Weapons in your arsenal to stop mold

Mold is something that worries everyone. It can ruin the health of your family and make your home uninhabitable. But it is not that difficult to stop mold.

Bathrooms are an excellent breeding ground for this fungus, as mold likes warm, humid places, and there aren’t many other places that are more humid and warmer than a bathroom. Once you understand it and know why it grows where it does, you can prevent mold from growing in your bathroom.

The most important thing you can do in your fight against mold is to keep things dry. If your bathroom is dry, you are depriving mold of the nutrients it needs to grow. No nutrients means no mold.

One way to keep your bathroom dry is to have adequate ventilation. You need to have a fan that vents to the outside, not just the attic space. By venting to the attic space, you are simply moving a potential mold problem from your bathroom to your attic or crawl space, where it would be much more difficult to combat.

Make sure the seams on the bathroom walls are sealed and grouted. That will prevent water from getting behind the walls and help stop mold growth. Your most powerful weapon in the fight to stop mold is doing everything you can to keep the bathroom dry.

Another weapon in your fight to stop mold is actually bathroom paint. There are paints that are made specifically for bathrooms that contain fungus to combat mold and mildew. They are much more resistant to mold growth than ordinary paint.

If you choose not to use a special paint for the bathroom, you can have your paint store add an anti-mold agent to your paint. It is not very easy to mix this ingredient evenly by hand, so it is recommended to add it at the same time as the paint is stained.

If you suspect you have a problem, one way to do a mold test is to pour some bleach on the spot. If the stain changes color in any way, it is most likely mold.

You can also find mold testing kits at any home supply store. If you have mold and it is a small area (or no more than three small areas), then it is something you can clean yourself. However, there are commercial mold detergents that you should use instead of bleach. They will do a better job. If there are more than three areas of mold, or the affected area is larger than a square yard, then you should seek professional help.