Mold Mishap? Don't Panic, Call SERVPRO® of Oxnard!

6/14/2024 (Permalink)

Mold. Just the word can send shivers down your spine. Here in Oxnard, with our mild, humid climate, mold growth can be a concern for homeowners and business owners alike. But before you panic, SERVPRO of Oxnard is here to help!

What to Do:

• Identify the Source: Mold thrives on moisture. Look for leaks, condensation, or areas with poor ventilation.
• Contain the Mold: If the affected area is small (less than 10 square feet), you can try containing it yourself with plastic sheeting.
• Minimize Exposure: Avoid disturbing the mold, which can release spores. Wear protective gear like a mask and gloves if entering the area.
• Call SERVPRO of Oxnard: Our mold remediation technicians are highly trained and equipped to safely remove mold and address the moisture source.

What NOT to Do:

• Don't Ignore It: Mold won't go away on its own and can worsen over time, impacting your health and property.
• Don't Use Bleach: Bleach can kill surface mold but doesn't address the root cause and may even spread spores.
• Don't Attempt Large-Scale Remediation: DIY mold removal for large areas can be dangerous. Improper handling can release spores and expose you to health risks.
• Don't Hesitate to Call Professionals: SERVPRO of Oxnard adheres to the safety standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) [OSHA mold website] and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [EPA mold website] to ensure a safe and effective remediation process.

SERVPRO of Oxnard: Your Mold Removal Experts

At SERVPRO of Oxnard, your health and safety are our priority. We use advanced techniques and EPA-registered products to remove mold safely and efficiently. We'll also help you identify and address the source of moisture to prevent future growth.

Don't let mold take over your Oxnard home or business. Contact SERVPRO of Oxnard today for a fast and professional solution!

Microscopic invaders in your Oxnard home or business

4/30/2020 (Permalink)

SERVPRO of Oxnard found mold behind moisture affected drywall in this Oxnad home.

Microscopic mold spores naturally occur almost everywhere, both outdoors and indoors. This makes it impossible to remove all mold from a home or business. Therefore, mold remediation reduces the mold spore count back to its natural or baseline level. Some restoration businesses advertise “mold removal” and even guarantee to remove all mold, which is a fallacy. Consider the following mold facts:

• Mold is present almost everywhere, indoors and outdoors.
• Mold spores are microscopic and float along in the air and may enter your home through windows, doors, or AC/heating systems or even hitch a ride indoors on your clothing or a pet.
• Mold spores thrive on moisture. Mold spores can quickly grow into colonies when exposed to water. These colonies may produce allergens and irritants.
• Before mold remediation can begin, any sources of water or moisture must be addressed. Otherwise, the mold may return.
• Mold often produces a strong, musty odor and can lead you to possible mold problem areas.
• Even higher-than-normal indoor humidity can support mold growth. Keep indoor humidity below 45 percent.

If your Oxnard home or business has a mold problem, SERVPRO of Oxnard, an IICRC Certified Firm, can inspect and assess your property and use our specialized training, equipment, and expertise to remediate your mold infestation. 

WE WORK WITH ALL INSURANCE COMPANIES!

If You See Signs of Mold, Call Us Today – 805-984-2347

Call The Professionals When You Discover Mold In Your Oxnard Home

1/8/2019 (Permalink)

Call the experts to remove mold from your carpet.

Preventing Carpet Mold in Your Oxnard Residence

Many Oxnard homeowners do not realize just how easily mold and mildew growth can occur to areas like the carpeting and flooring of their houses. Often these situations result from an inadequate cleaning from water damage that can persistently stay damp and moist for a few days, allowing mold spores to settle on the material, seat, and then spread. The trouble with carpeted areas is that much of the mold damage that can affect this material occurs out of sight, providing a potentially hazardous situation for homeowners.

While many of these same homeowners have understood the importance of mold remediation in their Oxnard property, others believe that the situation is not that serious or goes away without direct intervention. Preventing mold growth in your carpets is not impossible, but knowing when to contact our applied microbial remediation specialists at SERVPRO can make it even simpler.

Once our experienced team arrives at your home, we can use our equipment and hands-on training to identify the spread of the organism and set up a containment barrier to prevent it spreading to other areas of the property. While mold damage can spread quickly throughout your home once the colonization begins, there is still an early window that can allow you to prevent the complete degradation of your carpets.

This process begins with the water damage incident that brought you to the point of allowing mold damage into your home. Our SERVPRO technicians can arrive quickly to an emergency to help you rapidly extract the water and begin drying out all of the affected areas with dehumidifiers and air movers working together, which if it happens early enough, can make these materials uninhabitable for newly forming mold colonies.

