|
The Outer Banks is a beautiful but harsh and unforgiving environment. It’s at times a slice of paradise where the union of sea, sand and weather create a tonic for frayed nerves and a harried life. But on days when the wind howls and squall lines roll in with the rising tides, another side of the Outer Banks is revealed, a place where the forces of nature can redraw maps, push a house into the sound and dock boats on dry land.
Yet, not every danger that our weather creates is immediately apparent. Some of the weather-related hazards, like insidious and ever-present mold and mildew, have the potential to be just as destructive as any hurricane or nor’easter. That black mildew stain that suddenly seems to spring to life in the bathroom, or that musty odor that just doesn’t seem to go away in the garage, is just as much a fact of our environment as wind and storms.
Joel Justice, president of WoodSavers, is the only Level II mold remediation supervisor on the Outer Banks. He has been licensed by a number of professional organizations and is considered an expert in his field. According to Justice, the federal government considers the Outer Banks the worst of the worst when evaluating how conducive to mold and fungi this environment is.
“We’re in a zone three marine environment,” Justice explains. “According to the United States government, the weathering that occurs here is the most corrosive natural environment on earth. If you have a 20-year-old wooden house, your exterior is like that of a 60-year-old home.”
The wind-driven rain and bright sunshine that are so much a part of life here, create miniature openings in structures that enable mold spores to get into the interior of homes. Most of those cracks are too small to see, but mold spores are microscopic in size and what is invisible to us is a cavernous opening to wind-driven spores.
It is not just the wind, rain and summer sunshine that create a petri dish for mold. Justice points out that the Outer Banks is just far enough north to be in a temperate zone, and those freezing nights, few though they may be, create more opportunities for mold to enter a home. “Cold causes cracks and fissuring in the outside walls and then water can get into the house and create a moldy house,” says Justice.
Mold or mildew – the words can be used interchangeably – are members of the fungi family, although what we often consider mold or mildew may sometimes be a yeast, bacteria or almost any agent of decay.
Unlike all other plants, members of the fungi family do not need sunlight to live. The plant itself is a very simple organism that feeds off anything organic – wood, clothing or food, for example. The plants reproduce by releasing spores into the air, and those spores have an extraordinary ability to survive. “Mold spores can be viable for hundreds of years,” Justice says.
Mold spores are microscopic, so small, in fact, that only very specialized filtration systems can filter them out. And they are absolutely ubiquitous – as much a part of our lives as the air we breathe or the water we drink.
In nature, they are a fundamental and important part of the decay process that returns a fallen tree to the soil. The organism, however, is indiscriminate in what it feeds on, and will as willingly break down the fibers of a dead tree as it will feast upon the walls of a house.
According to Justice, there is an almost infinite number of mold
species. “There are over one and a half million varieties of mold, mildew and fungus, that we know of,” he says. “They’re all the same family. We’ve only studied and catalogued 50,000 of them, meaning the vast majority of them we know nothing about.”
Almost all molds are benign to the human organism, meaning our bodies do not react with them at all; some are edible and quite tasty – think blue cheese and the “noble rot” (Botrytis cinerea) that has given the world the classic French Sauternes. And some, although very few, produce toxins that will sicken even the healthiest person.
The life cycle of a mold begins when humidity levels reach 60 percent. “The second you hit 60 percent relative humidity, mold growth begins,” Justice says. “All those spores are just waiting for the right conditions to grow.”
Not all molds grow at that level of moisture, but as the moisture of the environment rises, more and more varieties of mold spores become viable. As moretypes of spores spring to life, the fight for survival becomes a Darwinian struggle. “They produce these toxins to fend off the attack of other molds and mildews that would take over their territory,” Justice says. “The mold with the biggest, baddest poison will take over.”
Spores live in a colony, and after three days the competition for the colony is under way. “In five to seven days, all the really scary stuff starts coming out,” Justice says. “That’s when we put on the moon suits. You cannot spread that mold. The poisons (mycotoxins) can affect you for life.”
In a zone three environment as unforgiving as the Outer Banks, homes will be invaded by mold. Justice points out that we are actually living in conditions that are everything a mold spore could want for survival.
“Only about two per cent of zone three environments are far enough north to be in a freeze-frost cycle,” Justice says. “You add that to a zone three environment and it makes it the worst of the worst.”
There are a number of preventative measures that can be taken. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “Moisture control is the key to mold control.” Keeping the interior of a home dry with a dehumidifier and air conditioning will help. Running the bathroom fan or opening the window when taking a shower will also help. When you come back from the beach, hang your wet bathing suit outside to dry.
Ultimately, however, there is only so much you can do on your own, and the sooner an expert is called the better. What might start as something as simple as throwing out some old cushions or furniture in the recreation room can quickly escalate into a six-figure repair that includes gutting the walls and pulling out the old insulation.
If you suspect or know that you have a mold or mildew problem, especially if any portion of your home has flooded, call an expert to begin mold or mildew abatement. There are a variety of steps that can be taken to solve moldand mildew problems both inside and outside the home.
|
