mold-growth

Healthy Humidity |

You Have Mold Growth – Now What?

3 minute read

Share

We all try our hardest to reduce mold growth or mold exposure in our homes. Try as we might, mold can find its way in through our windows, vents, or heating/cooling systems without our knowledge. We ourselves can even bring it inside on our clothing or shoes – our pets can also be carrying culprits. That said, these uncontrollable factors can make it pretty difficult to avoid mold in our everyday lives but, luckily, there are ways to reduce your exposure to mold.

Mold loves moisture. Without moisture, there’s no mold growth so it’s essential to keep your home dry and free from water. Mold also tends to thrive around leaks in roofs, windows, and pipes. Sometimes, you can even see it on surfaces, appearing like spots of many different colors with a musty smell. It can show on cardboard, ceiling tiles, wood, paint, wallpaper, insulation, drywall, carpet, and fabric. But, despite our best efforts, it’s possible to still expose your home to mold and fuel growth accidentally. So, if you have mold, you’re going to want to remove it. Here are some tips for mold remediation, removal, and prevention so you can say goodbye to mold in your home.

Best Tips to Prevent Mold Growth

Invest in Healthy Air

First things first, if you’re looking to get ahead of future mold issues, you must invest in Healthy Air. Poor air quality can impact your health in many ways so it’s important to control your home’s humidity while ensuring proper ventilation, and air purification. Without these solutions, your polluted indoor air can directly impact your home’s susceptibility to mold.

As a general rule of thumb, your home’s humidity should between 30-60%, while ventilation should be present in areas prone to high moisture, like kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms, and basements.

Newsletter

Get news, tips, and more sent straight to your inbox, and breathe easy.

Build with Mold Resistant Materials

When building or remodeling a home, be sure your materials are resistant to mold. Whether you choose to use mold-resistant drywall or paint, these quick adaptations can help prevent mold and moisture control issues in your home.

Remove ANY Sight of Mold

If you see something, do something. It doesn’t matter what kind of mold you have or how much there is. If you have any mold, it must be removed. Mold poses a direct threat to your home’s environment and air quality, as well as your family’s health. Plus, mold can spread…just think: when one slice of bread gets moldy, eventually all of them become spotted and spoiled in no time. So, be sure to dry any wet areas immediately to help slow the spread and growth. If you think there’s mold in your HVAC system, it’s best to stop running it so the mold doesn’t spread further into your home.

Best Tips for Mold Removal

 Should You Hire a Mold Inspector?

The CDC actually doesn’t recommend mold inspection. It can not only be costly but can become a long process. The best thing to do is forego the inspection process and have the mold removed regardless. Again, if you see mold, take the necessary steps to remove it.

Options for Mold Remediation and Removal

There are plenty of options when it comes to mold remediation and removal. If the area you’re looking to treat is less than 10sqft, you should be able to complete the job by yourself. Mold can be removed from hard surfaces with household cleaning products, soap and water, or a bleach solution. General rules of thumb when embarking on DIY mold remediation:

  • Use no more than 1 cup of household laundry bleach in 1 gallon of water
  • Never mix bleach with ammonia or other household cleaners, as the combination can create a poisonous gas
  • Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions
  • Open doors and windows while using bleach; ensure proper ventilation
  • Wear rubber boots, rubber gloves, and protective eyewear during remediation efforts

If, for larger areas, you decide to call in a professional, be sure they’ve dealt with mold in the past. Plus, if you have any health concerns, it’s always best to consult with a pro before beginning cleanup.

Looking for more remediation or removal tips? Let these tips help guide you through the process:

  • If you suspect your carpeting or ceiling tiles are moldy, it’s best to throw them away rather than try to salvage them
  • Don’t paint or caulk in an effort to cover up mold; instead, clean mold and dry the surface prior to making any improvements
  • If you’re unsure how to repair or clean a moldy item, contacting a professional who specializes in furniture repair, restoration, or water damage may be beneficial
  • Be sure you’re protecting yourself and your family from mold during the cleanup process by wearing the recommended material and following the outlined cleanup steps

Healthy Humidity plays a key role in our overall wellness. Just think…without it, your home could become a playground for mold growth. Ensuring your home is filled with Healthy Air through humidification and ventilation efforts can keep your family happy and healthy in your home. Find a Healthy Air Professional near you to find out how you can protect your home from future mold issues and breathe better overall.

