Even though the kitchen is one of the only rooms in the house that gets cleaned every day or even two or three times a day, depending on how many meals you fix, it is also one of the rooms that is the most neglected as far as long term care. This is one of the two most important rooms in your house and will often be a selling factor of the home. You need to take care of this room’s structure and appearance, especially if you plan on selling your home any time soon. Do what you can to take care of the water damaged parts of your kitchen and learn how to prevent water damage from occurring in the future.
One thing to be sure of is that the flooring in your kitchen is waterproof and completely sealed. You can have a hardwood floor in your kitchen or even in your bathroom, but reviews on the subject by most people are mixed. Some say that they have had a hardwood floor in these areas for a long time and they have been no worse for the wear, but others have had problems. It is really up to you, but you should consider going with a laminate that looks similar to real wood, since this will resist absorbing water much better and it will look almost the same.
If the dishwasher in the house is old and malfunctions often, you should really consider replacing it, whether you have hardwood, laminate, linoleum, tile, or vinyl floors. It really does not matter. Too much water spilled on the floor will eventually damage it and the cabinets that it comes into contact with. If the dishwasher is malfunctioning, wash the dishes by hand until the problem is solved.
Your plumbing under the sink should also be checked on a regular basis. If you find that it is leaking, even only a few drips, you should put a bucket or a large bowl underneath it until you get a chance to fix it. It is important not to let this leak into your cabinets for very long, because it can cause the bottom to rot out.
If the power goes out and all the food in your freezer melts, you’ll have a fair sized water leak on the floor. Get this cleaned up as soon as possible, even if your floor is waterproofed.
Lastly, make sure you have a mop in your kitchen that really absorbs water well. Some cheaper mops simply will not do the job if you spill a large amount of water onto the floor. If you can afford one, you might even want to purchase a wet vacuum.
Dror Klar is a writer and promoter of
Manhattan Water Damage Repair
and
Elizabeth NJ Wet Basement Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Showing posts with label black mold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label black mold. Show all posts
Monday, February 4, 2008
Taking Care of Mold in Your Kitchen
The kitchen is often the heart of the household and since we have to eat to survive, this is one of the most important rooms in your home to keep clean. This means not only the countertops, dishes, and table where we eat, but also the inside of the refrigerator where we keep our food. We should pay special attention to what we take into our bodies, since foods that have become contaminated can make the strongest of us deathly ill.
So, just exactly what foods do we need to throw away? Well, not all foods that are outdated need to be thrown out. Most of the time the expiration date refers to the date that the grocery store has to sell the item by, not necessarily the date that it needs to be consumed by. Many items will remain safe to eat for months after their expiration dates, as long as the seal on them has not been broken. Once the seal has been broken, though, these items will go bad just like anything else.
Once an item has had its seal broken, it is exposed to mold spores, bacteria, viruses, and other hazards in the household. Keeping the inside of your refrigerator cleaned out can help reduce this, but the threat will always be there. Almost anything that you find in the refrigerator that has become molded needs to be thrown away, but a couple of things are fine as long as you cut off the molded parts and a generous portion around them. This includes dense items that do not contain a high moisture content, like hard salami and blocks of cheese. Items that have a lot of moisture, like jams, jellies, sour cream, mayonnaise, and etcetera cannot be saved. Do not consume these items under any circumstances.
Fruits and vegetables that become molded usually need to be thrown away, as well. Keep a check on your produce supply to make sure that one bad item does not contaminate the rest. Mold spreads fairly quickly over these and it needs to remain monitored or you will have wasted a good sum of money on fresh produce for nothing. Never buy more than you will consume within the next few days.
Cleaning out your refrigerator at least once every few months is advised to keep bacteria from building up inside it. This can be a chore that your kids can do, but only if you show them how to do is properly first. If not done correctly, it might as well not have been done at all.
So, just exactly what foods do we need to throw away? Well, not all foods that are outdated need to be thrown out. Most of the time the expiration date refers to the date that the grocery store has to sell the item by, not necessarily the date that it needs to be consumed by. Many items will remain safe to eat for months after their expiration dates, as long as the seal on them has not been broken. Once the seal has been broken, though, these items will go bad just like anything else.
