If you are experiencing an emergency, call 911. For our emergency mold remediation services, contact us at (877) 468-3566.
No matter where you live, your home should be a safe space. When it comes to events that can disrupt that safety, disasters like floods, fires, storms, earthquakes, and even socio-political unrest are some of the most immediate and visible dangers. However, there are other, less visible potential dangers that can threaten the safety of your home. Insidious dangers can come from domestic abuse issues, addictions, a construction issue, and, more commonly, mold. Every building, even in arid regions, can be at risk of housing a variety of different mold colonies. Mold spores are virtually everywhere in the air, on surfaces, and even on our clothing and skin. Because mold is so prevalent, it just takes the right conditions in a home for a colony to develop. Mold growth in your home or in a work environment is often very dangerous. Toxicity from spores affects the health of people and pets, the cleanliness of building interiors, and the longevity of a building’s integrity. If you are dealing with a mold issue, ServiceMaster Recovery by C2C Restoration can help. We provide comprehensive services for mold remediation in Los Angeles County, CA for any kinds of colony growth, from black mold to the spread of various other fungal types.
If there is a mold growth in your home, you and your family are constantly exposed to whatever kind of spores or toxins it releases into the air. The bigger the colony, the more spores it releases, and the greater danger it poses to your building and your health. Mold colonies are also notoriously difficult to get rid of, and they almost always require professional mitigation services.
Causes of Mold
Since mold spores are omnipresent, the start of a mold colony only takes the creation of mold-conducive conditions. Mold-friendly environments have to be moist, away from sunlight, and within room temperature, generally between 70º F and 85º F. Mold can, however, grow in temperatures as low as 40º F and humidity levels as low as 55%.
When conditions for mold growth are created with humidity, darkness, and temperature, a colony will form wherever cellulose is available. Mold colonies consume cellulose to grow, which is the main reason why they can be so damaging to your home. Cellulose can be found naturally in many building materials, including wood, wallpaper, drywall, and even paint. Once they infest a space with those materials, mold colonies will eat away large portions of the cellulose contained in them.
Even in spaces where cellulose isn’t contained in the building materials of your home, there are opportunities for mold to grow. For example, in tiled spaces like bathrooms and kitchens, mold can subsist on the residual cellulose and organic materials on surfaces. Dander, soap, skin cells, and oil residues often stick to grouted surfaces. The rough, slightly porous finish of grouting is also an ideal growing space for mold. Because of this, mold is often found in bathrooms and washrooms where humidity is frequently higher than other areas in the home.
While you can usually get rid of surface mold in bathrooms, kitchens, and washrooms, the real problem is with mold colonies that you can’t see. The infestations our expert mold remediation technicians often handle are extensive colonies that have remained hidden long enough to grow to severely toxic levels. When that kind of mold growth happens in your home, mold toxicity is at its most dangerous.
Dangers of Mold
The main issue with colonies of mold is that they release hundreds of thousands of spores, and some also produce different types of mycotoxins in the air. When humans inhale these spores and mycotoxins, they can experience a variety of health effects and develop different conditions. Of the 100,000 identified mold species, there are three main categories that cause health issues in humans and animals:
- Allergenic molds make up the group of the most common household molds. The toxins that allergenic mold colonies release are the least likely to cause illness or serious reactions. However, they often increase existing allergies and can cause mild allergies in children. Exposure to allergenic mold spores has also been correlated to asthma development in infants and young children.
Common allergenic molds that aggravate allergies and trigger asthma attacks or the development of asthma in children include:
- Aspergillus strains that grow worldwide are the commonest molds that grow in homes, workspaces, and hospitals. Reactions to Aspergillus strains can range from mild allergies and breathing problems to a serious immune response that occurs in people with compromised pulmonary systems. This response is an allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) that causes lung and airway inflammation.
- Penicillium, while some strains can be used to create powerful antibiotics, others are harmful when airborne. The bluish or green mold that grows on old food is almost always a relatively innocent Penicillium species, but others, when airborne, act as allergens and asthma triggers.
- Cladosporium is a highly widespread, allergenic mold. The airborne spores of Cladosporium indoors can increase allergic symptoms and asthmatic reactions.
