Water: Your Friend – Your Enemy

Water, one of the essentials of life,  is necessary for life to exist; human and all other plant and animal life. We know water as a liquid and we also know water as a vapor as in water vapor or as humidity when the temperature and dew point get close to each other. We use water for everything. It is now being considered a more important product than oil in some parts of the world.

Yet, water can also be your enemy when it finds it’s destructive “dark side” , so to speak. This happens when we have water leaks in the roof; leaking water pipes, water in the basement, too much rain, flooding, etc, etc, etc.

Aside from the structural damage that water can do to any structure, the residual affects, like the development of mold and bacteria, can be significant. When any indoor surface gets wet; be it the walls, carpeting or floors, if all the water is not removed quickly and the surfaces and materials not completely dried, as sure as night follows day, mold will follow.

When water leaks behind a wall or onto a floor surface or into carpeting the sub-surface wood flooring or wood studs behind walls can become wet. Wood will absorb the water and wood takes a long time to dry out. Especially inside the home. Wood is a great food source for mold and the accompanying moisture keeps it growing. Add to the fact that these areas are dark, and you have the perfect breeding ground for mold.

Mold tends to spore once every 15 to 30 days during  its growth cycle and when this happens it releases millions of tiny mold spores which are very light and can become airborne. If the moldy wood source is exposed the mold will eventually get into the entire home and become dispersed through the HVAC system.

To minimize the amount of mold that is airborne in your home you need to make sure your air filters in the HVAC unit are capable of removing small, less than 10 micron in size particles. The filter should be a MERV 8 or higher rated filter and fit very tightly in the air filter frame locate on the return  air side of the HVAC air handler. In addition, you will need to make sure  the water or moisture problem is resolved otherwise the mold problem not go away.

Pure Air Systems has been dealing with mold spore removal since 1985 using its HEPA based air filtration systems that can either be attached to any forced air ducted heating/cooling system or as stand-alone unit. In addition, Pure Air Systems offers a complete line of dual layer polyester ring panel, MERV 8 commercial grade filters that will fit tightly in your HVAC filter frame and effectively reduce the level of airborne mold particles in your home environment.

For more information on our complete line of HEPA and particulate removal air filters go to our www.pureairsystems.com

 

 

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