Mold and mildew are really spores of two types of fungi, and people often use the terms interchangeably depending on where the fungus grows and its color. Mildew is like mold, but can thrive on almost anything damp, including walls, floors, paper, clothing, and especially shower walls. It does not have to be organic in nature, and generally has a flat growth habit and is not fuzzy and green. The primary energy source of mold is organic matter. By decomposing organic matter, molds play a big part in material degradation, which causes decay and rot.   Although molds grow on organic matter everywhere in nature, their presence is only visible to the naked eye where conditions allow mold colonies to grow. In human residences, humidity and temperature (especially in basements) are often stable enough to promote the growth of mold colonies, commonly seen as a furry coating.   Though they both sprout from spores and in places that are warm and moist, they are really different kinds of fungi. Their colors also vary. Mold takes the color of green, blue, red or black while mildew is white or gray. Because they are both moisture-loving fungi, they can both can occur in the same location if the conditions are right.   Questions? Please call us anytime at 603-669-7733 or 603-432-3221 or you can always use our Ask an Expert feature on this site if it's not an emergency.

Regularly Clean Your Ducts

If you have an HVAC system in your home or office, consider having Servpro come once a year to regularly keep your ductwork clean and free of loose debris and allergy causing allergens. Molds inside living spaces are believed to be the leading cause of many illnesses. In past years, structures that were so airtight with an inefficient and soiled HVAC system came to be known as sick buildings. We can professionally service the entire system and recommend active filters to install in your air handling system that will be more effective at trapping allergens in the air you breathe. Fresh and clean... that's the Servpro difference!

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Ask our experts your questions! Topics like cleaning and restoration, mold problems, fire, soot damage, or anything related to cleaning.

The Importance of Mold Mitigation and Remediation

Any excessive amount of mold and certain types of mold may present serious health concerns. Any water damage (and especially sewer backups or any Category 3 Black Water) can begin mold germination and colonization in your home or business in as little as twelve hours. Common signs of excessive mold include the visible presence of mold (green or white or black), and noticeable musty odors. Any history of moisture problems that might have caused undetected mold growth should be considered as a real threatening catalyst for a present mold problem if water damaged. It's like throwing gasoline on fire. Any time there is excessive humidity in any enclosed environment, harmful molds can germinate and colonize and produce adverse effects like mycotoxins. These give rise to human health concerns like nausea, dizziness, sore throat, asthma, severe sickness, or even worse. Like other biohazards, people most at risk are children, the elderly, pregnant women, people with respiratory illnesses like allergies, or those with any other immunodeficiency.

An Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) specialist like Servpro of Manchester Derry Londonderry needs to conduct a proper environmental air quality analysis to determine risk factors and locate hotspots of contamination. Property owners and insurance companies rely on us to perform these evaluations to minimize possible damage now and in the future on insurance claims and other property management issues.

General Rule of Thumb: if you can smell it, it's actively growing

The offensive odor from mold is a result of MVOC's. MVOC's are Microbial Volatile Organic Compounds and are the resulting waste products from the chemical changes occurring during the mold's life cycle. It is a definite sign that microorganisms ARE actively growing - and if left unattended - will cause evident problems. Although MVOC's and the production of mycotoxins (and mold or fungi themselves) are a real concern to human health, this does not mean there is an immediate threat to human life right them and there. But the EPA does caution that although certain low levels are not inherently threatening and that the presence of molds and fungi do not mean mycotoxins are there automatically, that suitable action must be taken to mitigate further growth and colonization. Servpro of Manchester Derry Londonderry can evaluate the condition for you and suggest remediation steps to mitigate the growth of molds and mycotoxins and eliminate MVOC's. This may be as simple as providing fresh air to the environment, providing negative and positive pressure from high volume airmovers, and applying an EPA registered sanitizing agent after light cleaning.

Servpro of Manchester Derry Londonderry Basic Mold Mitigation and Remediation Procedures Very often Water Damage Restoration and Mold Mitigation and Remediation go hand in hand. For that reason, many of our testing, inspection, and cleaning procedures are very similar. This is exactly why Servpro is your best choice: we do it all. How? Like it never even happened.

1. Identify the Source and Perform Testing Using infrared thermal imaging, moisture detection instruments, and checking the relative humidity in an environment help us to establish if there is harmful moisture present in building materials and in the air which can be causing the growth of mold and fungi. 2. Remove Visible Mold Contamination For crawl spaces and difficult to reach areas or attics, we can use environmentally friendly Soda Blasting or sand blasting to clean off offending spore colonization. For other surfaces, hand washing with an EPA registered sanitizing cleaning agent will render the surface clean and healthy. Any fabrics are cleaned just like our other methods, often with the addition of a sanitizing agent afterward. Very often we also employ the use of our Ultra Low Volume (ULV) Wet Fogger which effectively "washes the air" with a sanitizer. It has an adjustable output from 0 to 18 ounces of product per minute and can produce sanitizing particles down to 20 microns. That's really small! 3. Clean HVAC Ductwork Often the biggest culprit in poor Indoor Air Quality, heating and ventilation ductwork can harbor not only irritating dust particles and other health hazardous pathogens, but years of neglect and buildup of small debris. Using high volumes of air, rotating brushes of different size, spinning cleaning whips, and impressive vacuum and HEPA filtration, we can give your HVAC system a clean bill of health when we are through.

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Ozone-generating equipment: combating odor just like nature does!

Just like the really fresh air after an electrical storm, when all smells really clean, Servpro's ozone generating equipment produces ozone just like nature does. If you think fresh air does wonders for an odor, now imagine it supercharged. That's exactly what ozone is. It makes oxygen "more like oxygen." Electrically, it changes the oxygen molecule O2 into a more pure form called O3. Electrically splitting the molecule, it creates a third atom which makes an ozone molecule. This is just what happens with lightening during a thunderstorm. We make ozone chambers and erect temporary environments where the ozone can do its thing. It is particularly effective at killing pathogens, and works wonders on porous materials that have been damaged with an offensive odor, like clothing or books.