Preventing mold damage to your carpet is not something that every homeowner can do on their own, and in many cases, it requires a professional team of remediation experts to overcome. Our SERVPRO of Oxnard specialists can arrive quickly to contain the spread of this organism and work to remove active spores from the area to limit the possibility of recurrence. Contact us whenever you experience water damage or discover mold growth by calling (805) 984-2347.

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Expose Hidden Mold in Your Oxnard Home

10/9/2018 (Permalink)

Hidden moisture creates a breeding ground for mold. SERVPRO can locate the source of the moisture and remove the mold.

Understanding the Organism: Mold Growth in Your Oxnard Home

While there might be several situations that can give an Oxnard homeowner pause, incidents that require immediate attention to resolve and repair are among the top of this list. While many disasters strike without warning, some can develop more slowly and without your notice. Mold growth can be as damaging as any natural disaster if left unchecked and unresolved, which is why you should understand this organism better to appreciate the risks involved with its growth.

Many Oxnard homeowners can tell you that mold has allowed for some steep medical breakthroughs throughout the past century or more, and in that same breath, consider that mold growing in their home to be among this same beneficial variety. You should know that no type of residential mold has a benefit, and much to the contrary can lead to potential health effects for those exposed to an active colony or its spores.

The trouble is, many homeowners might not know when a mold colony has formed if they are not regularly inspecting low-traffic areas of their house that could be susceptible to moisture and dampness. Our SERVPRO technicians have encountered many mold growth situations in which the colony had gotten out of control and spread into higher trafficked areas of the house before occupants inside knew it was there.

There are some things that you can look out for to help you head off a situation before it becomes costlier for our SERVPRO technicians to restore. The first is to pay attention to strange odors that you might encounter throughout your house. Mold colonies of any variety emit a pungent, musty odor. Even if you cannot see a colony, this odor can indicate one exists out of sight. Another symptom you can watch for is spotting. This symptom is the earliest stages of mold colonization, and it gets most easily discerned on affected drywall surfaces.

You might also notice those in your house contending with more respiratory concerns all at once, and this too could indicate the presence of a mold colony. The more you understand about the organism, the more you can appreciate the need for immediate removal. Give our SERVPRO of Oxnard remediation specialists a call whenever you think you could have a mold issue. We are available 24/7 at (805) 984-2347.

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Why We Advise Professional Mold Remediation for Oxnard Residents

8/30/2018 (Permalink)

Use SERVPRO for Mold Cleanup and Remediation in Your Oxnard Home

SERVPRO's Experience and Understanding to Mitigate Mold Damage, "Like it never even happened"

When mold growth causes concerns for the citizens of Oxnard, we want to offer fast, discrete, and effective abatement. Mold problems are generally associated with a source of excess moisture, so providing a reliable strategy to manage microbial outbreaks fits perfectly with our mission of assisting our community with water emergencies. Let us evaluate any mold issues you have to create a remediation plan that gives you a successful outcome.

Many over the counter remedies line the shelves of Oxnard hardware, grocery, and home improvement stores, but mold damage presents a unique set of cleanup challenges. It is not just a surface contaminant, but groups of living organisms that can grow into porous materials and travel from space to space on air currents as the colonies expand. Conventional cleaning techniques often introduce more moisture that makes the problem worse. Our technicians are well-trained in the life cycle and habits of mold and have reliable, research-based procedures to mitigate an outbreak.

Mold needs only water, oxygen, and an organic source of nourishment to grow. Any bits of organic material like skin cells and soap on a bathroom tile, or tiny amounts of grease or food debris in the kitchen, support growth even on non-permeable surfaces. A microbial infestation, however, does not necessarily signal poor housekeeping. The cellulose-based building materials that make up our homes are the perfect place for mold to develop and colonize if damp.  Most strains of mold thrive under normal interior temperatures, and spores are found everywhere inside and out. SERVPRO mold remediators quickly locate the moldy areas in your dwelling and get to work fast to rid your home of active growth.

SERVPRO contains and removes mold damage, and then gets rid of residues that cause recurrence following EPA protocols. Our containment procedures keep the rest of your home free from debris during remediation. We use physical barriers and often seal off the cleanup area with negative pressure air scrubbing equipment. Remediators wear personal protective equipment for safety and to be sure we do not spread particles of active molds throughout your home. We remove mold mechanically, including using soda blasting that dislodges colonies growing into raw wood surfaces. As a final safeguard, we apply EPA registered disinfectants to limit additional mold growth.

All of these steps take professionals holding advanced training certifications to accomplish correctly. SERVPRO of Oxnard has the qualified technicians and equipment to remediate a mold problem in your home. Call (805) 984-2347 to set up an assessment.

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How to remove mold and mildew from anything and everything

3/20/2018 (Permalink)

"Mold and mildew thrive in moist conditions. That means musty-smelling growth can be found just as easily on damp clothing as it can on carpets and upholstered furniture. (Ew!)

