T o p 1 0 M o l d & M i l d e w S o l u t i o n s

Transcription

1 Volume 5 HOWARD DOUGHMAN, MBA T o p 1 0 M o l d & M i l d e w S o l u t i o n s

2 TOP 10 MOLD & MILDEW SOLUTIONS Howard Doughman 3202 Chelmsford Drive Spring Grove, IL Phone Spring Grove, Illinois

3 T O P 1 0 M O L D & M I L D E W S O L U T I O N S Headaches Migraine and Sinus Headaches can be caused by Mold in your Home, Business or Car! Hundreds of people a day visit mold-removal-tips.com looking for answers that will help them eliminate or at least reduce their headache problems. Of course, there are literally hundreds of reasons that headaches happen to us, but what you need to do is gather some notes regarding your headaches and compare them to signs and symptoms of mold problems. Mold sneaks up on you and slowly degrades your health by completely controlling the attention of your immune system. When you immune system is busy, or worse worn out (even destroyed), that s when dangerous diseases can affect you. Your headaches could be indications that your body can t take much more exposure. If you have tried relaxation, reduced the daily stress around you, avoided the usual headache triggers and so on, then you may want to suspect that you are getting over-exposed to mold. The exposure could be your home, at work or in your car. At home, you could have some ventilation issues that are allowing excessive levels of mold to grow within your home. This can be caused by new windows that now are very well insulating your house from the outside, but they are also insulating the inside of your house from fresh air! You could have a situation where mold is growing at higher levels in your basement and the spores from the mold have found their way to your living area. This goes for crawl spaces too. See the actual problems from one of my clients in an entry below. Your car is an interesting place. We get in and out without worrying about the wet carpet or floor mats, but that s where you could be growing a lot of mold and getting the exposure. Dry them out and clean them up. For basements and crawl spaces, you ll need to determine where the moisture is coming from and stop it. Once it dries up, you will notice a difference. 1

4 At work is where it may become more difficult to isolate where the mold is concentrating, but work with your facilities people and let them know that you may be getting over exposed if you have not found the culprit in your home or car. Headaches can be caused by a lot of things. But certainly finding out how to permanently end mold within your environment will only help your immune system to ward off illnesses and it may make your headaches diminish. There s no guarantee but you can give it a try. Most likely other avenues have already come up empty. Mold Symptoms Mold Symptoms are subtle but real, learn them so you know when to take action before you get sick. Mold symptoms look like and act like other common maladies, but with careful attention you may solve the root cause of why you just don t feel good. Mold symptoms include stuffing, runny, itchy noses. Also irritated eyes, sore throat and many other problems could be mold symptoms. To find out if you are having a mold problem, take a few days away from home. Get some fresh air over a weekend trip. If you start feeling bad again when you get home, it could be signs of mold that is affecting your health. This technique is the same for work and even your car. Stay away from them for a few days to see if you begin feeling better, breathing easier, not as tired and so forth. Because most mold symptoms appear to be allergies, colds and flus you need to keep notes on what is wrong and when it shows up and when it goes away. If you have exhausted other options, then you can suspect that there could be a mold problem. Pay attention to musty smells and where they are. Stay away from them and see if you feel better. If your HVAC smells funny when it turns on, then find out if that s the root of your problems. At any rate, if you suspect a mold problem, the easiest thing to do is to find the moisture source and cut it off. Even a dry basement isn t dry due to fluctuations in air temperature vs. the ground temperature. Condensation forms and that s the moisture source. 2

5 Breathing Black Mold Is Breathing Black Mold Dangerous? Black mold is a generic term that means bad mold. There are a handful of mold strains that are dangerous to your health. When your immune system is weak, just about any over exposure to any type of mold will begin to affect your health. You may experience nasal symptoms, swollen eyes, sore throat and headaches when breathing black mold. Is it dangerous? Only if you are immuno-compromised. Even if you are as healthy as a horse, try to eliminate any mold problems in your environment. Prolonged exposure to any type of mold is going to work on your immune system. In severe cases, the immune system is so busy fighting off the effects of mold, that a disease of opportunity gets a foothold in your system. If you suspect that you are breathing black mold, then consult your physician and give them valid, logical and indisputable evidence so that they can treat you correctly. You will still have to eliminate the black mold yourself or hire it done. How to Get Rid of Black Mold is the top selling DIY book on eliminating mold in your home. 3

