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Identifying The Best Cleaners

When you start cleaning your home regularly, it can be easy to side with products that truly aren't that great for your home. Some products have all kinds of chemicals while others are completely ineffective, making it difficult to take care of things like you might want them to. Fortunately, by educating yourself and knowing what you need in the long run, you can dramatically improve the process you have set up for cleaning and enjoy your environment a little easier. Check out this blog for great tips and tricks about identifying and using the best cleaners, since making the right choices now can really pay off down the road.

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Identifying The Best Cleaners

3 Types Of Mold And How To Test For Them

by Bernard Jennings

We have all gone to our bread box or pantry before only to pull out a loaf of moldy bread that was sitting there for too long. Mold is a fungus that thrives on moisture and can turn up just about anywhere in your house, especially in bathrooms and basements. The tricky thing about mold is that while much of it isn't toxic, there are a few types that are. So what kinds of molds are there and how can you test for them? 

Types of Mold

  • Allergenic molds are one of the most common types of mold and are typically easy to clean and get rid of. These types of molds most commonly impact people who suffer from allergies or asthma and can cause symptoms like sneezing, itching, coughing, and watery eyes.  
  • Pathogenic molds typically only affect individuals with poor or low immune systems like infants, young children, elderly patients, and those who are already sick. 
  • Toxic molds create what is called mycotoxins which are found on both mold spores and mold. When people are exposed to mycotoxins either by touching it, inhaling it, or ingesting it, it can cause a variety of health issues including both long-term respiratory illnesses or just a brief reaction. 

How Can I Test for Mold? 

It's one thing to look in your shower and see mold growing all along the tile, but it's another thing to be suffering from what appears to be a respiratory illness or allergies without a diagnosis. If you live in an older house or a house that's recently been exposed to a lot of water damage, your illness may actually be caused by mold or mold spores. So how can you test for mold? 

There are three main tests that residential mold testing companies will conduct to gauge whether or not you have a mold problem. If they do find mold, they will perform this testing both before and after the remediation to ensure that they got everything. 

Air Sampling

Air sampling is one of the most common types of mold testing out there and involves taking two samples: one of the air in your house and one of the air outside of your house. Once both samples have been collected, they will be compared to see if there are more mold spores inside the house than outside of the house. 

Lift Tape Sample

This is another common type of testing and it involves placing a piece of tape onto the areas that need to be tested, lifting the tape off, placing the tape on a micro slide, and then sending it off to a lab to be tested for mold spores.  

Tape Swab Test

This test is similar to a lift tape sample but is less commonly used because it doesn't identify spore count. After a swab has been taken, it will be sent off to a lab to be examined.  

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