Healthy Humidity Plays a Key Role in Wellness
Breathe Healthy Air no matter when or where.

Learn More
flood

AA Homepage Articles | Healthy Humidity |

Resolving Flooded Homes from Winter Weather

2 minute read

Share

Unusual winter weather stretched across much of the country in February 2021 leaving many without water or power for days. For some, burst pipes can lead to flooded homes. No matter the season, floods can cripple a home as the rushing water can destroy furnishings and damage the home’s foundation. Even after you’ve cleaned up your home from the resulting damage, lingering moisture inside your drywall or insulation can lead to major health problems primarily from mold and mildew outbreaks.

Health Risks Due to Flooded Homes

Sensitivity to these allergens varies from person to person, but for those with respiratory issues like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) or asthma, a mold outbreak can lead to severely impacted breathing. For others with milder symptoms, you may experience wheezing, coughing, sneezing, and watery eyes. 

Excess moisture is also an invitation for pests and rodents due to newly formed cracks in your foundation. These critters are notorious for creating damage and are carriers of the disease. 

Airborne viruses, like COVID-19 and influenza, and bacteria also thrive in excess moisture leading to poor Indoor Air Quality inside your home. Air that is too moist can lead to higher transmission rates inside the home. 

Leftover excess moisture may be hard to spot. In fact, your first clue that something is wrong will be the smell. Musty odors are a typical sign that your home has excess moisture. 

How Aprilaire Can Help

Getting a Healthy Waterproofing expert into your home to check on damage is a must to make sure that any cracks in your foundation are sealed.

Secondly, an Aprilaire dehumidifier will help remove that excess moisture inside your home remedying any poor Indoor Air Quality issues resulting from flooding. Maintaining Healthy Humidity inside your home will help remove those airborne pollutants like mold, mildew, pests, and airborne viruses leading to Healthy Air throughout by helping you maintain humidity in the ideal range of 30-60%.

Healthy Humidity Plays a Key Role in Wellness
Breathe Healthy Air no matter when or where.

Learn More

Additionally, an Aprilaire fresh air ventilation system can also help dilute harmful airborne contaminants in your home’s air by bringing in fresh air from the outside. This system can also help with any excess moisture inside your home.

To make sure your home’s humidity is properly maintained and there are not any resulting humidity issues due to a burst pipe, find a local Aprilaire Healthy Waterproofing expert today. 

Healthy Air Is on the Way

Find an Aprilaire professional near you.

State of the Air

For more information on maintaining Healthy Air inside your home after a weather event, check out our State of the Air website. 

 

 

 

Humidity and COVID

AA Homepage Articles | Healthy Humidity |

Humidity and COVID-19

2 minute read

Share

 

If there’s one thing we know for sure about COVID-19, it’s that we’re still learning new things about it every day. As our knowledge and understanding expand, it’s important to stay informed on the latest facts and guidelines.

In a recent post, we took a look at the new variants of the virus and how air filters handle them.

Today, we’ll discuss how humidifiers and relative humidity levels can play a key role in protecting you and your family against COVID-19.

Humidity and COVID-19

It’s no secret that respiratory illnesses thrive in the dry winter air–we’ve all had those dreaded winter colds. And according to a group of scientists from around the world, your chances of contracting COVID-19 are also increased during the winter due to three main factors caused by low relative humidity:

  1. Respiratory Immune System Efficiency – Your respiratory immune system’s defenses are impaired
  2. Virus “Float” Time – Airborne droplets that contain viruses shrink due to evaporation, making them lighter and giving them more “air time” to spread more easily
  3. Virus Survival Time – The drying of airborne droplets that contain viruses allows them to survive longer

Per the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommendation for health and comfort, the ideal relative humidity level for your indoor environment is below 60%.

In a home with balanced humidity, our respiratory immune system’s defenses are much more effective at capturing, removing, or fighting germs; airborne droplets that contain the virus fall out of the air quicker due to the extra moisture they retain; and because those airborne droplets containing viruses retain moisture, physicochemical reactions can deactivate the virus.

