Mold

Mold and mildew causes this damp, musty smell. These are musty smelling fungi that thrive in moist conditions. Keeping humidity down reduces the chance for mold to grow. In general, mold will not grow at less than 50% relative humidity! Dehumidification is the key. Of course, any groundwater, plumbing or other leaks should be fixed, as part of a strategy to eliminate mold .

Allergens in the Home
Mold spores will certainly irritate someone with allergies. The number one allergen however, is the fecal matter of dust mites. Dust mites don't drink water, but absorb it out of the air through their skin. In order to live, dust mites need relative humidity over 50%. Reducing the relative humidity below 50% will cause dust mites to die off.

Mold, Dust Mite & Odors

If your basement, crawl space, or entire house smells damp or musty, we have a solution!

House Mold and Mold Spores

Mold has been an epidemic with wet basements and damp crawl spaces since the very beginning.  It accumulates on anything organic in a basement, including wood, carpeting, drywall, organic ceiling tiles, cloth, paper, cardboard, and all other organic material.  Year-round, it sends its spores into the basement and crawl space air, where they rise up and eventually reach your home.  Meanwhile, the household mold is spreading and deepening its hold in your basement, rotting everything and causing damage to the wood in your home.

Mold spores can cause and agitate a variety of health-related problems, including congestion, headache, difficulty breathing and agitated asthma and allergies.  Some molds are even toxic!  If you’ve let your mold get bad enough that you can feel the difference, you’ve waited too long.

Dust Mites

Tens of millions of people suffer from allergies in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and the number has been increasing rapidly in the last 20 years.  With many indoor air pollutant levels ranked 2-5 times higher than levels measured outdoors the Environmental Protection Agency lists these pollution levels as one of the top five risks to public health.  Of these pollutants, dust mites are a scourge.  Dust mite waste is responsible for 80%-90% of the allergens found in household dust.  Take a few minutes to learn what’s lurking in your home!

Crawl Space and Basement Humidity

Mold and dust mites need moist air to survive.  By lowering your humidity levels below 60%, you can create an environment in your home that most mold and dust mites will not be able to thrive and reproduce in.  We recommend a powerful dehumidifier that can keep dry air circulating around the basement or crawl space to help prevent mold and kill dust mites.

We can offer you an energy-efficient dehumidifier that can drain humidity away from your living space without the need for you to empty any collection trays or perform contestant maintenance.  Basement System’s SaniDry crawl space and basement dehumidifier is Energy Star rated, and it also includes an air filtration system.  It’s capable of removing particles from the air as small as two microns- that’s smaller than hair, pollen, dust mites, dust mite waste, and most mold spores!

House Mold Testing and Concerns

As wet basements and crawl space moisture becomes an increasingly large problem for homeowners across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, more and more people are having their health affected by crawl space and basement mold.  According to the Journal of Property Management, tens of thousands of lawsuits have been filed in recent years against landlords, developers and insurance companies over home mold related issues.  In response, most general liability and property insurance companies now exclude mold from their policies.  And with few regulations for acceptable levels set by the EPA for mold testing results, it’s a legal battleground where homeowners and building managers are often the casualties.

If you suffer from a headache, stuffy nose, or some type of allergic reaction when home that is relieved shortly after leaving the building, it’s possible that these symptoms are caused or worsened by indoor air pollutants and allergens such as mold spores.  And as Glenn Fellman, executive director of the Indoor Air Quality Association states, “If you are reacting to a problem because somebody’s been sick, you’ve waited way too long to address indoor air quality”.  The best way to protect yourself is to prevent the problem before it begins.

Household Mold Issues

A typical mold will be about 10 microns (0.0002 inches) in size, and they can grow anywhere where there is sufficient warmth, food, and humidity in the air to absorb moisture.  Any organic material- including dust, fabric, wallpaper, wood, and paint all provide more than enough nourishment to keep mold healthy and growing.  As a matter of fact, the Journal of Property Management reports that one square inch of drywall can contain 1 to 10 million spores as small as 1.5 microns in size!  There are more than 1.5 million species in existence, and some molds grow only in the home.  Mold grows year round in any home - no matter how clean, and according to Human Ecology, fungus consists of an estimated 25% of the Earth’s biomass.

As mold matures, it begins to reproduce, sending seedlike spores out into the air.  As long as the temperature is above 40 degrees Fahrenheit, they can land, grow, and spread.  Time magazine reports that there can be hundreds of thousands of mold spores in a single cubic meter of air indoors, and a single person inhales 10 or 12 cubic meters each day.

Unfortunately, even you have mold only in the basement or crawl space, its spores will rise throughout the home.  The reason for this is called the “Stack Effect”.  Because of the stack effect, warm air rises in the home and exits through the upper levels and attic.  As it does, a vacuum is created on the lower levels which draws air upwards from the basement and crawl space.  Anything in that air- including mold spores, humidity, dust mite feces, and odors, will be drawn into the main area of the home where you breathe.

Cleaning and removing crawl space and basement mold with bleach or biocides is only a temporary solution.  Mold remediation of this type can eliminate mold in the short term, but unless the reason that it was there in the first place is not eliminated, there’s nothing stopping house mold from returning.  To worsen the situation, Human Ecology magazine reports that dead mold can still cause allergic reactions as well, and microscopic mold spores that were not removed can lay dormant for years while they wait for the opportunity to grow.  Additionally, while mold resistant coatings may keep mold off the surfaces they contact, mold will still have a surface to grow on unless you can also coat your ventilation ducts and every piece of organic material that enters the house.

