Mold in homes requires three ingredients to grow:
- Food, which consists of wood and wood products, paper, cardboard, and wallpaper, fabric, upholstery, leather, painted walls, cement, plaster, ceiling tiles, leather, insulation materials, and carpet, is needed for mold growth.
- An ideal temperature between 41 and 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit is necessary for mold to grow in homes.
- The key ingredient is moisture.
When moisture is present with the ideal temperature and there is ample food, mold in homes in Alexandria, VA will start to grow within 24 to 48 hours. It is imperative that homeowners in Alexandria, VA keep moisture and humidity under control to avoid mold growth.
Once mold in homes is detected, it needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. The mold growth in your Alexandria, VA home will need to be removed as well as the source of the moisture in the house needs to be addressed, or the mold will continue to come back. Failure to repair the underlying cause of mold in homes and removing the mold can cause significant structural damage, which can then lead to a substantial reduction in the property value to homes in Alexandria, VA.
Mold in homes in Alexandria, VA can also make your family members sick. Many physicians are not trained to treat or identify mold illnesses, so frequently, patients suffer because of being misdiagnosed. This leads to being referred to different specialists to get to the underlying cause of related illnesses.
Infants who are exposed to a moldy environment in Alexandria, VA are three times likely to become asthmatic than those who are not exposed to mold during their first year of life. Mold in homes can trigger family members who have already been diagnosed with asthma with severe asthma attacks.
Your family’s genes have a lot to do with how their body reacts to mold exposure. According to Dr. Richie Shoemaker, a physician and expert on biotoxin-related illnesses and the author of “Surviving Mold,” one in four people have a genetic predisposition to the mold illness, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS).
It is challenging to diagnose CIRS because many symptoms are similar to other illnesses as well.