Can you prevent mold buildup by using a dehumidifier? A dehumidifier will not kill mold although it can prevent it by lowering humidity in your house.
If there is a faulty appliance or your roof has a leak, you fix the issue from the very source. However, if you cannot fix the problem, mold will start to grow and you will end up facing a fungi nightmare.
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What are Dehumidifiers?
A dehumidifier is a portable device that pulls moisture from the air, reducing the dampness inside a room.
It is just ideal for you to want your house to have a relative humidity of around 30 to 50 percent.
It can help improve comfort and decrease health risks.
For you to keep tabs on the humidity inside your house, you can use a hygrometer that you can easily find in most home improvement shops.
Can a Dehumidifier Remove Mold?
It is almost impossible to get rid of all the mold spores from your house.
Mold will stay dormant on surfaces or in the air even if there is no excess moisture that can help it thrive and grow.
Once the humidity inside a room increase, mold will begin to grow in patches on clothes, walls, and more.
When there is a mold issue in your house, it pays not to waste any minute.
Mold can spread as long as there is a source of water.
Eliminate the mold and stop the source of moisture to prevent costly repairs and more damages.
You can get the help of professionals to efficiently address the moisture and mold problem.
What Can You Get from Using a Dehumidifier?
Controlling the moisture amount in your house offers many health benefits.
Mold, dust, pet dander, as well as other allergens, can easily overtake your house if it has excessively high indoor humidity.
A dehumidifier can help reduce the indoor pollutants which can cause several allergy triggers like itchy eyes, stuffy nose, skin rashes, or sneezing.
A dehumidifier can also decrease the musty odors associated with high humidity.
Aside from the health benefits, dehumidifiers can also keep moisture away from wooden items.
Excessive moisture in your house can cause damages to wood and furniture pieces.
How to Choose the Right Dehumidifier To Remove Mold
The dehumidifier you will choose is going to depend on the humidity levels in your place and the amount of moisture released inside your home.
In general, it is a good idea to install one in the bathroom, kitchen, or basement where there are higher humidity levels.
You can also find dehumidifiers designed for small rooms although there are also those meant to cover an entire house.
The largest units can absorb 90 pints daily, while the smallest ones absorb 30 pints daily.
Dehumidifiers might not kill mold in your house but you can expect them to help prevent mold growth and spread by reducing humidity.
Can Mold Dry Out and Die?
Your home has recently experienced a moisture problem, and now, you are left with the most unwelcomed guest – mold growth.
Your instincts told you to act right away, and you got rid of standing water as fast as possible.
Aside from this, you took time in running your fan and dehumidifiers to make sure that the humidity around your home returned to and stayed at a safe and acceptable level.
After doing all this work, are there other things that you need to do? Will that bold just dry out and die now that there is no longer moisture that it needs to grow and thrive?
Sadly, this specific type of fungus can be very hardy and requires only oxygen, warmth, food, and moisture to grow.
Once all of these four staples are present, you can expect mold to survive pretty much anywhere.
Can Dried Out Mold Become Inactive?
The truth is that dried out mold can stop growing actively.
The spores require moisture for them to multiply, which means that eliminating any excess moisture will be able to help stop the mold from spreading.
But, any existing growth around your home will just stay on the exact spot where it is.
This will not dry up and just vanish into thin air with no trace.
Can Dried Out Mold Become Active?
After you were able to get rid of the excess moisture from the mold, your concerns and worries are not yet over.
When any kind of water, like a pipe leak or high humidity, reaches the fungus, you might end up dealing with a reactivated mold patch.
It means that it will begin producing spores all over again at its normal pace and possibly spread to the other rooms and spaces around your home.
Remove Dried Out Mold Right Away
The last step in the process of cleaning up and clearing away move is none other than its physical removal. If you don’t follow this final step, you will end up facing the risks of encouraging future mold growth.
Even the inactive mold might send out some spores every now and then.
If any of these spores land on wet surfaces, its growth is going to kick into a full-blown overdrive.
In order for you to actually eliminate the fungus, you need to clean the nonporous spots which have been contaminated and then throw away the porous materials.
You have to remember that simply because you were able to remove the moisture doesn’t necessarily mean that you were able to get rid of the mold as well.
For this reason, the best thing to do is ensure that there is no mold growth around your home in the first place. This is where dehumidifiers can come in handy.
These units can remove the moisture from the air around your house to decrease the risks of mold and mildew. With the help of a dehumidifier, there will be no longer a need to constantly worry about mold and you can simply enjoy living in a safe and comfortable home.