- Pathogenic molds are strains that cause infection primarily in humans. While allergenic molds typically affect young immune systems and those with existing allergies and/or compromised immune systems, pathogenic molds can affect all people even if they are healthy. Pathogenic molds can cause a range of illnesses, including chronic pulmonary infections, meningitis, and pneumonia. Some pathogenic molds are more prevalent in hospitals or in soil, but others have spores everywhere.
Common pathogenic molds that cause infection in humans include:
- Aspergillus strains A. fumigatus and A. flavus, which both cause chronic pulmonary infections
- Histoplasma capsulatum, which causes histoplasmosis, an infectious disease that often leads to pneumonia and a weakened immune system
- Cryptococcus neoformans, which leads to severe, slow-acting infections in immunocompromised people
- Toxigenic molds are the most dangerous type of mold because they produce mycotoxins. These mycotoxins are chemical byproducts of a mold colony’s metabolic processing of cellulose. When inhaled, mycotoxins generate severe responses in humans, including headaches, diarrhea, nausea, memory loss, flu-like symptoms, trouble breathing, long-term respiratory damage, immune compromise, and even neurological issues. Stachybotrys chartarum, AKA black mold, is the most infamous toxigenic strain, but there are many other types of toxic mold that can thrive indoors.
Some of the most dangerous toxigenic molds that grow indoors include:
- solani, F. oxysporum, and F. moniliforme in the Fusarium species
- brevicompactum, P. chrysogenum, P. citrinum, P. spinulosum, P. viridicatum, P. corylophilum, P. cyclopium, P. expansum, and P. fellutanum in the Penicillium species
- versicolor, A. niger, and A. flavus in the Aspergillus species
- and of course, Stachybotrys chartarum, black mold
The dangers of mold in your home are many, and they vary greatly in symptoms and severity depending on the type of mold. Serious mold colonies can start with mild symptoms and suddenly bloom overnight. Because of this, it’s important to get professional remediation help as soon as the mold growth is detected.
Remediation Tactics
Our expert mold remediation technicians have access to comprehensive training, state-of-the-art equipment, and effective cleaning solutions to treat residential, commercial, and even industrial mold infestations. Our job isn’t done until we’ve removed every trace of mold from your home or building and restored the conditions of your indoor space into one that isn’t conducive to future mold growths.
ServiceMaster Recovery by C2C Restoration uses proven techniques to restore mold contaminated spaces and items, rebuild mold-damaged interiors, and protect non-mold contaminated spaces during all remediation services with the specialized direction of air-flow.
Our remediation tactics include the use of:
- Thermal imaging for an infrared map of a mold colony’s footprint. This ensures we cover the entire region of any affected spaces in your home during the remediation process. A final infrared sweep of your home’s indoor spaces guarantees the complete removal of all mold.
- Dry ice blasting is an eco-friendly, powerful cleaning system. Solidified carbon dioxide is put into an acceleration container, and as the CO2 sublimates into a gas, it’s pushed through a pressurized air valve. The air stream of sublimating carbon dioxide cleans surfaces quickly, without the need for added moisture or caustic products. With dry ice blasting, we can quickly remove mold from all types of surfaces.
- Air scrubbers or neg-air systems create a directed air flow that allows us to remove floating spores and other particulates from your building. These scrubbers eliminate any potential for spores from the removed mold colony to start a new growth after our technicians have finished the remediation process. They also get rid of existing mycotoxins and other air quality issues.
- Dehumidifiers stabilize the moisture levels indoors. Our effective dehumidification systems bring interior humidity levels to between 30%-50%, an ideal condition for home comfort without allowing any space conducive to mold growth. Dehumidifying while the remediation process occurs also helps kill existing mold growths before they are removed.
Our full mold removal process begins with the stabilizing of the indoor environment, killing mold colonies and removing all traces, removing spores and mycotoxins from the air, restoring any damaged spaces, and sealing areas to prevent future growths.
When you choose ServiceMaster Recovery by C2C Restoration for mold remediation in Los Angeles County, CA, you can trust our team to quickly return your home to a safer, cleaner, restored environment that is unlikely to see a new mold infestation in the future. To learn more about our full remediation services, contact ServiceMaster Recovery by C2C Restoration today at info@svmbyc2crestoration.com or at our fast-response LA line: 323-851-5543. For emergencies, contact us immediately at 877-468-3566.
