Capital Remodeling Inc

By James Thornton

Mold is a fungus that occurs naturally in the environment and it enters your home as tiny spores. The spores need moisture to begin growing, digesting and destroying and you will find they start in damp or moist areas. Mold can digest what it grows on and can do some serious damage in our homes. It can eat into paper, cloth, carpet, rugs, and even our walls and ceilings. The mold grows best when there is lots of moisture from a leaky roof, high humidity, or carpets and furnishings that stay wet too long. There is no way to get rid of all molds and mold spores from your home but you can control mold growth by keeping your home dry.

Children and also people with allergies, asthma or those whose immune systems are not so strong are susceptible to the diseases caused by some types of mold. Inhaling these mold spores can lead to serious health problems such as diarrhea, high fever and fatigue, difficulty in breathing, headaches, congestion, joint pain or skin rashes. Mold in nature can be very beneficial, but indoor mold can make life in our homes very dangerous.

You know you have mold when you smell the “musty” odor or see small black or white specks along your damp walls where warm moist air condenses on cooler wall surfaces. Inside cold exterior walls, behind dressers, headboards, and in closets where articles are stored against walls are some common areas to find mold. Some mold is hidden growing behind wall coverings or ceiling tiles. Even dry, dead mold can cause health problems, so always take precautions when you suspect mold. If you notice mold or know of water damaged areas in your home, it is time to take action to control its growth.

There are many ways in which to prevent mold growth in your home. Reduce the humidity in your home to between 30 and 60 percent by using a dehumidifier. Open windows and doors to increase air flow in your home, especially along the inside of exterior walls. Use a fan if there are no windows available. Install and use exhaust fans in bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms as well as ventilate and insulate attic and crawl spaces. Check around your windows for signs of condensation and water droplets. Wipe them up right away so mold can’t start to grow.

Use of a hepa filter helps reduce air born spores but once they are trapped deep into the fiber of the carpet or furniture they can be hard to remove. Vacuuming frequently with a vacuum that has a hepa filter is a good way to remove these spores. It is important to make sure that your carpets of furniture dry quickly after washing. Many rental carpet cleaners or some steam cleaning companies do a poor job at removing water from your carpeting, leaving them damp for too long. This is one of the main causes of mold growth.

When using a carpet cleaning company it is important to find one that uses a low moisture method of cleaning. Many of these methods achieve great results and your carpets or furniture dry quickly. This helps to prevent mold growth in your home. The biggest danger from too much water in your carpet cleaning method is getting the underpad wet. You can’t get enough air circulation under the carpet to dry it properly and as a result you are almost guaranteed to get mold.

By Earl Adkins

In late 1979 I was in the cedar sun room business. We use cedar because it was one of the few natural products that could take the weather year round. We made each room from scratch (this is before all those kit sun rooms came out), I would design it, sell it, and build it and I love doing it.

As you can imagine a sun room should be on the south or southwest side of the house to be able to catch the most sunlight. The only drawback when doing this is the ultra-violet rays from the sun would bleach the cedar wood out. I want to point out it takes several years before this bleaching effect really get noticeable.

After a while I started to get calls from homeowners that I had built these cedar sun rooms asking was there anything they could do (they met I could do) to restore the natural color back into the wood. I did a little research and found a product that work great (it’s not on the market today because of environmental issues) and lasted for a long time,up to ten years.

This was really easy work and did not take long to do and besides the money doing it wasn’t bad either. Everyone love the results and other homeowners in the neighborhood were seeing what I was doing wanted me to take care of their cedar home. Yea, I’m not so dumb I created a business for restoring cedar homes.

Getting down to the process of cleaning a cedar home is really simple but you are going to need help and that help is a pressure washer. Second which is optional but I would highly recommend would be to use a cedar cleaning solution when pressure washing.

The cedar cleaning solution can be purchase from any paint store. Let the person at the store know what you are trying to do,which is restoring your cedar siding. They will suggest a product that they are familiar with because they deal with painting contractors everyday. Have them go over the direction with you before you leave the store with the product and if you have any questions ask them before you leave.

Now for pressure washers. You will most likely will have to rent a contractor grade pressure washer from a rental store. It should be at least 2500 psi and no more than 300 psi. The psi is the pressure that’s is coming out of the machine but it is not the real pressure coming out of the cleaning tip of the wand.

Pressure washers that you rent from rental stores are generally not in the best condition. They have a lot of wear,a lot of hours on the machine and cleaning tips. Which means what ever psi you think you are are getting will really be less. Which is O.K. because cedar wood is very soft and you won’t need as much pressure to clean it.

Make sure the rental store starts and stops the pressure washer so you know its in working order. Also ask about any safety instruction that you might need to know. Safety glasses, not to point the wand at someone while operating, etc. Have them also go over the different cleaning tips and how they are use.

The first thing you want to do is play with the pressure washer for a while to get the feel of it. Even if its to clean your side walk or driveway. Experiment with the different cleaning tips to see what they can do,if you have a piece of wood try pressure washing that with the different tips.

Now,one more thing before you start to wash your house. Lets find a place that is out of the way maybe the side of the house where no one goes. We want to start here because if you decide you can’t do the job or I might mess up. Its best to do it where no one will notice.

The secret of pressure washing cedar siding is do one complete board at a time. Start on the left and work to the right. With the pressure washer turn on, move toward the cedar slowly. When you see the dirt and mold start to disappear start moving to your right. You don’t have to get the board clean the first time. You can always go back and pressure wash it again. Take your time you are not in a rush and after about thirty minutes you’ll notice you’re getting faster.

It takes me about thirty minutes to show a new person hoe to clean cedar siding and most of that time is verbal instructions. Within several hours they can work on there own, they might be slow but they can get the job done.