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| Mold growing on sheetrock |
All people want a healthy home to enjoy.
The time we spend at home with our families, loved ones, and pets is precious. It is frightening how quickly unhealthy conditions can occur in our homes. Often, water seeps into the foundation and allows for a wet basement. It does not have to be a flood. Mold colonies grow and spread with just a small amount of moisture and organic material (sheetrock or wood). Provide the right temperature, and you might as well grab your lab coat and petri dishes.
Just be thankful that the above photo is not the scratch-n-sniff variety.
Mold growths often flourish quickly and can release harmful mycotoxins into the air that we breathe. Some are toxic and others are not. Regardless, even non-toxic mold species cause horrible health ailments for many individuals, particularly those with a predisposition to a certain allergy or illness. Elderly folks as well as youngsters, often face more difficult challenges when faced with these less than ideal environmental changes. Outdoors, molds' will release the same toxic mycotoxins, but there is enough airspace to offset the ill effects.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, the indoor environment is another matter entirely, presenting possible dire consequences.
Fortunately, we have learned much about the dangers over the past decade as our medical and scientific communities have spent a good amount of time and resources investigating and analyzing data and conducting vast experiments which have yielded valuable information on the long ignored topic.
Some continue to ignore the problem. Hoping the water that entered the home's basement or crawlspace, will not harm them, and subside.
This is simply not the case.
As we know, this can lead to a number of unhealthy effects on those who inhabit the home, as well as, the home's structural integrity and value. The home's comfort level will also be noticeably changed. Smells, unpleasant sights, and damaged items are just a few of the welcome examples after the basement waterproofing system has been installed. One of the most important factors to consider, when facing water damage from a wet basement, is IAQ indoor air quality.
Many of us, unknowingly exacerbate the risks to our families and home, by closing the doors and windows and air conditioning our sealed homes. The problem is we have also increased the rate at which detrimental particulate matter travels in the air we breathe. This poor indoor air being circulated consists of unhealthy airborne particulate matter originating from the damp wet basement, where the the mold has taken root and is thriving. Often the mold is not visible because it loves the dark (interior wall space), and eats the paper-faced gypsum board in the privacy of the hollows of the walls in your home. Many homeowners, falsely breathe a sigh of relief after a quick water intrusion incident, that produces no "visible" mold. Therefore, the mold colonies are left to thrive in the basement and only further investigated, when someone develops cold symptoms or nagging headaches, sinuses, sore throats which become common health impediments.
To stop mold and unhealthy wet basements you must stop the water.
Your wet basement or crawlspace should not be ignored any longer.
For information on protecting your home and family, Call the Basement Waterproofing Professionals at Statewide Basement Systems Today 845 635 3040,
or visit us online http://www.NYBasementWaterproofingSystems.com
Statewide Basement Systems, Inc. "Creating Dry Healthy Homes" All Rights Reserved 2012