Get Rid of House Mold Before it Starts

According to Total Health magazine, household mold growth is accelerated by warmth and high humidity- especially in the basement and crawl space.  Mold spores can affect a home’s inhabitants through inhalation, ingestion, and skin contact.  As they do, all the symptoms of allergic rhinitis can occur, including a runny nose, watery eyes, mild allergic reactions, a scratchy throat, fatigue, and general discomfort when breathing.  In rare cases, mold can even be toxic!  The American Lung Association reports that 88 million people in the United States suffer from some sort of respiratory distress, and 50% of homes have at least one person living inside that has allergies, asthma, or another respiratory ailment. 

The Journal of Property Management reports that ignoring a mold problem will not only lead to the compromised health of the occupants, but it can also lead to expensive home damage. Repairs can be lengthy and extensive, and in extreme cases, they may necessitate relocation of all inhabitants while the work is being conducted.  Mold can grow anywhere there’s moisture, including near plumbing leaks, leaking roofs, and especially in wet and damp crawl spaces and basements. Household mold is a significant problem that has been largely ignored for too long.  If there is a water problem within the home, it’s extremely important to fix the problem and dry the area within 48 hours.  If there’s less moisture, there’s less mold.  With less mold, there’s less damage to the home.

The easiest way to prevent household mold, and one of the primary methods recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency, is to reduce indoor humidity within the home to below 60%.  They also recommend removing all sources of water leakage within the home, sealing penetrations in walls and floors especially below in below-ground areas, checking for moldy odors, and removing all sources of freestanding water.

Basement Systems’ international network of top-quality basement waterproofing contractors is dedicated to helping to eliminate basement mold and moisture.  Their inorganic products are designed to form vapor barriers on the basement walls and floors to keep humidity from seeping through the porous.  Additionally, our SaniDry Basement Dehumidifier is capable of filtering the air of particles as small as two microns!  This means that house mold spores, dust mite waste, pollen, and many other home environment allergens will be safely removed from the air.  With its self-draining system, the Energy Star rated SaniDry is able to pull moisture from the air and lower the relative humidity below 60%.  These low humidity levels create an environment that is too dry for house mold and dust mites to thrive.  Thus, the area is cleaner, healthier, and more sanitary for your entire house!

Dust Mite Allergies

When thinking about dust mites, consider these three numbers:

1. There are a thousand dust mites in a gram of dust.

2. A single dust mite defecates 20 times a day, creating 200 times its body weight within two months.

3. 54,000,000 Americans suffer from allergies.

Problems with dust mites and other indoor allergens and pollutants are becoming more prominent with each passing year.  In fact, ICS Cleaning Specialist Magazine reports that the prevalence of asthma and asthma-related health problems has increased by an astounding 75% from 1980 to 2001 alone! 

According to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, 50% of all respiratory illnesses are caused or aggravated by polluted indoor air.  And the problem, at least in part, lies within your home. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) statistics show that the levels of many airborne pollutants are 2-5 times higher than the same levels outdoors.  The bottom line?  The EPA ranks indoor air pollution as one of the top five environmental risks to public health, and dust mite allergies is among the leading causes of these problems.

Dust mites grow and spread at an alarming rate in every household- no matter how clean it is.  Dust mites can grow from eggs to adults in a single month, and they begin to reproduce after only ten days, with females laying up to 2-3 eggs each day.  They live 30-100 days, with females laying as many as 270 eggs before they die.  The waste they create continuously as they live, according to National Wildlife Magazine, counts for 80-90% of the allergic component of house dust.

As stated by American Family Physician, controlling dust mites is the most important thing you can do in your house to make your asthma and allergies better.  Since this is the most common chronic disease among children, the problem is too important to pass by.  Allergies generally develop from ages 6-26, with symptoms emerging late if the environment changes from one with few allergens to one with more.  Dust mite feces contains more than 15 potent allergens that sensitize and trigger allergic reactions in predisposed people.  Approximately 10% of the general population and 90% of asthmatic patients are sensitive to dust mite feces allergies, and in many cases, asthma and dust mite allergies symptoms could be decreased or eliminated entirely by reducing exposure.

The American Academy of Family Physicians recommends removing carpet that’s been laid over concrete and reducing indoor humidity in the home and especially in the basement.  All sources agree that if humidity is lowered below 60%, dust mites will no longer be able to absorb moisture from the air and will dehydrate.  As they become unable able to thrive, and they will begin to grow dormant and die.

If you want to help kill dust mites and work to eliminate the symptoms of dust mite exposure, you’re going to need a reliable basement dehumidifier.  If you’re looking for the best basement dehumidification system on the market, there’s nothing in the industry as effective and efficient as the SaniDry basement dehumidifier.   Here’s seven fantastic reasons to choose the SaniDry:

1. The SaniDry can remove particles as small as two microns from the basement air.  At this size, it’s effective enough to remove dust mite feces and most mold spores from the basement environment.

2. This Energy Star rated basement dehumidifier removes 100 pints of water from the basement with the same energy as some 40-pint models on the market.

3. As the relative humidity lowers below 60%, most mold, mildew and dust mites will be eliminated.

4. Unlike some basement dehumidifiers, the SaniDry basement dehumidifier is able to drain itself automatically, saving the you from the continuous chore of emptying basement dehumidifier collection trays.

5. Because dry air is much easier to heat and cool than damp, humid air, removing this moisture will make the entire home more energy-efficient.

6. The SaniDry can be ducted into other rooms, allowing a finished basement’s air to be clean and dry while the SaniDry is securely tucked away and out of sight.

7. An optional additional air filter available with the SaniDry can remove odors and musty smells from the basement air.

Save money on your home while helping to remove mold and kill dust mites to make your whole home healthier and more comfortable.