Some types of mold in the home can cause strong allergic reactions and even neurological damage in small children or elderly adults. Additionally mold can be very expensive to eliminate and can be detrimental to the value of your home.
If you’ve noticed mold growing on your Heating and Air vents (a common place to first spot mold growth), you need to call a qualified air conditioning contractor immediately. Just cleaning the mold or painting over the discoloration or the mold is not recommended. In some cases, disturbing the mold could aggravate the problem by spreading the mold spores to other parts of the home or business. It should be noted that mold on your Heating and Air vents does not mean that you are a poor housekeeper. It simply means that there are areas of excessive moisture or humidity that are creating ideal breeding grounds for mold spores. Those sources of water combined with dust and dirt within your ductwork can cause problems and need to be resolved as soon as possible.
The first step is determining why you have mold in your air system. If the moisture source isn’t addressed, the problem will be back again in a couple of months. The air conditioning contractor should inspect your air and heating system for a drain line backup, abnormal moisture content inside and outside of the air handler, look for plumbing leaks or poor drainage, and give your complete system a tune-up.
If the problem is NOT the heating and air conditioning system, the next step would be to hire a certified building inspection company to look through the home or office to further investigate and identify what may be causing the excessive moisture.
If the mold is severe and/or your family or office personnel are complaining of allergic reactions such as headaches, constant sneezing, running nose, watering eyes, and other allergic symptoms when they are in the home of office but, when they are elsewhere, their symptoms either improve or all together go away, you need to contact an industrial hygienist. This is the only proper way to determine the type and danger of the mold or allergen that is in the home or office and what corrective action is required to be taking immediately.
If the problem turns out to be just excessive humidity in the air above 60%, a dehumidifier is a must. Atlantic Environmental Service & Products can make the right recommendation for your home and situation.
Here are some more mold prevention tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
• Keep the humidity level in your home between 40% and 60%. Use an air conditioner or a dehumidifier during those hot humid months.
• Be sure your home has enough ventilation. Use exhaust fans that vent outside your home in the kitchen and bathroom. It is recommended that bathroom exhaust run 15-20 minutes after showers or baths to expel humid air within the bathroom.
• Make sure your clothes dryer vents to outside your home.
• Fix any leaks in your home’s roof, walls, or plumbing so mold does not have moisture to grow.
• Clean up and dry out your home thoroughly and quickly (within 24–48 hours) after flooding.
• Add mold inhibitors to paints before painting.
• Clean bathrooms with mold-killing products.
• Remove or replace carpets and upholstery that have been soaked and cannot be dried promptly. Consider not using carpet in rooms or areas like bathrooms or basements that may have a lot of moisture.
To learn more about preventing mold in your home, see the Environmental Protection Agency’s publication A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture, and Your Home at http://www.epa.gov/iaq/molds/moldguide.html
If you are in the greater Jacksonville, Florida area, can email Atlantic Environmental at office@atlantic-environmental.com for more information.
Atlantic Environmental has been providing the greater Jacksonville Air Duct Cleaning, Florida Commercial Air Duct Cleaning, and Indoor Air Quality Service for over 15 years. We are a licensed by the State of Florida as a Florida Air Conditioning Contractor.









