If you see wood damage around your home, you will probably assume you have termites, but it might be a carpenter ant infestation. Carpenter ants also lead to structural damage because they build nests in the wood of your home.
Carpenter Ants Damage Your Home, What You Need to Know
How Serious Is Carpenter Ant Damage?
Carpenter ant damage is not as severe as termite damage, but the ants can cause extensive damage over a period of several years. The colony may go undetected, and as it grows over time, the ants expand through your wood, leading to a potentially dangerous and costly situation.
Where You Can Find Carpenter Ants
The ants damage any wood in which they nest, but usually they nest in wet wood. Look for nests around windows, sinks and bath traps. The ants always have a point of entry into your home—through the foundation or a crack in the home. They can enter along electrical wires, telephone lines and water pipes. To find them, try to follow their trail into your home.
Once inside your home, they prefer to build nests in structural lumber areas like hollow walls or doors and around windows. If you see piles of wood shavings around your home, you very likely have an infestation. The ants create the shavings as they burrow into the wood to make nests. The shavings actually look like pencil shavings you’d see after sharpening a pencil. You also might hear them at work—a faint rustling sound inside the walls. Finally, if you see large ants with wings coming out of ceilings, walls or crevices, your home is almost certainly infested.
Carpenter ants can also build their nests outdoors in trees that have moist or rotting wood. If you see them outside, be particularly proactive about checking for carpenter ants inside.
Carpenter Ants Versus Termites
Many people mistake carpenter ants for a termite infestation. Carpenter ants have winged ants called swarmers that reproduce in warmer months, usually March to June. While termites actually eat the wood, the ants do not. Instead, they just damage the wood as they make their nests. The U.S. has 24 species of carpenter ant, and because the ants have wings, they are often mistaken for termites.
Carpenter ant nests are very difficult to find. They can go undetected in your home for years. A large colony can grow to 2,000 worker ants in a few years time. If you suspect an infestation, call a professional pest control company. When they're done, call us to repair carpenter ants damage.
If you have a home with a crawlspace and have ever taken the time to give it a look to see what it looks like you might be surprised at what you discover. The average home's crawlspace is simply dirt. These spaces are vulnerable to outside conditions like humidity, cold, and heat. In some cases, depending on how water flows on your property, you could even have water running through your crawlspace creating excess moisture and good conditions for mold to grow. A vapor barrier helps prevent this situation.
This Is Why You Need A Vapor Barrier in Your Crawlspace
What is a Vapor Barrier?
Vapor barriers are made up of materials that are designed to impede water vapor from migrating into your home's crawl space. A plastic material, or in some instances foil sheeting, is often the material of choice. Often there is a misconception that this stops air flow, but air barriers block the flow of air into your home, not vapor barriers.
Reasons to Consider Installing a Vapor Barrier
The following are only some of the top reasons you could consider installing a vapor barrier in your home.
Limit Moisture
If water can gain access into your home's crawlspace, it can create humid conditions that are prime for mold growth. Vapor barriers will help keep your crawl space dry.
Energy Savings
Many people are surprised to know that the climate of their crawl space has a direct effect on the amount of work your HVAC system needs to work to heat and cool your home. A vapor barrier reduces the humidity in your crawl space thus making it easier for your HVAC to do its job. This saves you in energy costs and extends the life of your HVAC system.
Extend your home's life
In addition to protection from the threat of mold, wood rot can be a very real concern if water or excessive humidity get in your crawl space. Rotten wood under your home can become a tremendous headache not to mention come at a tremendous cost to repair and replace. Vapor barriers protect your wood from rotting.
If you have any questions regarding vapor barriers and your crawlspaces, please feel free to contact us with any questions that you may have.
Maintaining humidity in your home is a careful balance. Low humidity can be uncomfortable, while too much humidity can lead to mold and result in damage to your home and a host of health problems for you and your family.
How to Maintain Safe Humidity to Reduce Mold in Your Home
Problems Caused by Humidity
High levels of moisture in the air cause a variety of problems in your home. Increased dampness can cause paint and wallpaper to bubble and peel. High humidity can create a hospitable environment for insects, like cockroaches and termites, as well as mold. When mold grows in a home it can result in unsightly staining on walls and other surfaces as well as health issues.
Health Concerns Over Mold
Mold is a fungus that thrives in damp conditions. Mold can cause health problems, like nasal congestion and a scratchy throat, as well as difficulty breathing. In some cases mold exposure can lead to respiratory infections and life-threatening conditions.
Causes of High Humidity
Certain rooms in a home, like bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms and basements, are prone to mold growth. Steamy showers, boiling water and unfinished concrete walls can contribute to high humidity. Newer energy-efficient homes create ideal conditions for mold growth. Homes which are sealed up to conserve energy and keep cooling or heating inside, also work to prevent excess moisture from escaping. This moisture buildup can lead to mold. Unheated and uncooled rooms easily grow mold as well.
How to Measure Humidity
When you see mold growing, it is evident you have a problem, but it also is possible for mold to grow and remain unseen. In this instance, you or your family may experience symptoms of mold exposure without realizing the cause. The ideal humidity level in your home should around 45 percent. You can determine the humidity using a hygrometer, which is a device that measures the amount of moisture in the air. Many hardware and home-good stores sell hygrometers. By identifying the amount of moisture in your home you can create a plan to adjust it accordingly.
How to Lower Humidity
One of the most effective ways to lower the humidity in your home is through exhaust fans. Placing exhaust fans in key areas, like bathrooms and above a range or cooktop in the kitchen can whisk excess moisture out of the home. In new homes automatic exhaust fans or ventilation systems can decrease humidity. In basements and other damp areas, a dehumidifier can bring the humidity levels down to a safe and comfortable level. When making renovations or building new construction, opt for mold-resistant drywall and paint in rooms that are likely to experience high levels of humidity.
