The Dangers of Mold Growth in Your Air Ducts

It’s common to spot mold in certain areas of your home where high levels of moisture are present, but a lot of this mold can be cleaned up quickly before it causes any health issues. If you have mold in inconspicuous areas like your air ducts, this can be dangerous to your health and the health of your family. Let’s talk more about this hidden mold and how you can go about spotting the problem and fixing it.

What Causes Mold in Air Ducts?

There are a couple of reasons why you may have mold growing in your air ducts. If you have moisture condensation present in your ducts, cooler air passing through the ducts can cause it to multiply. It’s also a possibility that you don’t have the right sized air conditioning system. If your unit is too large or too small, its performance will be in question. This leads to condensation in many cases.

How Does Mold Affect Your Health?

Your air ducts are a dangerous place to have mold. If mold spores are present and air is passing through the ducts to the rest of your home, it’s inevitable that mold spores are going to be carried throughout your dwelling, possibly resulting in health problems. These might include an increase in asthma symptoms, allergies, coughing, itchy eyes, skin irritation and headaches.

How Do You Spot Mold in the Home?

Having a professional look at the insides of your ductwork is one way to spot a mold problem, but there are other signs that you can look for on your own. Mold can create a strong and musty odor. This would be especially noticeable when the air conditioning is running. You might also see black spots around your intake vents or air ducts. Don’t forget to watch out for those allergic symptoms with no other obvious cause. Mold may be to blame.

How to Properly Remove Mold in Home

If you’ve discovered that mold is present in your air ducts, you will need to contact a professional for assistance. Properly removing the mold is necessary to prevent everyone in the home from getting sick. Professionals have very strict guidelines and processes that they use in order to completely remove the mold. Moving forward, make sure that you’re frequently changing your HVAC filters. Dirty filters can increase your chances of mold growth. Keeping up with regular HVAC maintenance from a qualified professional will also prove helpful. Routine maintenance is a great way to not only prevent mold growth and spot a problem, but it will also ensure that your entire HVAC system is running efficiently and properly. Reach out to Monster Vac if you are in the Colorado area and would like assistance with maintenance or repairs of your HVAC unit. We have over 20 years of experience, and our knowledgeable staff is highly trained to deal with a variety of issues.