Hidden Mold in Your Home: What You Need to Know

If you have, or think you have, a mold problem in your home, hidden mold is probably lurking there, too. While some mold problems may be easy to spot, it can be difficult to find or notice mold in places like heating ducts or inside your walls. But if you’ve got a household mold problem, it’s important to find and remove all mold or the problem will persist. Here’s what you need to know about hidden mold in your home.

Finding Hidden Mold

The earlier you can detect mold growing in your home, the less challenging it will be to remove. But because hidden mold is more difficult to detect, you should be on the lookout for signs. Since mold is caused by moisture, the most common places for hidden mold to live are areas that are prone to condensation. If you know that you have water problems (leaking, high moisture levels, etc.) or if you’ve had water damage, you should be on the lookout for potential hidden mold.

Sometimes noticing a moldy smell without being able to locate the source may be one of the only signs of hidden mold. Another possible sign is if house occupants suddenly start complaining of allergy-like health problems.

Another point to keep in mind is that even non-hidden mold could be a symptom of a larger hidden problem. If you find mold growing on a wall, floor or ceiling, it could mean that there is a mold colony behind the material that is growing through to the other side.

Common Places for Hidden Mold

Behind wallpaper
Behind drywall
Under paneling
Behind baseboards
Under carpet pads
Top of ceiling tiles
Inside walls around pipes
Inside heating and cooling ductwork
On walls behind furniture
In roof materials

Removing Hidden Mold

Hidden mold is tricky to remediate on your own. First of all, locating all of the mold will most likely involve cutting away parts of the wall, tearing up carpet, lifting away baseboards, removing wallpaper, and generally disassembling pieces of your house in order to get at every affected area. It can be a long process without the proper manpower, and often you may end up throwing away moldy building materials and having to replace them.

You should also keep in mind that moving or disturbing the surfaces where mold is growing may cause spores to release and spread throughout your home where they have the potential to keep growing and affecting other areas.

The EPA recommends that if the mold covers more than 10 square feet, you should call a professional mold remediation company. They have the proper tools and training to effectively find, reach and remove the hidden mold in your home with as little invasion as possible.

However you decide to deal with the hidden mold in your home, be sure to make your decision quickly and act fast. The longer you wait to remove the mold, the bigger the chance that the problem will become more serious.