Black rising damp and mold are unsightly.

And they could also have serious ramifications for your health. Mold is essentially a kind of microscopic fungus that thrives in warm, damp conditions. Your house is usually warm, so when it becomes damp too, problems can arise, and mold can start rising in affected areas.

What Causes Mold?

There are all kinds of causes of mold in the home.

• Leaking pipes: One of the most common issues are leaking pipes. When pipes leak, usually at the joints or on a bend in the wall, water seeps out into the surrounding material. Microscopic spores in the dust in your home grow on damp, warm surfaces unabated, spreading throughout the affected area. Most people don’t notice leaking pipes behind walls because the rate at which water is leaking is too slow to result in a visible flood.
• Basement damp: All sorts of things can cause rising damp from the basement, but it usually has something to do with problems with either the foundations or guttering. When gutters don’t work correctly, they can’t keep water away from the base of the house. It subsequently seeps down into the masonry and then permeates the material. After a while, water can begin rising back up through the brickwork into the main body of the house.
• A damaged roof: The final common cause of damp is a damaged roof. Water gets in underneath the tiles and then becomes incorporated into the interior walls or woodwork.

Mold Can Affect Your Health

There are all kinds of ways that mold can adversely affect your health. Researchers over in the UK have identified many issues, including respiratory problems, an uptick in asthma symptoms, and allergies.

Allergies are a big problem. Under normal circumstances, our exposure to fungal spores is low. Spores are there in the environment, but in such small concentrations that respiratory systems can quickly and efficiently process them without us feeling any ill effects. When we’re exposed to them in high levels in our homes, it’s a different story: mold spores get into our respiratory systems and overwhelm our ability to process them. The immune system goes into overdrive, seeing spores as a threat, and causing extreme reactions.

Removing The Mold From Your Home

Is removing mold a DIY job? The good news is that you can remove mold yourself if you know what you’re doing. But only certain types of mold infestation are amenable to removal by hand, without the help of professional services.

In general, you should only remove mold caused by condensation – for instance, black mold that might appear over time around the seals in your bathroom. You shouldn’t try to remove mold if it is caused by exposure to sewage or an ongoing leak in piping. If the mold is caused by a leaking roof, it’s a good idea to get the roof repaired first.

You might be able to claim some money back for mold from your home insurance provider through a public adjuster. These professionals can act on your behalf to reclaim any money you might have lost dealing with a mold problem in your home.

Finally, you shouldn’t try to remove mold if it takes up an area larger than approximately three feet by three feet. Removing an area larger than this exposes you and your family to toxic levels of mold spores which could cause severe damage to your health.

Easily Remove Mold In A Series Of DIY Steps

So, if your mold problem fulfills those criteria, how do you remove it?

Step 1: Suit Up

Mold spores are dangerous, so you want to make sure that they can’t get on your hands, up your nose, or in your eyes during the removal process. Cover your hands with gloves, eyes with goggles, and mouth and nose with a mask

Step 2: Open Windows

As you clean up the mold, you’ll cause spores to spread into the environment. Ideally, you want these outside, so open windows and close doors to other rooms.

Step 3: Fill A Bucket With Soapy Water

You’ll need soapy water to kill and remove mold from the wall.

Step 4: Use A Disposable Rag To Remove The Mold

You’ll want to throw away any rag you use to clear the mold from the wall.

Step 5: Pat Dry

Make sure that once the mold is removed, so too is all the moisture.

Step 6: Dispose Of Rags In Outdoor Bin

Disposing rags outside keeps spores away from your home.