6 Mold in the Walls How to eliminate mold in walls. If you have drywall you will have to take it out and throw it away. Drywall has a paper coating that mold just loves as much as many of us like a steak dinner. It will grow within your walls until you cut it out and replace the drywall sheeting. There are also instances, especially with masonry, where mold will begin growing under the paint of an interior brick or block wall. The masonry gets wet over time, the paint may bubble up as mold grows under it. The paint keeps all the mold spores compressed in one place, the masonry keeps the moisture there and the dust and particulate matter keep feeding the mold. If you suspect there is mold in any kind of wall, then take precautions to avoid exposure. You also have to take precautions to avoid releasing mold spores throughout your entire house. If that happens and there is ample moisture, you could have a bigger problem to solve. Remember that any disturbing of a moldy area will release spores, so make sure the area you are working on is contained. With drywall remove the ruined sheets, clean everything up, possible encapsulate any areas that you are not sure about, then put up new drywall and paint it. With masonry carefully remove the paint and find out why the brick or block is so wet. Maybe it would be a good idea not to repaint. With paneling treat paneling the same as drywall. Most of it is a wood or cellulose material and mold loves it. Pull it out and replace it. 4

7 Mold Infection What is a mold infection? You are not going to get diagnosed with a mold infection. The doctor is going to diagnose you with sinusitis, migraines, allergies and so on. As mentioned before, you will need to keep a diary of your health and identify when it gets worse vs. when it gets better. A mold infection might better be thought of as a mold infestation. When mold is overgrowing within your environment, you ll notice that you are taking too many sinus tablets, that more than one family member is having trouble, maybe your pets are getting mysteriously sick, or you ll just physically feel better when you are away from the infestation for a period of time. If that s the case, get rid of the mold and you will notice that you feel better. Basement Mold Mold is in every basement and crawl space. The musty basement is a classic sign of mold growth. However, clean smelling basements will have mold too. The fact that they are underground and the walls stay a constant temperature, mixed with the changing humidity and air temperature within the basement; means you will have adequate moisture that will mix with the dust and thrive. Flooded basements are a problem too. Throw away any fouled textile such as chairs, sofas, rugs and carpets. They are going to be excellent mold farms if you keep them. 5

8 To keep the basement of crawl space at a livable condition, add a dehumidifier and keep the areas as dry as possible. This won t eliminate mold growth but it will keep it low and within reasonable levels. Attic Mold Mold in the attic shouldn t stop the sale of your real estate. Everybody is using home inspectors these days. They haven t done their job and earned their money unless they find something wrong with the house. Mold in the attic is my favorite because it is open to the outside with vents and louvers. Outside air enters the attic and creates condensation. The condensation and dust mix and now you have a 5-star meal for mold. The mold begins to grow and will cause black streaking on the underside of the roof. The attic is supposed to be ventilated to allow your insulation to work properly. The attic is a place that is supposed to breathe and that s why you can find evidence of mold in every attic in the world. So if your home inspector thinks the attic mold is a deal breaker all you have to remember is that: You are not living in the attic. The attic is not open to the living area and cross contamination will only happen when you get the Christmas stuff down in December. You can t find any attics that are mold free. 6

9 Selling or Buying a Home and Mold Mold Disclosures what are they good for? We ve gone over the basement, attic and crawl spaces. Just keep them as dry as possible and when necessary de-humidify them. But what about that great foreclosed property that you want to buy? In recent years the banks have allowed pipes to freeze in vacant homes. When spring comes and the pipes thaw out, you get a lot of water and a very damp and nasty feeling atmosphere within the home. How to Get Rid of Black Mold will give you technological solutions for solving the mold problems. So go ahead and get that bargain, just remember you will need to probably gut it and clean up the mold, encapsulate any lumber that is staying, then put up your new walls. My number one secret in the book is how to ensure that there is never a mold issue in a home. You ll still need to tear down infected walls but there is something you can do to prevent the spread of those microscopic spores and to use their natural growth to help you eliminate mold throughout the house. Mold Health Effects Here are actual symptoms and results of the ill effects of mold. Below is a back and forth communication with a client of mine from the California area. There was severe mold exposure and it caused life threatening issues: I received an from a customer who wanted to know if I was "for real" because so many things on the Internet are not quite what they seem. We sent 7

10 messages back and forth a few times and JB acquired "How to Get Rid of Black Mold". We had discussed a new mold killer that is available to the general public which has been used by the US Military since Desert Storm. JB was very enthusiastic because of being so sick for a long period of time. JB was extremely interested in pursuing and here's why: ( from JB regarding problems)... My health since Sept 1st: severe fatigue swollen lymph glands in the neck and axillary areas lack of appetite/chronic pancreatitis/gastro distress/weight loss 'cold sores' on lips and inside the mouth (covering both upper and lower lip) bleeding gums dry itchy eyes inner ear soreness dizziness ringing in ears excessive thirst hair falling out dry, thin skin sore throat joint pain headaches/occular migraines dry cough during day excessive sinus discharge after waking excessive throat discharge after waking shortness of breath forgetfulness/memory loss waking up clearing throat warm flashes in evening digital oral temperature 95.7 to 97.1 chills during the day heart palpitations... JB was very ill in other words. I took this list from JB's because the rest of the two or three pages goes into rather shocking and explicit details that would be difficult to read about. JB's immune system is shot if you read between the lines. I am not a doctor by any means and I am not saying that "How to Get Rid of Black Mold" will solve these types of problems for you, but the more you know the better off you are. After JB initiated three of the strategies outlined in "How to Get Rid of Black Mold", I received more . 8