Humidity In Your Home

Thankfully, regulating your home’s humidity is no problem with Aprilaire’s systems. We’ve been in the whole-home humidifier game for nearly six decades and continue to focus on creating whole-home humidification solutions for health, comfort, and preservation.

Aprilaire’s humidifiers are built to fix your home’s dry air needs by adding the perfect amount of moisture: a relative humidity no lower than 30% and no higher than 60%.

Keeping your home’s relative humidity in the ideal range is key to maintaining proper Indoor Air Quality and has benefits that go beyond reducing your risk of contracting COVID-19:

  • Reduces asthma flares
  • Prevents cracks in your home’s wood furnishings
  • Reduces the transmission of other airborne viruses
  • Prevents your skin, eyes, and nose from drying out
  • Improves sleep quality

With our easy-to-use digital controls, you can set the correct relative humidity for your home and let our system do the rest. We also have an app you can use to control the humidifier from your smartphone, making it even easier to keep your Aprilaire whole-home humidifier and HVAC system running at optimal efficiency.

Best of all, Healthy Humidity is just one part of the Aprilaire Healthy Air System™. Balanced humidity complements fresh air ventilation and air filtration, greatly contributing to the overall health of you and your family.

As always, it’s important to follow all guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when it comes to protecting yourself and those around you from contracting COVID-19. Wear a mask, maintain social distancing of at least 6 feet, and avoid large crowds.

AA Homepage Articles | News |

Experiencing the Fight For Air Climb

2 minute read

Share

Before the Fight For Air Climb

Entering the US Bank Center for the American Lung Association’s Fight For Air Climb was a rush of energy.

This seemed less like an arduous trek up 1,000 stairs and more of an indoor festival. There were volunteers ready to greet you and pump you up for the ensuing climb and people from different companies sitting at tables ready to hand out souvenirs.

They were probably also there to distract you after you just got done instinctively looking up toward the top of the 47-story US Bank Center in downtown Milwaukee becoming a little uneasy at the prospect of your journey upward.

Before you made your climb, you gathered as a team and took several escalators down to the basement level before getting warmed up with a quick aerobic routine. Then you took a long and winding tunnel where you greeted by more volunteers who were cheering you on. It was hard not to feel inspired and excited.

During the Fight For Air Climb

One-by-one people took off up toward the top of the US Bank Center to begin their Fight For Air Climb. I, like most, started off confidently and quickly. I took the first six flights easily, but then by flight eight, I began to fight for air. I now understand why they title this climb just that. My mind and my body were at odds. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to continue at the same pace to get it over with as quickly as possible or to slow down and feel better. I went with the former.

Everyone in the stairwell was trudging onward with the same dilemma. We all were gasping for air as we kept pushing up each step and each flight toward the top of the Fight For Air Climb. At several points, I wondered if I was actually making any progress.

Every 10 flights there was a group of volunteers handing out cups of water and words of encouragement. Both were sorely needed to help push me along.

With each passing flight, I kept a tally of how many flights I had left. Twenty flights down, 27 more flights to go; 30 flights down, 17 flights to go; Ok, 40 flights down, 7 to go. By the time I got to the 40th floor, I knew I could make the last push to make it to the top of my Fight For Air Climb journey.

After the Fight For Air Climb

Eventually, I reached the top after 9 minutes and 31 seconds. At the top of the stairwell, I was met by volunteers who were cheering me on and by other climbers who were also catching their breath and taking in the picturesque views of Milwaukee and Lake Michigan afforded to us by the tallest building in Wisconsin.

As I grabbed a water and walked around soaking in both the views of the city and my accomplishment, it was really cool to watch teams taking pictures together or greeting other climbers with high-fives and smiles. There was a certain camaraderie found in a common struggle.

Despite the lingering soreness, I cannot wait for next year’s climb. No matter if I beat my time from this year or not, it’s about fighting for air together and helping those impacted with lung disease.

To join an upcoming climb in a city near you, visit www.lung.org/aprilaire.

Healthy Air | News |

Aprilaire Partner Contractor Joins Fight For Air Climb

2 minute read

Share

“What can you do or say when your family is suffering such losses? It’s devastating,” said Christopher Ciongoli, HVAC salesman/estimator with Aprilaire partner Whalen & Ives.

