Picture this, it’s Sunday morning, you and the family have begun your weekly routine of cleaning your home. With all bedrooms vacuumed, floors mopped, all surfaces wiped, and linens washed you can relax knowing you’ve done a spotless job, right? Well, not exactly.
Your home is just as alive as you. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? The reality is bacteria, viruses, and toxins are living and thriving in our homes. Unfortunately, no matter how much cleaning products you use to prevent organic materials from growing, it continues to, from the top to the very bottom of your house. Which includes your attic, basement, or crawl space.
Basements and crawl spaces are notoriously wet and damp due to groundwater seepage from the foundation walls. Any area of the home can influence any other area of the home based upon air convection movement such as the stack house effect, where warm moist air raises and permeates through the home. The attic is the area where all the warm moist air should expel out through air handler vents. However, many times, depending on the design of the attic, whether it is over insulated, or poorly ventilated, moisture can get trapped in the attic, causing mold growth.
Depending on where the main HVAC system is located, (basement or attic) it can take the air from those areas draw the air into the air handler units and in turn distribute throughout the entire home. If the area where the HVAC system is located is contaminated with mold, mold spores can be drawn into the HVAC system and distributed throughout the home and impact the indoor air quality.
Mold isn’t something you can just add to your Sunday chore list though. Once your home is contaminated, you will need to find a professional to test the extent of the damage. Because this living organism grows over time, a top to bottom inspection is absolutely necessary.