Once an item has had its seal broken, it is exposed to mold spores, bacteria, viruses, and other hazards in the household. Keeping the inside of your refrigerator cleaned out can help reduce this, but the threat will always be there. Almost anything that you find in the refrigerator that has become molded needs to be thrown away, but a couple of things are fine as long as you cut off the molded parts and a generous portion around them. This includes dense items that do not contain a high moisture content, like hard salami and blocks of cheese. Items that have a lot of moisture, like jams, jellies, sour cream, mayonnaise, and etcetera cannot be saved. Do not consume these items under any circumstances.
Fruits and vegetables that become molded usually need to be thrown away, as well. Keep a check on your produce supply to make sure that one bad item does not contaminate the rest. Mold spreads fairly quickly over these and it needs to remain monitored or you will have wasted a good sum of money on fresh produce for nothing. Never buy more than you will consume within the next few days.
Cleaning out your refrigerator at least once every few months is advised to keep bacteria from building up inside it. This can be a chore that your kids can do, but only if you show them how to do is properly first. If not done correctly, it might as well not have been done at all.
Mold And Humidity Problems
Mold will grow just about anywhere, but it really becomes a problem for human beings when the mold spores found in your home land on a surface that is wet and is allowed to stay that way for more than about 48 hours. Mold spores are always present in the home in some capacity, no matter what kind of air purification you use, but there are a few things that you can do inside your home to stop them from forming colonies.
One thing that you need to understand is that mold cannot grow without moisture or in some cases, standing water. The areas of your home that have the highest humidity are the places where mold is the most likely to start growing. Laundry rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and basements are notorious for mold growth, so these are the rooms that you need to focus on.
Kitchens and bathrooms should have tile installed on the floors and never carpet. Tile will keep any spilled water from being absorbed by the sub-flooring and will allow you to clean up the moisture pretty quickly, whereas with carpet, it will not be as easy to soak up the spill. Something else to be aware of is that the carpet padding underneath it will need to be taken up and thrown away if it becomes moldy. So, even if you can clean the mold off of the carpet that you have installed, you will still have to remove it to install new padding. The best thing to do is not have carpet in these moist areas of your home.
Having exhaust fans installed in your home to help control the humidity is something else that you should consider. These will help remove not only moist air from the rooms they are installed in, but also help reduce irritants like pet dander and smoke. It might cost you a few hundred dollars to install these in the most humid rooms of the house, but it will be worth it in the end.
Something else you can do to control humidity is to keep wet items outside. This means you should not hang clothes up to dry in the laundry room or the basement and any wet clothing should be washed and dried as soon as possible.
Where there is mold, there is usually a water leak issue. This can be a leak in the basement or a household appliance or it can even be a plumbing leak inside the wall that you are not aware of. Getting rid of the mold problem in your home is directly related to how well you can manage the water problems in your house, so getting any leaks fixed as soon as possible is in your favor.
One thing that you need to understand is that mold cannot grow without moisture or in some cases, standing water. The areas of your home that have the highest humidity are the places where mold is the most likely to start growing. Laundry rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and basements are notorious for mold growth, so these are the rooms that you need to focus on.
Kitchens and bathrooms should have tile installed on the floors and never carpet. Tile will keep any spilled water from being absorbed by the sub-flooring and will allow you to clean up the moisture pretty quickly, whereas with carpet, it will not be as easy to soak up the spill. Something else to be aware of is that the carpet padding underneath it will need to be taken up and thrown away if it becomes moldy. So, even if you can clean the mold off of the carpet that you have installed, you will still have to remove it to install new padding. The best thing to do is not have carpet in these moist areas of your home.
Having exhaust fans installed in your home to help control the humidity is something else that you should consider. These will help remove not only moist air from the rooms they are installed in, but also help reduce irritants like pet dander and smoke. It might cost you a few hundred dollars to install these in the most humid rooms of the house, but it will be worth it in the end.
