If you’ve found out your neighbor has mold issues, call Benchmark Environmental Engineering in San Jose. We’re here to help you figure out if you need to worry about their mold problem becoming your problem. Let us help you decide what you can do now to protect yourself and your property.
Common Types Of Mold In Homes & Businesses
Mold is all around us, and some types are even beneficial (e.g. penicillin-based antibiotics). Mold and fungus are great at breaking things down. This natural process is excellent for clean up in nature, but not ideal in a property with constant human exposure. Odds are, many types of mold surround you daily.
Mold Can Damage Your Property & Your Health
When your walls, furniture, or carpets are infested with mold, this fungus quickly becomes an unwelcome guest. In addition to causing extensive and destructive property damage, toxic fungal spores can cause sensitive individuals to experience health problems. These might include allergic reactions, eye infections, skin infections, and fungal infections.
Who Should Be Concerned?
Mold becomes a big, expensive problem very quickly. This problem can even start from or spread to hard to spot and reach places. Mold inspections by a professional environmental consulting company are essential for peace of mind.
You are more likely to be affected by a neighbor’s mold problems if you are in closer vicinity to their home or business.
- Vacant Units
- Long Sitting Properties Under Construction
- Long Foreclosed Properties
- Multiplexes
- Townhomes
- Condos
- Apartments
- Close Neighbors
Property managers may not regularly tour empty houses. Homes and businesses in limbo (long real estate closings, remodeling projects, construction projects, or empty foreclosures) can easily foster fungus. Leaking appliances, abandoned animal waste or food, or weather-related damages that let water inside go unchecked. This is when mold moves in.
Your New Nasty Neighbor
Having mold in your home doesn’t immediately assign you to a life of health problems. Usually, those with asthma, allergies, weak immune systems, the very young, and the elderly are most at risk. If you have a reason to suspect a nearby exposure source and are experiencing unexplained symptoms, mold testing makes sense.
Also consider mold testing if you reside in or own a multifamily property, a home that shares walls, or a property that is within close vicinity to other buildings that are experiencing exposure symptoms. We can help you in your efforts to eliminate or confirm this source as a cause of your health problems.
Where Did The Mold Come From?
All types of fungus love the wet, warm, and the dark. Humid areas, properties that have recently been flooded or had problems with leaks can attract and foster growth. You can find this substance growing on a wide variety of materials depending on the species you have.
- Carpeting, Mattresses & Home Textiles
- Potted Plant Soil & Pet Droppings
- Wet Building Materials, Fiberglass Insulation, Drywall
- On Windowsills, Walls & Wallpaper
- In The Shower & On Caulking
- Any Areas With Unresolved Water Damage
- In HVAC Systems & Dusty Areas
- On Wood, Books, Newspapers & Other Porous Materials
Trust A Professional
Isn’t rot and fungus easy to spot and smell? Because mold comes in so many different varieties, even some that can grow in the cold, it’s not always easy to identify. Colors range from a whiteish grey color to pink, brown, or black, olive-green, white or red, beige, and even blue stains.
Seeing visible signs, or smelling musty or garlicky scents you can’t account for, are signs you might have a problem. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to break out the bleach. Some species are dangerous and some, like aureobasidium, should never be touched with bare skin. Why would you risk it or risk spreading it?
Why Play An Expensive Guessing Game?
You might find yourself having to treat visible areas again and again without making real progress. The infestation may be deeper than you think, like in carpet padding, inside mattresses, behind wood paneling or inside walls.
Our experienced mold testing technicians can perform air quality testing that pinpoints the type of mold in your home. We can also let you know whether or not they are growing in concentrations that can expose you to harm.
This gives you a starting point for approaching whoever is responsible for managing neighboring infected homes or units quickly. After professional remediation has been performed, by the company of your choice, we can re-test to make sure the mold next door has really been evicted.
Mold Testing In California
Your San Jose area neighbor is complaining about a mold issue. You have unexplained allergies indoors. You live close to a possible water-damaged property, or you think you see visible signs of a problem. We can help.
Contact us today at Benchmark Environmental Engineering and schedule your mold testing service. Let us help you get the answers you need to act and protect your family and home.