When Do I Have A Mold Problem?
Ask anyone who’s being honest and they’ll all tell you the same thing: mold is everywhere, mold has always been everywhere, and mold will always be everywhere. A lot of house codes have strict limits about how much mold can exist in a house at any one time, but because mold is so tenacious and ever-present, most houses violate these limits within months of construction. But if we can’t keep our homes and our public buildings perfectly mold-free, how can we tell when the situation goes from expected mold growth to being a mold problem? Continue reading →
Black mold in your basement is a big deal. Nobody wants mold in their home, but black mold is a particularly dangerous variety. Black mold can cause serious health problems. Since mold thrives in moist, dark areas, your dank and dimly-lit basement is a perfect breeding ground. This is especially true if you experience persistent basement wetness, flooding, or other moisture areas. Since humidity is a big factor in mold growth, Maryland basements are particularly susceptible to the stuff. 
When you’ve got a basement, it’s fairly obvious that there’s a lot of room for things to go wrong. Any of the four walls could crack under lateral pressure and allow water to seep in, plus when you dig deeper the groundwater doesn’t have to go up nearly as high to get above your foundation slab and start doing damage to the structure and to all your belongings. 
It’s easy to forget about the foundation of your home. Often we simply regard it as that huge, solid thing that the rest of the house sits on and don’t give it much thought beyond that. But foundations, as solid as they are, aren’t invulnerable and a combination of the changing of seasons and the passing of years can actually move your foundation in ways that can eventually lead to large scale, expensive damage. One of those ways is something called “Frost Heaving.” 
The changing of the seasons from summer to winter can mean a lot of things for homeowners. For those in relatively modern homes, especially those built this century, this is where you really get to see whether all those modern construction materials and techniques have really helped with energy efficiency and keeping the heat in the home and the cold outside. 
As temperatures drop and new seasons come upon the New England area, the idea that Fall and Winter are “safer” seasons in some regards can take hold. This may be especially true for people that believe that with the winter months come dry and the cold conditions that mold can’t survive in, so the natural inclination is to think that mold is just not going to be a problem in winter. 
Usually when residents of Maryland and other New England states hear about another hurricane beating down on Florida and the Bahamas, the normal reaction is to sympathize with the people living in that part of the world, and get on with the business of daily life, thankful for the fact that this sort of thing never happens in this part of America. 
The two couldn’t be further apart if they belonged to separate homes. Your roof and your basement, your home’s polar opposites, never touching, never meeting. And yet, the effect that your roof has on your basement cannot be overstated. In fact, when it comes to the potentially damaging surface water build-up around your home, your roof may be the key factor, or culprit (depending upon how you choose to view the situation). That’s right. In many cases, basement flooding, seepage, standing water, leaks, and other moisture issues all originate at the very top of your home. 
Water is the last thing you want to see seeping into your basement or foundation. It can damage your furniture and belongings, it can stain the walls and carpets, it allows mold and insects to thrive, and it can even have an erosive effect on the concrete itself. It’s a fairly good idea, then, to waterproof your basement, but what exactly is involved in this process?