Mold Damage and Recovering Your Belongings

11/18/2020 (Permalink)

Save your closet and clothes from mold growth.

When mold damage leads to the deterioration of structural elements of your home, it's only natural for your focus to be on completing any related mold cleaning. However, many homeowners overlook damage to their belongings during this process. Unfortunately, if spores are allowed to remain on furnishings, clothing, books, and other belongings, new growth could occur.

Methods for Saving Belongings From Mold

The good news is that there are several methods available to mold remediation professionals as they address mold cleaning and repair in your home:

• Wet and dry cleaning
  
• Spray and wipe for surfaces that can't stand up to wet cleaning
  
• Foam cleaning for upholstery
  
• Immersion cleaning that gets cleaning products into all the nooks and crannies
  
• Abrasive cleaning for surfaces that require a more aggressive approach
  

For many of your belongings, such as pillows, the best option is to throw them out and replace them. However, these cleaning methods can be used to save your sentimental and hard to replace items.

Items To Save and Items To Throw Away

How can you decide whether an item is worth saving or should be thrown out? For many of your possessions, you can probably make a quick decision to throw them away because they'll be relatively easy to replace. However, when you get to items such as baby phots, wedding certificates, and childhood mementos, the decision becomes harder. For each of these belongings, consider the following:

• Do professionals have a treatment method appropriate for the belonging?
  
• How expensive will it be to clean it?
  
• Is the item important enough to you that you don't mind paying for the cleanup?
  
• Will the insurance company pay for cleaning?
  

If you have a family genealogy record that has been passed down through the generations, you probably won't mind paying to have it freeze-dried and restored. A crocheted baby blanket from a loving family member may be a different matter.

Mold remediation is crucial to protecting your Blackfoot, ID, home from further damage. Happily, there are methods of mold cleaning available to save many of the items you don't want to lose.