11 As to my house: the [solutions] have knocked inside mold down to 70% and declining rapidly. I'm just floored but can now stay in the house without going anaphalictic as I was. Still having some digestive issues but slowly recovering. After an overnight at Swedish, we pushed saline a little too fast but it forced me to cough some of the (possible) mold in my lungs out, essentially it looks like what is called "Farmers Lung" which would make sense. It will take time to heal overall. After I unpack more stuff (throwing away what was destroyed by mold) we will [solution] again with a heavier concentration in the attic, crawl space and outside around all openings to the house. That should really kick any mold growth areas in the teeth. The referrence above to 'anaphalictic' is best described with an I received from JB immediately after ordering "How to Get Rid of Black Mold", but prior to obtaining the mold killer that JB claimed to be buying immediately: Just got back from the ER, my tongue began to swell and show signs of "thrush" by 7PM our time (anaphlaxis). Because I put on a mask in the waiting area to protect myself from other incoming patients infections, hospital staff mistook that for me being infectious so the wait to clear a secure room was almost 4 hours. By that time my tongue had reduced in swelling greatly but knowing most doctors may dismiss "mold sickness", I did mention unless a toxicologist did specific tests we would not be able to determine the cause but please, treat the symptoms for now if there was such a thing. Sometimes you have to go in armed with a disclaimer to allow them to work outside the box. Benadryl, Nystatin Oral, inform my family doctor "suspect mold reaction" was discharge. I think we can all work with that. I received the message above at 3:00 AM! JB was very serious about not wasting time and beginning the various techniques to rid the home of mold. JB has kept in touch with me via and telephone since our first interactions. JB lives on the west coast and in an area prone to mold issues. JB has been fighting the medical profession a great deal to get them to understand that the troubles were/are mold related. JB was so sick that mold was growing on the skin. A dermatologist took scrapings and verified that mold was growing. JB used the hand sanitizer that I recommend and those areas turned black for 10 minutes and then their natural color came back. JB actually had a follow up meeting with the same dermatologist that evening and took the hand sanitizer to him. JB had a spot on the leg and demonstrated what happened to the hands earlier. The dermatologist was impressed. He did a skin scraping and verified NO MOLD. This mold solution is NOT FDA approved! It did work for JB. One more excerpt from JB's communications which is the most recent: 9

12 ... I'd never had dandruff my entire life until April this year then I began losing hair. So I got to thinking about [solution], hair, my feet and skin where I'd used it (and it worked) then stumbled on this from the Mayo Clinic: "The good news is that dandruff can usually be controlled. Mild cases of dandruff may need nothing more than daily shampooing with a gentle cleanser. And stubborn flakes often respond to medicated shampoos. What's more, researchers have identified a yeast-like fungus that may cause or aggravate dandruff, a discovery that may lead to better treatments." Hello. We have a winner... Mold Flooding You just got your house pumped out and everything is being cleaned up... You ve been flooded, whether it was a faulty roof, broken pipe or a natural disaster is irrelevant. You will get the water out within a few days and clean up. You ll dry everything out, get the electrical stuff dried out and so on. About a week later you ll be infested with mold that is growing in your wall that didn t look like it was too wet. It can grow within appliances that were affected and with enclosure and dust within is thriving. You thought the furniture would be okay, but you are smelling something. If you are smelling moldy, stale air then thank your lucky stars because at least you know you are being infested. Sometimes you can t smell the mold and it begins to silently destroy your health. If any construction materials got wet then get them out of the house. Wood floors, drywall, paneling, and even the framing may need to be gutted. If you don t gut the place and allow the flooded areas to remain damp, you re going to have a huge problem later. Let s say just an inch of water in the basement got the bottom of your drywall wet. You brought in fans and dried the place thoroughly. What you missed was inside the wall. The paper backing and water is going to allow mold to really get started. 10

13 Mold can live in a dormant state for ages. Your grass goes dormant during the winter and turns green as soon as the spring rains come. That s what will happen with the little bit of mold within those walls. The first humid day, the mold will begin growing again. In my mold book there is a solution where you can put it into place and it is possible that the mold within this scenario will never affect you. There are no guarantees because the environment and mold are unpredictable. But the safety measures I use make me about 98% certain that mold will not be an issue in my house. 11