To help avoid this situation, TODAY Home asked some cleaning pros the best way to manage mold.

Here's how to remove mold and mildew from ...

...WHITE-COTTON CLOTHING

Olivia Joyce, cleaning pro with Move Out Mates, has two effective ways to deal with mold, depending on the fabric involved.

Bleach is the most effective way to remove mold and mildew from clothing made out of white cotton, Joyce says. Apply a solution of one part bleach to three parts water to the stain and allow the solution to sit for a few minutes, then launder as usual."

Read more at How to remove mold and mildew from anything and everything

New Tools Bring Success to Mold Projects

1/17/2018 (Permalink)

As a professional who has been involved in the mold remediation industry ever since it emerged from the shadows of the more general concept of an indoor air quality problem, I find it fascinating to see how much the science and practice of fungal control continues to change. While many restoration and cleaning contractors have the mistaken idea that the “mold hysteria” has peaked, the reality is the industry is in a continuing development stage. Anyone who thinks there is nothing new in the mold field should sit in on one of the weekly teleconference discussions among the professionals who are working on the fourth edition of the IICRC’s S520 Standard for Professional Mold Remediation. The debate and discussion is just as vigorous and enlightening as it was when I served on the committee to produce the inaugural edition in 2001 and 2002.

Read more at New Tools Bring Success to Mold Projects

What causes mold in a house?

8/1/2017 (Permalink)

"

What causes mold in a house? Well, there are several factors that contribute to the development of mold. Mold is usually a result of the right combination of factors, not one single thing. Understanding the causes of mold is important when attempting to prevent and eliminate household mold.

If you fail to eliminate the causes of mold, mold will simply return as soon as you clean it up. In addition to telling you about things that may cause mold in your house, we’ll tell you how to prevent mold caused by those things.

MOLD SPORES FROM OUTDOORS

It’s important to understand that mold has to come from somewhere. There are hundreds of different types of mold in the environment and when mold spores drift indoors through an open window or door, or when people carry mold spores indoors on their shoes, clothing or other items, those spores then settle on household surfaces. Leaky roofs or flood waters can also bring mold spores indoors. If the mold spores settle on damp surfaces, mold usually begins to grow there."

Read more at What causes mold in a house?

Best Home Dehumidifier To Prevent Mold

5/1/2017 (Permalink)

"Readers often ask us which is the best home dehumidifier to prevent toxic mold and we’d like to help you choose the right dehumidifier for your needs. Since different homeowners sometimes have different needs, it’s hard to point to just one dehumidifier that is right for everyone. Instead, we’ll provide a dehumidifier comparison guide to help you choose the correct home dehumidifier for you.

Dehumidifier Comparison Guide

When comparing dehumidifiers, you need to look at a number of factors, including size (which refers to how much moisture they can remove from the air in one day, measuring in pints), cost, and various features they may or may not have, such as an automatic shut off in case you forget to empty the water bucket (all that moisture they pull from the air has to go somewhere) or whether they can be set up to drain continuously so you don’t have to worry about emptying a water bucket at all."

Read more at Best Home Dehumidifier To Prevent Mold

How to Find and Eliminate Mold

3/10/2017 (Permalink)

MOLD thrives in damp places. Often, health experts say, ideal breeding grounds are the insides of walls and ceilings exposed to a recurrent source of moisture from a roof or plumbing leak.

So how do you know if you have mold in your house, and what do you do if you do? "Not all mold is the same, and different people respond to mold differently," said Dr. Eckhardt Johanning, an occupational and environmental physician with offices in Albany and Manhattan.

Dr. Johanning said that while some people may have no reaction to mold spores inside a home, those who are sensitive to mold can have allergic reactions ranging from mild to life-threatening. "People with asthma, allergies, lung problems and immune-system dysfunction are usually more inclined to experience problems when they're exposed to mold," he said."

Read more at: How to Find and Eliminate Mold

10 Mold Prevention Tips for Your Home

1/17/2017 (Permalink)

"Fixing mold damage is an expensive and time-consuming home repair. But you can save time and money with these 10 tips to prevent mold.

Homeowners have good reason to shudder when hearing, “You’ve got mold!” Mold can wreck your health and your finances: An extensive mold remediation can reach five figures. 

Here are 10 ways to prevent, control, and combat mold in your home.

1. Eliminate Clutter

Cast a critical eye on household clutter, and pare down your stuff. Clutter blocks airflow and prevents your HVAC system from circulating air. Furniture and draperies that block supply grilles cause condensation. All this moisture creates microclimates in your home that welcome and feed mold growth.

So throw out things you don’t love or don’t use. Push furniture away from vents and grilles to keep air circulating. On humid, still days, run a couple of fans to keep air moving."

Read more at: 10 Mold Prevention Tips for Your Home