How Basement Mold Affects Air Quality in Your Home
Maintaining your basement air quality is essential to your health at home. Basements can be breeding grounds for mold and mildew. If left unaddressed, these growths can impact your well-being – not just in the basement, but everywhere in your home. Here, Dry Tech Waterproofing Solutions explores the negative effects of basement mold and how mold remediation can restore your air quality and comfort.
Why Is Basement Mold So Common?
The archetypical basement is dark, damp, and often dingy. Located underground, basements are often subject to moisture problems. The lack of windows leads to poor natural lighting. In addition, many basements are poorly ventilated, allowing potential air contaminants to linger. These factors combined make the basement an ideal environment for mold growth. In fact, it’s estimated that up to 47% of American homes may have mold hiding in their basement.
Though common, however, basement mold can be hard to detect. In unfinished basements, mold may be visible on the ceiling, walls, or joists. In a finished basement, however, it may hide behind drywall and carpeting. Only severe infestations will make themselves evident through dark spots or stains. If left untreated, however, even invisible mold can become a serious health concern.
How Can It Affect Me?
Mold reproduces by releasing fine particles, called spores, into the air. Though invisible, these particles can have a significant and negative impact on the health of people who breathe them. Mold spores are a common household allergen. Some species may even be toxic. You may experience effects such as:
- Respiratory problems: Mold spores may trigger coughing, sneezing, or allergic reactions. People with asthma or other pre-existing respiratory conditions are especially vulnerable.
- Skin irritation: Mold may cause itching, rashes, and other forms of irritation. Though typically due to direct contact, these effects may also arise due to spores landing on the skin.
- Eye irritation: Mold spores may also cause itchy, red, or watery eyes. In environments with high spore counts, this may even impact individuals who are not allergic.
- Headaches: Consistently breathing air affected by mold can lead to persistent headaches, dizziness, or difficulty concentrating. This is especially true of toxic molds.
- Serious concerns: Long-term mold exposure may lead to serious health issues, such as infections or neurological problems.
Even when mold does not trigger identifiable symptoms, it may cause a general malaise – that is, an overall sense of unwellness that makes it difficult to feel at ease. This means that even mild exposure can impact your comfort at home.
Spreading Mold Throughout the Home
Though mold has a negative health impact, it may be easy to assume that this effect is localized to the basement. Simply limit the time you spend downstairs, and you should feel fine, right?
Unfortunately, this is not true. Many home heaters and furnaces are located in the basement, alongside the ventilation fans that keep air circulating throughout your home. As a result, basement mold can easily get into the ductwork. Mold spores are incredibly fine in order to be carried and spread by the wind, and this is exactly what they do in your home’s ventilation system. Carried by air currents through ducts, mold spores – and their health impacts – can spread throughout the whole house.
What’s more, the mold may spread as well. As spores are blown throughout the home, some of them may find a dark, damp location that meets their needs for growth. This location may become host to a new mold colony to release its own spores into your home’s air.
Eliminating Issues with Mold Remediation
Removing mold from your basement is more than a simple DIY project. Attempting remediation without professional experience or equipment may only aggravate your air quality problems. In addition, leaving even a small amount of mold behind may allow it to spread anew.
Instead, trust the professional services of Dry Tech Waterproofing Solutions, taking measures to prevent health hazards throughout the remediation process. They also work to identify and eliminate the source, ensuring that mold problems do not return as time goes on. This includes foundation repair to address issues that allowed moisture and mold to proliferate.
We also provide basement waterproofing services for long-term mold prevention. By identifying and repairing weak spots in your basement construction, we can keep your home watertight. This stops mold in its tracks, preventing problems before they appear.
Address Basement Mold Today
Basement mold can negatively impact air quality and health throughout your house. Fortunately, basement waterproofing experts can address the issue to restore your air quality and comfort. Dry Tech Waterproofing Solutions delivers mold remediation and basement waterproofing for homeowners in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Contact us to find out more or schedule a free estimate.
