Keep your rental home safe and damage-free with these four cleaning practices to avoid mold. Household water challenges, poor ventilation, and negligent housekeeping often create prime conditions for mold to grow, risking the health and safety of your tenants. Aside from triggering serious respiratory problems and allergies, unchecked mold growth can make your rental walls unpleasant by ruining your paint and creating a musty smell. If you want to find out the best way to remove mold and prevent it altogether, continue reading our article below.
4 Cleaning Practices to Avoid Mold
1. Keep All Surfaces Dry
Keep all your surfaces dry to avoid creating the perfect conditions for mold. Mold thrives in wet or damp places, so it only makes sense to always clean up spills. It would also help to have a mop handy in areas like the bathroom and kitchen that are more prone to moisture. Drying your surfaces thoroughly will go a long way in keeping mold spores out of your house.
2. Prioritize Ventilation
Another way to avoid mold is to prioritize your home’s ventilation. Too much humidity can encourage mold growth, endangering your health and that of your loved ones. Control your home’s humidity levels by using an exhaust fan or investing in a dehumidifier. You can also open your windows when the weather permits to circulate air and reduce moisture buildup.
3. Repair Leaky Faucets
Prevent a moisture buildup by identifying the source and nipping it in the bud. If you’ve been ignoring your tenants’ request to solve a leaky pipe, you could unknowingly be creating the perfect conditions for mold spores. Leaky pipes and faucets create damp conditions or areas of high humidity, putting your home at risk of developing fungi. That’s why Bay Property Management Group Northern Virginia suggests immediately addressing maintenance needs to avoid potentially hazardous mold.
4. Use the Right Cleaning Agents
Ensure your cleaning agents aren’t working against you by staying away from harsh disinfectants. Despite sounding counterintuitive to opt for less powerful cleaning solutions, products with harsh chemicals can create micro-cracks in your furniture that trap moisture. Thus, cleaning experts often recommend going for natural or mold-killing agents like tea tree oil or vinegar. If you must use a harsh cleaning agent, follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully and ensure you ventilate the cleaned surface thoroughly.
How to Permanently Remove Mold?
Scrub and Disinfect
If you’re already dealing with a mold infestation, you’ll need to act quickly to prevent further property damage and to prevent compromising your tenants’ health. At this point, your best bet to get rid of any mold spores would be to use a powerful cleaning agent like bleach. However, it would be best not to mix it with other products to avoid creating a toxic fume. Remember to wear appropriate protective gear during the process to protect your eyes and skin, and finish off by ventilating the area.
Buy a Dehumidifier
A musty odor, damp walls, and allergic reactions are tell-tale signs of unwanted fungal growth, so look for these signs of mold in your property and inform your landlords immediately. After a thorough disinfection process, you can ensure your home stays dry by investing in a dehumidifier. These gadgets help control moisture and can ensure your rental stays mold-free after a prior incident.
Regular Mold Preventative Maintenance Tips for Landlords
Perform Regular Inspections
Stay on your toes by performing regular inspections to ensure your rental remains mold-free. However, you don’t have to do it alone. You can also educate your tenants on the signs of mold so they remain alert. After all, they’re bound to spend more time in the house than you do, and their notification can help you spot early signs of mold before it becomes a major issue.
Clean Your Gutters
Prevent water from pooling on your roof or in your gutters by cleaning them out regularly. You can also deter mold growth in your rental by ensuring high-risk areas like your gutters, basements, and below the kitchen sink remain as dry as possible all year round.
Conclusion
Prioritize mold removal and prevention to keep your tenants safe and your home free from the deadly fungi. Beyond threatening your renter’s health, mold growth can also cause significant damage to your furniture and walls, so ensure you keep all surfaces dry to prevent a moisture buildup. Proper ventilation can also help, but cutting off the moisture problem at its source by repairing any leaky faucets will go a long way.
If you already have a mold problem, you can ensure it stays permanent by performing a deep scrub and disinfection. You can also splurge on a dehumidifier. In the long run, prevention is better than cure. Thus, it would be wise to perform regular inspections and clean out your gutters routinely. You could outsource these tasks to a property manager to lighten some of the load.