Chris is participating in the NYC American Lung Association Fight For Air Climb on April 4, 2020. When he heard that Aprilaire was the national Healthy Air sponsor of the event he signed on to the Aprilaire team.

“An opportunity to make difference just appeared to me on Jan 10th in an email from Aprilaire informing me about the Fight for Air Climb. This was it. This is how I would help make a difference and support my wife as well as so many others that are impacted by lung disease”.

Lung disease became an all too familiar fixture in Chris’s life last year when his brother-in-law, mother-in-law, and father-in-law all died from lung disease.

As of February 7, he’s raised 90 percent of his fundraising goal. Not only is Chris excited to help raise funds and awareness, he told us he’s already reaping the benefits of training for the 849-step climb.

“My blood pressure has dropped, my pants are getting loose, and my dog Crosby is getting back in shape too!”

Every morning he goes out with dog Crosby and strengthens his legs and increases his stamina to make sure he can make it to the 44th floor of the 1290 Avenue of Americas building in New York City.

Read more of Chris’s incredible journey by going to his page. Thank you for your efforts, Chris and we cannot wait to hear more.

For more information about the Fight For Air Climb and to find an event in your area, go to https://www.lung.org/aprilaire. To learn how to train for your own climb, head to our page where we share training tips to help you prepare for your own Fight For Air Climb.

It’s Time to Care About Healthy Air
Breathe a sigh of relief.

Learn More

News |

Aprilaire Partners with Wellness Within Your Walls

2 minute read

Share

Aprilaire is the exclusive Presenting Sponsor for 2020 for Wellness Within Your Walls.

Wellness Within Your Walls (WWYW) is an award-winning education and certification organization which supports reducing and eliminating toxins in living environments to improve overall health and wellness.

The organization’s one-of-a-kind education and certification process enables consumers and professionals to increase awareness about toxins in building materials and furnishings and guide them toward making homes healthier.

Wellness Within Your Walls partnership for national campaign

WWYW will partner with Aprilaire to launch a national “Breathe Healthy” awareness campaign in 2020 to educate consumers, homeowners and the build/design community about the latest products and services that help improve air quality in homes.

“We believe everyone deserves to breathe healthy air, and we believe in the power of education,” said Dale Philippi, president of Aprilaire. “Our mission is to enhance everyone’s health by improving the air in their homes. We are proud to partner with WWYW– an organization building awareness with consumers and professionals about the importance of healthy air.”

“We are excited by our new partnership with Aprilaire. They offer products that solve multiple issues relating to affordable ventilation and humidity control for homes and we’re proud to work with Aprilaire to further elevate the dialog about health and wellness in living environments,” said Jillian Pritchard Cooke, founder of WWYW.

In addition to the “Breathe Healthy” campaign with WWYW, Aprilaire is the FY20 National Healthy Air Sponsor for the American Lung Association Fight For Air Climb events which support raising awareness of the importance of indoor air quality. The two initiatives will dovetail to further educate consumers and professionals alike about why healthy air – especially in the home, is vital for good health. Good air quality improves overall wellness, helps prevent irritating allergens and pests, and helps shield homes from costly damages.

About Wellness Within Your Walls

Wellness Within Your Walls® is an award-winning informational resource group created to provide education and guidance on chemicals commonly found in living and working spaces. With a goal to empower and guide consumers and professionals toward healthier living environments, WWYW certifies people, places, products and programs globally through education and health and wellness protocols. WWYW’s 10-step holistic approach, known as the Healthy Living System™, results in a legacy of health, harmony and sustainability in living environments. WWYW was founded by Jillian Pritchard Cooke, a 30-year industry veteran with experience as president of interior design firm DES-SYN and owner of the eco-living lifestyle boutique BEE. While designing Atlanta’s EcoManor in 2006, the first Gold LEED-certified single-family residence in the U.S., a cancer diagnosis became the catalyst for turning Jillian’s expertise into a passionate commitment to create healthier living environments by reducing toxins. Wellness Within Your Walls was born. The organization provides frequent and sought-after speakers at trade shows, educational opportunities, workshops, seminars and other industry events. For more information, visit: http://www.wellnesswithinyourwalls.com.