Mold can exist in your living environment even when it isn’t visible to the naked eye. You don’t have to have wet, colorful patches of mold on your walls or windows to have a serious problem on your hands. This is also true of countless other airborne contaminants. If you’ve never had a home assessment performed in your Lake Zurich, IL, home, now is the time to schedule one. Read on to discover eight solid reasons why.
1. Home Assessments Help Protect the Value of Your Investment and Your Items
If your home assessment identifies mold, you’ll have the chance to correct the issue before it causes serious structural damage. Mold isn’t just an eyesore and a health concern. It’s also capable of undermining the integrity of numerous building features. Untreated mold can leave you with wood rot, flooring and sub-floors that need to be replaced, extensive drywall and paint damage, and more. When mold problems are severe, it’s often necessary for building residents to let go of many of their personal effects. Pervasive mold can ruin cherished artwork, valuable book collections, and even high-priced footwear and clothing.
2. Discover the Source of Your Respiratory Symptoms and Other Health Issues
Unchecked mold is easily one of the most dangerous problems that you can have in your home. If given the opportunity, mold spores can quickly spiral out of control. Moreover, once they enter the HVAC system, the moisture in this equipment will further support their development. Harmful spores will be constantly circulated and recirculated all throughout your living environment until effective mold treatment is rendered. Even when you cannot see mold in your home, it can still
cause:
- Frequent headaches
- Itchy, watery eyes
- Runny nose
- A persistent cough
- Sneezing
- General breathing troubles
Unchecked mold can be especially harmful for people with chronic, respiratory ailments such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and allergies among other things. Nothing that people do to treat these illnesses or limit their symptoms will work as long as the indoor air quality in your home is low, and the presence of mold spores is increasingly high.
Unchecked mold can also be responsible for recurring ear infections, sleep troubles, chronic fatigue, and lowered immune system functioning. Not taking care of mold in your home will result in far more than respiratory distress. Everyone’s life quality can down. Inflammatory skin issues like psoriasis and eczema can be exacerbated by pervasive mold. When mold problems are extreme, people can even develop mood balance issues and many other surprising and seemingly unrelated health problems. If anyone or everyone in your home has been struggling with persistent health issues that have proven difficult to treat, scheduling a home assessment could be the start to finding an effective solution.
3. Find Out Why You Have Mold and Resolve the Underlying Problem
Having a home assessment performed isn’t just about identifying the presence of mold or other indoor contaminants. These services also give professionals the opportunity to find out why mold is forming. In many instances, there are slow and hidden plumbing leaks that would otherwise go unnoticed. Not only are these leaks a catalyst for mold development, but they can also be responsible for considerable property damage. Wherever mold is identified, your service provider will take the time to look for its most likely source. This way, slow leaks, hidden leaks, and other moisture-related problems can be taken care of too. After all, it makes no sense to start mold remediation until the problem that has caused mold to form is dealt with and done.
4. Mold Is a Common Issue in Homes That Were Purchased as Pre-existing Construction
Existing Construction Brand new homes aren’t as likely to have mold problems as older ones are. Although your home may have undergone and passed a rigorous inspection before your transaction closed, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t fast-spreading issues hiding in crawlspaces, behind drywall, or at the back of appliances. Even when sellers are upfront about the histories of their homes, certain details that get left out can make all the difference. Simple events like overflowing washing machines and dishwashers, clogged toilets, or drain back-ups can leave moisture trapped in the sub-flooring, in tiny air pockets within building materials, and in other areas where it’s bound to cause problems. Remember, not all homeowners file claims, hire water damage remediation services, or enlist other forms of professional mold prevention when dealing with flood events. A single, self-managed flood event can leave a home mold-prone for quite some time to come. Scheduling a home assessment after buying pre-existing construction is a great way to start your time in your new living environment with an acceptably high indoor air quality.
5. Save Money by Identifying and Remediating Problems Early-On
Regular home assessments make it possible to catch problems with mold and other indoor air quality issues before they’ve spiraled out of control. This includes being able to treat mold before it affects the safety and viability of your home heating and cooling system. The sooner that mold and its underlying cause are identified, the less expensive the related treatments will invariably be.
6. Remain Compliant With The Requirements of Your Home Insurance Policy
Leaving widespread and progressive issues in your home untreated may be viewed as negligence by your home insurance company. When there are steps that homeowners can take to mitigate property damage, failing to take these steps can leave them without the protections that their insurance policies provide. Take a careful look at your home insurance policy. This agreement may require routine mold assessments as part of your ongoing preventative maintenance. Even if it does not, you’ll have a hard time convincing insurers to cover extensive property damages caused by mold if they’re the result of an issue that’s long been ignored and left unchecked. Add this to the fact that mold problems aren’t always easy to spot with the naked eye, and you’ll find that failing to schedule home assessments could easily leave you paying hefty remediation bills out of your own pocket.
7. Create a Cleaner, Fresher, and More Enjoyable Living Space Overall
Homes that have unchecked mold are rarely pleasant to be in. No matter how often they’re dusted, vacuumed, sprayed down, or otherwise cleaned, they always seem to have a rank, musty smell. These odors can be attributed to both mold itself and the underlying moisture problems that have caused it. If you’re always burning incense or scented candles, constantly spraying odor neutralizers, or regularly having to throw your windows and doors open wide, you’ve got a problem. A home assessment will tell you where the problem exists and why. Once mold has been identified and addressed, maintaining a fresh-smelling and ultimately enjoyable living environment will prove both cheaper and easier all-around.
8. Home Assessments Can Identify Other Airborne Toxins and Allergens
Regular home assessments are essential for identifying mold problems early-on. However, these evaluations can additionally identify other airborne allergens and contaminants. A comprehensive home assessment will let you know whether your living environment is rife with VOCs or other chemicals that have off-gassed from unsealed particle board, solvents, paints, and adhesives. These evaluations can let you know whether you’ve got airborne debris from hidden pests like termites, unsafe levels of bacteria or other harmful microorganisms, or major dust control problems. They give homeowners timely and accurate information that informs their indoor air quality control plans.
At Pur360, we’ve been providing thorough and highly informative home assessments to residents of the greater Lake Zurich, Illinois, area for many years. We also offer mold remediation, odor removal, and ultraviolet sanitization. Call us today to schedule home assessment service so that you can take control of your indoor air quality and health.
