If you’ve been noticing musty smells in your home or have recurring ice dams throughout the winter, there’s a chance you could have mold in your attic. While finding mold growth anywhere in your home should be a cause for concern, attic mold can lead to serious damage to your building materials.
Removing and preventing it is always necessary for the long-term health of your home and family. Learn what causes it, how to spot it, and why you should hire a remediation expert to prevent it from coming back.
What Causes Attic Mold in Chicagoland Homes
Mold thrives in damp environments and can wreak havoc on your indoor air quality and comfort, making the attic one of the most vulnerable areas of your home. Common causes of attic mold include:
- Moisture Intrusion: Leaky roofs and improper ventilation can lead to moisture buildup in your attic, creating an ideal environment for mold growth.
- Poor Insulation: Inadequate insulation can result in temperature differences within your attic, leading to condensation and moisture accumulation on surfaces.
- Air Leakage: Gaps, cracks, and poorly sealed areas in your attic allow warm, humid air from the living spaces below to enter the attic, increasing moisture levels and promoting mold growth.
- Roof Ventilation Issues: It is tempting to seal up an attic to reduce heat transfer, but without adequate ventilation, condensation can form, resulting in mold growth.
- Improper Exhaust Fan Installation: If you have an exhaust fan in your kitchen or bathroom that is vented into the attic instead of outdoors, the result is usually condensation and mold.
How to Identify Mold (Symptoms and Warning Signs)
Many signs of attic mold are visible. You’ll see it on wooden rafters and beams, usually as dark black, brown, or green spots, or sometimes as white fuzzy growth. Contaminated insulation can look clumpy or wet and have similar color spotting.
However, many signs are not visible and instead appear as symptoms. You might notice a musty smell throughout the home, especially on the second floors. Your family may have throat and nose irritation, coughing, watery eyes, and headaches. In more extreme cases, you and your family may start to experience more respiratory symptoms like wheezing, difficulty breathing, or asthma flare-ups.
How to Get Rid of Attic Mold in Your Chicagoland Home
If you catch mold growth early enough, you can sometimes remove it without professional help. The EPA recommends DIY mold removal only if the area is less than 10 square feet (a 3 ft. by 3 ft. patch). If that’s the case, here’s how to remove attic mold yourself:
- Wear the correct PPE like gloves, an N95 mask, and eye protection.
- Remove and discard porous materials that have mold. It’s not possible to remove it from things like insulation, cardboard boxes, or fabric.
- Clean and disinfect the area. What kills attic mold? Stick with a mold removal cleaner, hydrogen peroxide, a bleach-based solution, or another equivalent.
- Dry thoroughly. Use fans to speed up the process and be sure to ventilate. If the area remains moist, the mold could return.
When to Call a Pro for Attic Mold
Most of the time, however, just removing the mold is pointless. Unless you resolve the underlying issues that let it grow in the first place, it will likely return. If you have poor insulation or air gaps, for instance, these problems will need to be addressed before you tackle the mold growth. Mold remediation is a complex process that involves more than just cleaning, so you should always call a professional.
ARC Insulation’s Professional Mold Removal Process
At ARC Insulation, we have experience with attic mold remediation and have honed our process to ensure the most reliable results. Our attic mold removal steps include:
- Inspecting the attic to determine the extent of mold growth and its root cause.
- Containing the area and safely removing any contaminated materials, like moldy attic insulation.
- Thoroughly cleaning surfaces to eliminate mold spores and prevent regrowth.
- Ensuring proper ventilation and implementing long-term mold prevention strategies.
Prevention is key. In addition to our mold removal services, ARC Insulation can also help you address the underlying cause: moisture intrusion. Our insulation and weatherization services can prevent future mold growth and provide many whole-home benefits.
- Attic Insulation Upgrades: Proper attic insulation creates a thermal barrier between the outdoors and your attic, preventing large temperature differences that cause humid air to condense and leave behind water. Insulating your attic can also help increase comfort in your entire home and lower heating & cooling costs.
- Air Sealing: Sealing gaps, cracks, and holes in your attic prevents humid outdoor air from entering your attic and accumulating moisture. It can also prevent ice dams, further reducing the risk of mold growth.
Reliable and Effective Mold Treatments
With over 30 years of experience in the Chicagoland community, you can trust ARC Insulation to accurately identify, remove, remediate, and prevent mold growth. We are certified in mold remediation and hold countless BPI certifications. Through our mold and weatherization services, we’ll work hard to ensure that your home is comfortable, mold-free, and most importantly, healthy.