Mold Remediation
Preventative measures can stop the problem before it sets in, but if your home already has mold it is pivotal to quickly and thoroughly remove the fungus to prevent further exposure. Learn how to undo mold damage in your home and keep your family safe.
When was the last time you visited your crawlspace? It probably was the last time that a major household malfunction forced you into action. Once you closed that trapdoor you were glad the event was over and hoped that you would never to have to venture down there again.
Be a brave soul and venture down there at least twice a year just to check for issues, such as leaks. Leaks begin exactly how they sound, a minor inconvenience. However, they can snowball into a major headache if left to their own devices.
Why You Should Determine if You Have A Crawlspace Leak Today
Crawlspace Leaks Bring Pests
The first headache of a leak in your crawlspace is the accumulation of water. Water will attract a number of pests such as bugs and rodents to take up residence under your home. In addition to the repair bill for the leak, toss in a few visits from pest control. Until that leak is fixed, your home will be also home to colonies of unwanted residents. The result being an indefinite infestation.
Crawlspace Mold Farm
Leaks will accelerate the growth of mold in your crawlspace as well. Warm, dark, and wet give mold all the nutrition it needs to grow. As the mold spreads like wildfire throughout the underside of your home, it’s odor and health-damaging spores will leech up into the living areas.
Smells
Mold has a distinctive and irritating smell that is not only detrimental to your enjoyment of your home but indicates the presence of potentially harmful mold spores.
Do you remember the pests? The smell of their droppings can enter the home too. Your home may be clean otherwise, but you will go crazy trying to figure out what that smell is.
Structural Damage from Crawlspace Leaks
The leaks may get into the wood of your flooring and damage the foundation of the home. The bill for pest control or mold cleanup is going to be chicken feed once you see the cost of having to deal with structural damage.
If you let a leak party in your crawlspace, you may end up with mold, pests, and structural damage. RCS offers water removal, mold remediation, and reconstruction services and can refer you to plumbers and pest control to address any and all of these needs.
Black mold, or any mold for that matter, is a scary thing to have to deal with. But the good news is that not all molds that are black in color are the infamous toxic black mold. There are literally a thousand different types of mold found in the United States, and many of them are black.
Molds are found both indoors and outdoors, but the molds found outdoors are an important part of nature’s process. Indoor mold serves no such positive function, as it breaks down the material it’s growing on, your home or business, and causes health issues ranging from allergic to potentially fatal in cause and severity. Knowing what kind of mold you have is important to help you have it addressed as quickly as possible. A less-serious allergy-causing mold can sometimes be cleaned by the property owner while a more serious one needs immediate, professional assistance.
How to Determine if it’s Toxic Black Mold
Where the Black Mold Grows
Any building can develop mold around leaky plumbing or in bathrooms and kitchens that are not perfectly ventilated and humidity controlled. Buildings with areas of humid air(are damp and of warmer temperatures), also tend to foster mold growth anywhere these conditions exist. Any place that has suffered water damage can also grow mold, such as from flooding, a plumbing leak, or a roof leak.
Look for mold in kitchens and bathrooms first, particularly dark corners, behind fixtures, and in cabinets. Then examine any place where there has been a leak or water damage and any place in the building that is humid. Often you can just follow the smell. Don't rule out an area of the building because it's not the most likely place. Any place can grow mold if moist and dark conditions are present.
Health Symptoms
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), exposure to areas with mold can cause mild to severe health conditions, depending on the type of mold and amount of it. Mold that is more difficult to find, like inside walls, can grow without being noticed to alarming amounts and cause various irritating and sometimes life-threatening symptoms.
Many molds cause allergic symptoms in certain individuals, such as sneezing, coughing, sore throat, etc. Neurological symptoms such as dizziness, depression, headaches, memory loss, and concentration problems are symptoms of toxic mold exposure.
Mold symptoms depend largely on the amount of mold you're being exposed to and how long you've been exposed to it. If you have unexplained neurological symptoms or they fluctuate depending on whether you are at the location or where you are in the building, leave if possible and seek immediate help as neurological symptoms indicate a serious level of toxic mold exposure. Don't necessarily assume that you don't have toxic mold because you don't have those symptoms yet.
How to Identify Toxic Black Mold
With so many types of molds in existence, and with many of them looking very similar, it may be difficult to properly identify what type of mold you have. Stachybotrys, or toxic black mold, is slimy when wet and powdery when dry and can be black or green in color. It prefers paper, wood, and similar cellulose materials. Since it requires constant moisture to grow, you'll usually find it in places with long term water damage or after a leak or flood that was not properly addressed.
What to Do if You Find Mold In Your Home
All molds need to be cleaned up right away. There is no acceptable amount of mold that can be present in a home and no type of mold that is not at least a threat to people with allergies or those with a weakened immune system.
Only attempt to clean up mold if you are 100% sure it's a non-toxic mold and it is in a location that is easy to thoroughly clean, i.e. there are no joints, cracks, and crevices that it could have traveled into.
Call a mold removal expert for large areas of mold growth, for situations when water damage is present and/or the mold may have grown into areas you can't reach, for any mold you are not 100% of it's toxicity, or if you just don't want to worry about what kind of mold it is or how to clean it.
RCS damage cleanup specialists will help you determine every location mold is present in your home or business, extract any water, repair water damage, remove all of the mold, and give you tips to prevent mold from recurring.
