Mold Testing in Mississauga

Responsibility and homeownership go hand in hand - especially when it comes to adding mold testing in Mississauga to the endless to do list. One of the major hidden problems in homes across Mississauga and the GTA is that mold can grow unseen and undetected. This causes property and structural damage as well as affects the health of you and your kids. Having mold testing in Mississauga can not only give you peace of mind, but can help prevent major problems from developing in your home through efficient and painless testing.

Mold Testing in Mississauga: What is Mold?

Mold is a necessary part of the natural world - in your yard, mold helps break down plant and animal matter as part of the decomposition process. But indoor mold growth isn’t great. For starters, we don’t usually want our homes to decompose! On a more serious note, however, mold reproduces by sending out airborne spores that land in other areas of your home and start new colonies. Those spores can also be breathed in where they lodge in your airways and mucous membranes like your eyes, nose, and mouth. This is where they cause irritation and inflammation.

Mold can appear in a number of different shapes, colours, and textures, which can often make it difficult to diagnose by sight alone. Mold appears in colours like blue, black, red, green, and brown. They can look like a stain, discolouration, spots, or patches, and can be furry, smooth, or slick. Another reason mold can be tricky to identify is because it prefers to grow in private, out of sight behind walls, underneath rugs or furniture, or in and out of the way rooms in your home. This is where mold inspection and testing in Mississauga can help - with sophisticated tests and a thorough analysis, a professional mold test can give you detailed results on mold strains present in your home, helping to pinpoint exactly where problem areas exist.

Causes of Mold

At MoldTech, finding mold growth is only one important part of mold testing in Mississauga -  the other is figuring out what caused it to grow in the first place. Mold can grow on any organic material in your home - which can be everything from yesterday’s lunch to wood, drywall, upholstery, clothes, and more. But it only grows if the conditions are right, and preventing those conditions from happening is the key to reducing your risk.

Other than a food source, mold needs water and a stable temperature to grow. Moisture in any form (whether it’s water or humidity) is probably the most important ingredient, and the bad news is that water is everywhere in your home. From cleaning to cooking to showering, we add moisture to our indoor environments every day. Appliances that use water, taps, drains and sinks can also spring leaks or have breakdowns that cause floods or other water emergencies. This water can activate dormant mold spores that can begin to grow within 48 hours.

An even temperature and a lack of ventilation are also key parts of mold growth, and there are many places in your home where these three ingredients exist.

How to Spot Mold Growth

As we’ve already mentioned, mold can be a tricky problem to solve, since it isn’t always as obvious as a burnt out light bulb and can easily grow behind drywall and in hard to reach areas or underneath heavy furniture.

One of the first places that we often notice mold growth in homes is in the attic. It’s not a place we commonly use in our homes and can easily spring a leak that can go undetected for months. But other rooms are also likely to grow mold, such as:

• Bathrooms
• Basements
• Under sinks
• Closets
• Laundry rooms
• Crawlspaces

One of the things to think about when looking around your home is dampness - is this space particularly damp? Why? Where is the moisture coming from or settling on? Answering those questions can help direct you to problem areas and help you identify places that need mold testing in Mississauga. Any place that has had a recent flood or leak is in danger of mold growth too, so be sure to dry it out thoroughly or monitor it for any significant changes.

But what about mold that’s growing behind the walls or ceiling tiles? That’s usually where the health effects of mold are the best sign that something is not quite right.

Mold and Your Health

Mold can damage your home or objects but those things are replaceable - the health of you and your family is not. Mold’s worst effects are the ones that target our health and wellness. Mold causes symptoms very similar to the common cold and flu, which can make it difficult to identify as the cause of symptoms like:

• itchy, watery eyes
• congestion
• water, running nose
• headache
• wheezing
• fatigue

Mold allergies affect all of us very differently but can be particularly hard on young children or elders, especially those living with asthma or other lung or immune system conditions. Mold exposure has been linked to poor performance at work and school, and can lead to an increase in sick days and length of recovery time. Having mold testing in Mississauga any time you suspect mold growth is a key part of protecting the health of you and your family, and making your home a safe place to be in.

Mold Testing, Removal, and Remediation in Mississauga

MoldTech has been working in Mississauga and across the GTA in mold prevention, testing, and remediation for over a decade. If your mold testing in Mississauga comes back positive, there’s no reason to panic, the MoldTech team can schedule you a safe, thorough remediation to completely remove all mold and airborne mold spores from your home. Our first priority is always safety, so we make sure our work site is thoroughly contained to prevent any mold spores from spreading - a step we often notice other contractors neglecting. Once remediation is complete and all contaminated materials have been safely removed, it’s time for our second most important priority, cleanliness. MoldTech takes cleaning to a new level - if it’s not perfect, we do it again until all tests come back negative, leaving your home fresher and safer than when we found it.

Employing a professional mold remediation team like the one at MoldTech also means you get access to technicians trained in the latest science, safety, and best practices known in the business. Our team undergoes regular training and certification through a number of third party organizations that ensure our workmanship is done to the highest professional standards and guidelines.

If you’re curious about learning more about mold testing in Mississauga or want to learn more about the services MoldTech can offer, get in touch - we’d be happy to help you on your journey to a safe and mold-free home environment. Call us at 1-866-684-7684 or visit http://www.moldtech.ca/testing for more information.

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