Does Mold Always Come Back? - Home Tour Series

If you’ve had mold in your home and got rid of it, you might be worried about it coming back. The thing is, dealing with mold is not always straightforward. In this post, we’ll explore the factors that affect whether mold returns or not, aiming to answer the question: Does mold always come back?

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Will Mold Come Back After Cleaning?

Unfortunately, mold is very persistent, and it can come back if you are providing it with the right environment for it to do so. So, even if you have spent lots of time cleaning and removing it, the mold can come back quite quickly.

Thankfully, there are some things that you can do to stop the mold from coming back again, and it is really important that you do so if you want to eliminate the issue. The main solution is to go through a professional mold remediation process in order to remove the mold. If you don’t do this, you will keep having to clean and remove the mold time and time again.

Understanding Mold Spores

The most ideal conditions for mold growth are those that are moist, and this is the leading cause of mold in most homes. This will explain why you most commonly find mold in damp and moist areas, like bathrooms and kitchens. In these places, Mold Spores are activated and therefore can spread throughout. There are some mold produces spores that can remain dormant for up to hundreds of years in certain types and in the right conditions. This is why it is so important to eliminate humidity if you have a bad mold issue. If you do not want the mold to grow back, you will need to eliminate the mold spores.

Why Does Mold Come Back When You Clean It?

Here are some of the reasons why mold keeps on coming back after you clean it:

Using Bleaching Products

Using bleaching products doesn’t exactly fully eliminate mold. Most of the time the bleach just masks out the mold therefore leaving you to think that you’ve already eliminated it through bleach. Because of this, the bleack makes it impossible to tell if the issue has really been dealt with in its entirety.

Using Mold-Resistant Paint Straight on Mold

If you have mold on your walls, and you go straight in with a mold-resistant paint, you probably aren’t going to get rid of the mold completely, and it is likely to come back. Mold spores that are present under the paint will keep growing, and eventually break through the surface. For this to work properly, you will need to clean the mold and first or completely take off the wall and replace it with then use a mold-killing primer before you go in with the paint.

Poor Ventilation and Moisture

As you might already know, mold will thrive in areas with high moisture and poor ventilation. If these conditions are still present in your home, then you are providing the ideal environment for mold to grow. In these circumstances, the mold will keep coming back until you tackle the problem. All sources of moisture and condensation will need to be eliminated or properly ventilated before you can eradicate the mold entirely.

How to Stop Mold From Coming Back

To stop mold from coming back, you will need to find out what is causing the mold to grow, eliminate any moisture or damp items, and do your best to control the levels of humidity inside your home.

Source of the Mold

The first thing that you will need to find out is where the mold is coming from. Some of the common sources of mold are leaky plumbing or cold pipes that create high levels of condensation.

However, it could also be poor ventilation that isn’t allowing the moisture to escape from your home. Identifying the problem is the first step to solving it, and ensuring that the mold does not grow back.

Replace Wet Items

If you have any items or flooring in your home that have been affected by mold due to things like stagnant water, you will need to replace them as soon as you can.

The mold will only keep coming back due to how difficult it is to completely rid the item of all mold spores. So, if you have a carpet that has at any point been affected by mold, it is time to say goodbye.