Water Incidents can Seem Small and Insignificant: Mold is Also Small but not Insignificant

8/1/2018 (Permalink)

What may have been a small water damage was left untreated and created extensive mold growth. See the full story in our Before and After Photos.

After the heavy storm system this past month, we’ve helped multiple businesses and homes recover from water damage. However, I know that sometimes water damage doesn’t seem serious enough to call in the professionals. I’m sure that during the storms last month a few of you just soaked up the water with a towel. Maybe it wasn’t even from the storm system. Maybe you had a pipe burst and you just put a bucket under it and called a plumber. If this is the case, you sound like a do-it-yourself kind of person and that’s a commendable characteristic to have. However, if you’re wiping up water from your hardwood floor with a rag, let’s do a little digging into the consequences of possibly missing some of that moisture.

When a home suffers water damage, this damage can have lasting impacts on more areas and items than those that obviously got wet. The incoming water can create extra moisture in the air and environment that can affect walls, ceilings and items other than what would be obvious to the eye. And even after the puddle is cleaned up the moisture that is still lingering in the walls and other locations can create problems in surprisingly short amounts of time. Do you see where this is going? Mold.

Mold is always around us, but not all types of mold are harmful. Though the word mold can be scary, often visible mold isn’t dangerous. But the mold you see can be an indicator that higher levels of mold spores are present. These spores are often the cause of negative health effects. Mold spores come in from the outside and— at some level— are always present; we cannot prevent them from getting into our homes and businesses. Which means that yes, even clean water, when not properly dried and cleaned can lead to mold growth. We can, however, prevent this growth by depriving them of the moisture that is needed.