subject: Bathroom Maintenance How To Prevent Bathroom Mold [print this page] Your bathroom is one of the most wet rooms in your home, and therefore is one of the rooms where mold is most likely to grow. The fact that heat and moisture are frequently generated in the bathroom promotes mold growth as these factors provide great conditions for mold to grow and flourish.
Prevent mold in your bathroom is vital for your health and for the way your bathroom looks. In addition, if neglected and due to optimal growing conditions, bathroom mold is likely to spread internally through walls, ceilings, and floors, leading to an extremely expensive remediation costs.
In bathroom mold prevention, one of the key factors would be to have frequent inspections in order to prevent water damage that can lead to mold growth. The first step in mold prevention is keeping your bathroom dry and airy. To check the humidity levels before and after showers, you need to use a humidity meter.
Be sure to keep humidity levels below forty to forty five percent. If you allow adequate air circulation, your bathroom humidity levels should drop below 45 percent within 5-10 minutes from the minute you finished your shower.
Shower and Bathtub Maintenance
Keep the bathtub, floors, walls, and ceilings, clean and dry at all times. In order to allow equal and complete drying and to prevent mold where it is likely to grow, you need to stretch the bathtub curtains after using the bathtub.
What about Air Flow?
You need to allow air flow and air circulation because these are key steps in keeping low humidity levels. The basic technique and the simplest is to open windows and doors right after taking a shower to allow air to free flow and remove excess moisture. If you didn't install an exhaust fan yet, do so as soon as possible as this is a great tool for bathroom ventilation. To allow the bathroom to dry completely, turn on the exhaust fan while taking a bath or shower and leave it working for 5-10 minutes after you have finished using the bathroom. Confirm that your fan exhausts outdoors directly.
What about Day to Day Maintenance?
To prevent water damage and mold, day to day maintenance is important. Before they become a large scale disaster, this will also be helpful in detecting problems. Make sure that the drains are kept in good shape. Allow the bathtub to drain completely and by removing all debris and using drain openers from time to time. Try using semi-gloss paint when creating hard surfaces on your bathroom walls. On these types of surfaces, it is harder for mold to grow.
