Where does mold come from? Do you risk “taking it with you” when moving from a moldy apartment to a not moldy one?
In: Biology
Mold spores are everywhere. Yes you could technically bring them along with you to your new apartment. But there will be mold spores there regardless. Your apartment will generally only develop a mold problem if the environmental conditions (e.g. temperature and moisture) are suitable for fungus to grow.
Yes. Spores are in the air, on surfaces, on your skin. By creating environment that prevents them from developing (low humidity, low temperature) and removing potential food sources (basically anything organic), you can control whether they develop into a problem or not.
In a technical sense, yes, you can ‘bring it with you’ by transporting some mold bodies or spores from one place to another.
In a practical sense, no, this doesn’t have a very meaningful impact on whether your new place will be moldy or not. Mold spores are *everywhere*, they get on *everything*. The cleanest and most mold-free apartment in town, still has a light dusting of mold spores on every surface. The difference between a moldy apartment and a not-moldy one, is whether there’s anywhere for those spores to land and grow into a fungal colony. In order to do that, mold needs to land somewhere that:
– stays humid most/all the time
– isn’t too hot or cold
– doesn’t get much sunlight
– doesn’t get frequent cleaning.
And the most important one is humidity. If your new place is kept dry, then all the mold spores in the world won’t be able to colonize it. And if your new place is damp and dark, then mold will take hold no matter *how* carefully you cleaned your things before moving.
Yes, the spores are naturally present in the air however, so though you might not bring that particular mould, another will be floating around pretty much anywhere you go.
The way to stop it is to make the conditions inhospitable – dry being the main point. Don’t allow steam, condensation or water built up in or around your home. Keep air moving through the house – you don’t need huge winds and draughts, though… just a small slot open on your double-glazing, which is why they put the slots in double-glazed windows, or a gentle movement of air. In my old house (1930’s brick) there was a big condensation problem, leaving mould on all the windowsills, and we cured it overnight with what is basically a fan designed to pull air from the attic and lightly waft it down into the main house. A 3-bedroom house was ventilated well enough by a fan you could barely hear pulling enough air through the house that you could barely feel it (we installed it on the loft hatch, so it didn’t even need any building work).
If you keep air moving, which helps dry, and keep the house itself dry – ventilate the bathroom, use a cooker hood, make sure there are no water leaks, etc. – then mould will settle as it always does but it won’t be able to take hold and grow.
Mould is present in the air. It actually spores into the air all the time and it’s present in every soil, the outside world and in your house. Those spores are therefore everywhere and you can’t get rid of them (no matter how much you clean, etc.). All you can do is ensure they can’t grow into a full mould, by keeping things clean, dry and ventilated.
Mold spores come from outside. Simply, yes you can transfer it from one place to another. However, mold spores are everywhere and you shouldn’t be panicking about it. When air testing for mold spores, it is not a simple yes or no whether or not you have mold. It is a comparison of the outside air and the inside area. If your inside is higher than outside, you have a mold problem. Certain molds are worse than others and immediately raise concern while others are ignored. If you have visible growth it is a concern for sure. Best practice is to fix leaking appliances/water supply lines and keep air flowing in your house.
**Not official advice, though I am a water/fire/mold remediation professional.
Mold is a type of fungus. It reproduces by spreading spores into the air. These spores generally only go a short distance, so they’re not really something to worry about most of the time.
If the type of mold is particularly resilient or particularly harmful, then tracking from one place to another may be a concern, but often times washing your fabrics before moving them is enough to keep the spread down and kill any spores that may be hangers-on.
You can take it with you! My friend had to get rid of lots of her possessions because her house had black mold. Living there made her whole family really sick and so taking things with them was not an option.
From personal experience: Get rid of carpet in your bedroom. Carpet, if it gets wet frequently from spills, wet shoes, etc, is a great place for mold to grow, and yes you can track the spores on your shoe soles from one place to another. If you find mold, WEAR A RESPIRATOR when you clean it. I didn’t and scraped it off like an idiot and wound up in the ER, it felt like I had been dosed with a drug (racing heart, confused thinking). I keep a spray bottle of vinegar in every room now and once a month I spray down window sills (mold loves those too), under sinks, and everywhere in the bathroom. Vinegar is a miracle cleaner, totally non-toxic to you, but it dissolves mold instantly and helps prevent the spores from dispersing as you clean it.
Sir, I’m sure you are a terrific lawyer, but you are not a terrific microbiologist or even a very good mold remediator. Your statement, “some People have allergies, that don’t get along with mold, is nonsense. That’s like saying, some people have high blood pressure, that doesn’t get along with radon. It is a ridiculous statement. Molds can be allergenic, whether or not you have allergic reactions to other things. Molds also deliver mycotoxins that can make some very very sick. It’s not something to be taken lightly or dismissed. Also, your geographical description of where mold is, is nonsense. Mold is everywhere. Some of the most serious cases of mold are in the high desert, the Northwest , or Eastern seaboard. For heavens sakes, they are shutting down a hospital in Seattle for mold. Folks, mold is serious.
I’m a lawyer and specialize in real estate law. I get a lot of phone calls about “mold”. End of the day, any time you have moisture, you will have mold. Period. It’s everywhere and there’s only one thing you can do about it: creat a dry environment. Nothing else short of massive laboratory grade technology will stop it.
Most molds are harmless. Some people have allergies that don’t get along with mold. Only in the rarest cases will you find a “toxic” mold, and that’s usually only found in hot, humid environments like the coast along the Gulf of Mexico.
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