spaces, basements, cellars garages, and closets.
Concrobium is best to use after you have cleaned your surface areas and used the MoldZyme product.
Use a 3M respirator with organic cartride filter when working with mold. You do not want to inhale this stuff.
