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You’ve read the stories about it—Mold! Every time there's a Hurricane or a major flood it's in the papers and all over the web. You’ve also read about all the efforts to contain and remove it from buildings. An entirely new industry has developed to deal with mold removal. The focus has been on dealing with the mold once it occurs. Much less effort has been directed at preventing it in the first place. So is Mold "The Problem"?
Mold - more precisely mold spores - are everywhere! Inside and outside of buildings, we come in contact with mold or mold spores. Mold in buildings or homes is not a new event. Mold has been our companion ever since we built the first structures we called "home". Mold in general likes the same conditions environmentally that we do. This makes where we live a good place for it to live.
Most efforts have focused on source removal, that is, physically removing the mold from a structure. This is a time consuming process as well as an expensive one! Far less effort has gone into preventing mold growth from occurring. "Find mold. Remove mold. Problem solved." This seems to dominate the thinking of most people. But the removal of mold does not solve "the problem". Mold growth is only a symptom. Like a person with a disease, we see not the disease, but the symptoms - it’s effects. In a building we see the mold, but we often cannot see the cause.
Like us, mold needs food and water to live and grow. It will consume almost anything organic. Our buildings are filled with food for mold. But even with all that food it will not grow without moisture in sufficient quantity. So then "The Problem" is MOISTURE!
What then, do we do about the problem of "MOISTURE"? If it - MOISTURE - has intruded, how do we get it out and keep it out? Check out the pages "Buildings Are Systems" and "All Buildings Leak" for the answers.
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