You have an older home. Should you know how to test for mold? How often should you test? How to know what to look for?
Mold Testing
Mold is the one thing that can send fear into any homeowner. It’s not something you normally look for. It’s not something that’s easy to find, especially with crawl spaces and basements. And yet when you hear about it in the news, it can have very serious effects for your family’s health, even bring on death in some cases. When should you be concerned?
While there are some tests on the market that can help you determine if you have mold, the easiest way to detect it is to use your senses – your nose and your eyes.
If your home does have mold, chances are you’ll begin to smell it. Mold has a distinctive odor that taints the air around the formation of mold.
Where the problem lies is in the different types of mold, and the affect mold has on the general population. Different types of molds can cause different reactions in different people. Some molds like the stachybotrys chartarum, or black mold, produces toxic substances that have been known to cause health problems in some people. Other molds may be less harmful, yet still can cause reactions, especially with long term exposure.
