Do Dehumidifiers Help with Mold Prevention?

Mold can grow in a home due to a variety of factors. From leaking pipes to flooding basements to humid air, mold growth can become a threat to your home’s indoor air quality. Because we know the relationship between humidity and mold growth, many people look into dehumidifiers preventing mold.

Read on to find out about dehumidifiers and mold prevention.

Dehumidifier basics

These devices are useful for sucking the moisture out of the air. Many homeowners use them in rooms that are damp where the humidity levels are over 60 percent. When humidity levels exceed this number, it’s time to do something about it.

It’s common for homeowners to run dehumidifiers in particularly damp parts of the home such as the basement. The dehumidifier takes the moisture from the air and keeps it in a storage tank, which will need to be emptied regularly.

So dehumidifiers help with mold prevention by eliminating moisture in the air, but they don’t help with an existing mold problem. If there’s already mold growth in your home, it’s going to continue to grow without proper remediation. In the long run, a dehumidifier is a smart addition to prevent mold from returning.

Benefits of using dehumidifiers

A dehumidifier is an excellent choice to control the amount of humidity in the home. This will prevent the damp, muggy conditions in which mold thrives. Once it begins to grow, it harms indoor air quality, exacerbating existing health conditions like asthma, and can even damage the home’s structure when it gets into the home’s walls and ceiling. A dehumidifier will also help with eliminating musty odors and certain pollutants.

Choosing a dehumidifier

Which dehumidifier you choose is dependent on your budget and the space in which you’re looking to use it. A larger room is going to need a larger dehumidifier to suck out all the moisture in the air; a smaller area, such as a bathroom, will likely only require a small dehumidifier. If you believe your mold problem is localized, you may only need one of the smaller devices.

Using a hygrometer

If you’re wondering how exactly you know whether your home’s air is humid or not, a hygrometer can help. You can purchase one of these at a local hardware store and find out the relative humidity levels in your home quickly and easily. This way you’ll know where your dehumidifier is most effective.

For homeowners dealing with potential mold issues, it’s best to bring in a professional. They can do the inspecting and testing necessary to understand the nature and scale of the mold problem. Only a licensed professional should handle mold inspections.

Are you looking for the leader in mold testing and remediation? Then turn to HealthSafe Inspections, Inc. With more than 25 years of experience, we’ve seen it all and have helped a wide range of customers eliminate mold from their homes and businesses. Give us a call right now to find out more about our services and request a free quote.

Categorised in: Mold

This post was written by Writer