Something else you can do to control humidity is to keep wet items outside. This means you should not hang clothes up to dry in the laundry room or the basement and any wet clothing should be washed and dried as soon as possible.
Where there is mold, there is usually a water leak issue. This can be a leak in the basement or a household appliance or it can even be a plumbing leak inside the wall that you are not aware of. Getting rid of the mold problem in your home is directly related to how well you can manage the water problems in your house, so getting any leaks fixed as soon as possible is in your favor.
Mold Related Diseases
Mold Related Diseases
Exposure to mold for a long period of time can cause all different kinds of health problems and individual diseases, but some of us do not really understand just how inconvenient and even deadly some of these conditions can be. Whether the disease or condition ends in “osis” or “mycosis” does not really matter as much as the actual symptoms of the disease, which can even lead to death in some cases.
Those who are the most threatened by mold exposure are typically those who have weak constitutions. This can be an infant or a small child, an elderly person with health problems, or someone who has HIV or AIDS. Even perfectly healthy people can succumb to the effects of breathing in mold spores or letting it come into contact with their skin, but it usually takes longer for these individuals to develop symptoms.
The typical symptoms of these diseases can be mild flu or allergy symptoms like coughing, sneezing, or fever or they can be more serious such as coughing up blood, respiratory infections, or yeast infections. The kind of symptoms that surface usually depend upon the exact kind of infection you have developed, but some conditions, such as the presence of aspergilloma (or fungus balls) in the body have no symptoms for quite a while before they are finally detected.
Caused by molds in the genus called Aspergillis, aspergilloma is a fairly serious condition. When called by the common name of “fungus balls”, they not only sound pretty nasty; they actually are. They invade any pre-existing cavities in the organs of your body and those who are at the most risk to develop these are typically those who have had conditions like cancer or tuberculosis. Without any symptoms in the beginning, you probably will not realize that you have aspergilloma living inside you without your doctor performing a chest x-ray or other detection technique.
Penicilliosis is a disease that is native to the region of southeast Asia where the mold that causes it lives and this is referred to as the third most common infection that occurs in patients with HIV and AIDS in the region. Since the mold that causes this, Penicillium marneffei, exists only in this region, cases of this infection are fairly confined to this region of the world. Those with HIV or AIDS, however, who are traveling back and forth to the region should be very cautious because this infection can be fatal.
Exposure to mold for a long period of time can cause all different kinds of health problems and individual diseases, but some of us do not really understand just how inconvenient and even deadly some of these conditions can be. Whether the disease or condition ends in “osis” or “mycosis” does not really matter as much as the actual symptoms of the disease, which can even lead to death in some cases.
Those who are the most threatened by mold exposure are typically those who have weak constitutions. This can be an infant or a small child, an elderly person with health problems, or someone who has HIV or AIDS. Even perfectly healthy people can succumb to the effects of breathing in mold spores or letting it come into contact with their skin, but it usually takes longer for these individuals to develop symptoms.
The typical symptoms of these diseases can be mild flu or allergy symptoms like coughing, sneezing, or fever or they can be more serious such as coughing up blood, respiratory infections, or yeast infections. The kind of symptoms that surface usually depend upon the exact kind of infection you have developed, but some conditions, such as the presence of aspergilloma (or fungus balls) in the body have no symptoms for quite a while before they are finally detected.
Caused by molds in the genus called Aspergillis, aspergilloma is a fairly serious condition. When called by the common name of “fungus balls”, they not only sound pretty nasty; they actually are. They invade any pre-existing cavities in the organs of your body and those who are at the most risk to develop these are typically those who have had conditions like cancer or tuberculosis. Without any symptoms in the beginning, you probably will not realize that you have aspergilloma living inside you without your doctor performing a chest x-ray or other detection technique.
Penicilliosis is a disease that is native to the region of southeast Asia where the mold that causes it lives and this is referred to as the third most common infection that occurs in patients with HIV and AIDS in the region. Since the mold that causes this, Penicillium marneffei, exists only in this region, cases of this infection are fairly confined to this region of the world. Those with HIV or AIDS, however, who are traveling back and forth to the region should be very cautious because this infection can be fatal.
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