A damp garage is a breeding ground for mold. Mold develops within the first 24 to 48 hours and action needs to be taken within this time in order to eliminate mold growth. Mold can reproduce rapidly, unless steps are taken to dry the garage. You need to dry that garage.
If you leave the mold multiplied, you’re going to find it growing on your walls, ceilings, and we’ll begin to produce a musty odor throughout the home and in the garage. Well, mold takes a lot of forms. It’s usually a black stain that is produced on the sheetrock, you’ll see it through the paint.
It’ll look a little black and on sheetrock walls are plaster walls. So you need to look for this. If you see that, you know, you have a mold problem.
Eliminate the source of water
The most important thing in a damper wet garage is to eliminate the source of the water. For example, if you have a water coming in from groundwater, you can’t just fix the mold and expect it not to happen again. You need to put in a waterproofing system. If there’s a leaky pipe, or if there is a broken water heater, whatever the source of the water needs to be addressed before or during the mold process. It’s very important, otherwise, you’re just going to be going back up the hill again.
At the same time, we cannot discount the mold growth itself. You need to remove the mold. If it’s gone past 48 hours and you have a moldy smell, you need to remove the sheetrock or building materials in order to efficiently get rid of this mold threat
Dangers of mold in a garage and home
- Multiplying the mold spores can spread throughout the entire home.
- It can cause allergic reactions.
- You will need to be careful of this in small children.
- Asthmatic episodes.
- Infections and other respiratory problems are inherent.
- Repeated exposure to mold can permanently injured the nasal passages and most susceptible are the elderly and young children.
How to Kill Molds Anywhere
Now, if you want to kill mold at the source, you can also get yourself something called a biocide or another anti-microbial agent. I recommend getting vital oxide or Concrobium. You can get Concrobium right at Amazon, Home Depot or your local hardware store. Whereas vital oxide, you may need to special order online.
Now, if those aren’t available to you, you can also get traditional cleaners, but don’t use bleach because bleach does not kill mold. That is an urban legend. Here are three solutions you might already have in your house that you can go ahead to use, to kill black mold.
- White distilled vinegar.
Now, vinegar is a mild acid that will generally kill 82% of mold species. Now, if mixing baking soda into the vinegar can usually kill black mold. So go ahead and combine those two in a spray bottle.
- 3% hydrogen peroxide.
Now just take the hydrogen peroxide and mix it with water and it will kill the mold spores and its roots.
- Borax
The third solution you can use to kill black mold would be mixing one cup of borax with one cup of water in a spray bottle. Borax is natural and it has anti-microbial quality.
Other Effective ways to Keep Molds Away
You have to be very careful if we have a mold present in your garage.
Eliminate Moisture Source
The best way in dealing with molds is killing the moisture source. You see mold these three things to grow. It needs moisture, it needs humidity, and it needs something for it to grow on nutrients, such as drywall wood, anything pores for it to grow on. If you take out one of those three ingredients, then mold can’t grow.
Well, the first thing you need to do is eliminate the source of the water and remove the mold from the walls and in most cases remove the sheetrock. If you’re unlucky enough to finish the garage with sheetrock or plaster or paneling usually you have to remove and replace these items. It’s an organic substance that is inherent to mold growth, and it’s a big problem.
You may want to look into some of these specialty companies that do garage finishing that specifically identify no mold growth, no organic materials as your wall panels, their flooring and of course their ceilings.
A garage or basement is a specialty environment, and you want to be careful what we put down in there. Â You can’t just throw down organic materials in a cave like environment and expect them not to be damaged inherently in a basement it’s wet, damp, moist, and you want to make sure that we have materials down there for finishing that are conducive to the environment.
Treat Sub Floor Area and Put a Humidifier
So besides removing the mold and replacing the building materials, you are going to want to treat the sub floor area by reducing the water that’s underneath there. You want to put a waterproofing system in if it’s groundwater coming up.
In conjunction with that, you want to take the air, the damp moist air underneath that slab and get it out from underneath that slab. Excellent product comes to mind as humidifiers. You want to install one of these, and these are going to treat the sub slab area where 80% of your moisture in a garage comes from.
Also Check:Â 5 Best Humidifiers for Garage (Reviewed 2021)
Dehumidify the Garage
And that the next thing you want to do is you want to dehumidify the existing air in the basement by use of dehumidifiers. Heavy duty industrial dehumidifiers are very good and you will make sure that the dampness in the air is turned back into water then pumped out of the garage.
Try air Exchange
Air change is also a big item in a garage. Make sure you exchange the air. Due do to the whole house effect and the air going up and escaping through the roof and through the vents and through the chimney, if we reversed the whole house effect and bring that air down as the garage, we utilize that normally wasted warm air and bring it down to the garage and achieve a 72 degree Fahrenheit, which is optimum for drying out a garage. This is perfect for attached garages.
Also Check:Â 7 Best Dehumidifier for Garage (Reviewed 2021)
Eliminate Dust Mites
One of the concerns with mold or dust mites, they’re microscopic cousins of the tick and spider and then they feed on dead skin cells and they thrive in places like mattresses, pillows, bed covers, carpet stuff, toys, furniture, and clothes.
The waste produced by wet by dust mites are one of the top factors in causing asthma and allergies. Multiplying tenfold daily, dust mites may seem to be an impossible problem to tackle.
But if you do not defend against dust mites, you’re leaving yourself in harm’s way. And you know allowing dampness in your garage is a top producer for dust mites in the home.
Dust mites are unable to eat water and instead of absorb it from the air. Dust mites thrive in humid environments, garage. They love basements, and they fluctuate with the seasons. So when it’s rainy out, you’re going to have more dust mites down there than normal. It’s a perfect environment. Your garage is a perfect environment for dust mites, and you want to make sure that you keep that basement drive to keep your home healthy.
Conclusion:
So to recap, it’s necessary to mitigate the damage in a garage, especially if you have building materials down there within 24 to 48 hours. You want to dry the garage. You want to use air movement. You want to use germicide within that 48 hours to eliminate mold damage.
You want to introduce air behind the walls with a germicide and make sure that you killed the potential mold from growing before it grows on the building materials. If you go past 48 hours, then it will be necessary to remove and replace sheet rock materials or anything organic, such as wood. These items will grow mold and they will remain damp.
Property and modification of the garage proper, waterproofing systems making sure that you address the source of the water first or while you’re taking the mold Laden materials out of the basement is very important and keeping a clean dry environment by installing a waterproofing system with proper dehumidification products.
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