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Tag Archives: Water Leak

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How Professionals Remove Mold

Many homes will encounter mold problems at some point, especially if they are older or have experienced flooding. While you can remove small mold portions, most of the time you need to use professional services to ensure it’s fully eradicated. Below you’ll discover more about what causes mold to develop and how experts can remove it.

What Causes Mold Growth in the Home?

There are numerous things that cause mold to grow in one’s home. The most common include:

  • High humidity
  • Water leaks
  • Lack of sunlight
  • Excessive mold spores

How Do I Know if I Have Mold?

Mold comes with many side effects. For instance, if you find yourself constantly coughing or sneezing, it could be because of mold spores. Other common signs your home might have a mold problem include musty odors, black patches on walls, and water leaks.

Can I Remove Mold Myself?

If you have a small section that has a few mold splotches, you probably can remove that area yourself. However, if you have a vast area that has mold quickly spreading on it, you’ll more than likely need a professional to properly remove it.

How Professional Remove Mold in Your Living Space

They Inspect the Area: The first step they will do is inspect the area. This will help them to understand the scope of the problem and identify the type of mold they need to remove.
They Quickly Contain the Mold and Install Air Filtration: After inspection, expert mold removers will quickly contain the fungus. They will usually do this by closing off the area to prevent further spread of the mold spores. Once they do so, air filtration will be installed to help quickly remove humidity and improve air flow.

Scrape Away the Mold and Clean the Space: The last step is to remove the mold. Professionals will usually have large bags where they will put the mold they scrape off into. These bags are designed to contain the mold and prevent the spores from spreading through your house.

Once the mold has been fully removed, they will then clean the space. Special solutions will be sprayed on the area to help kill any invisible spores and to prevent future growth. Depending on the situation, a follow up mold test may occur.

Mold is a serious problem that can result in significant health issues and structural damage. If you’re concerned that your dwelling space might have it, RCS can help. We offer mold removal and remediation services that ensure your home is completely free from this fungus.

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How to Prevent Water Damage in the Home

One of the worst things a homeowner can experience is water damage. Not only does this destroy appliances, but it can ruin a home’s foundation and cause the spread of dangerous mold. If not fixed immediately, water damage can cost you thousands. This article will explore what causes water damage and some ways you can prevent it.

What Causes Water Damage?

A handful of things can cause water damage. This includes:

  • Leaking pipes
  • Malfunctioning appliances
  • Water buildups in basements or crawl spaces
  • Dripping HVACs
  • Natural disasters

3 Ways to Prevent Water Damage

Monitor Your Home Appliances

One way to prevent water damage is to monitor your home appliances. Devices like washing machines, dishwashers, and toilets use numerous gallons of water each day. Sometimes small portions of water can escape through their caulking or pipes. By regularly monitoring your home appliances, you’ll be able to catch any issues before they become major problems.
If you suspect there might be a leak, you can try a water meter test. To do this, check your current water meter reading. Then, stop using water for one hour. Once this time has passed, check the meter again. If the number has risen, this is a sign that there’s a water leak somewhere.

Redirect Downspouts

Another way to prevent water damage is to redirect your gutter’s downspouts. While downspouts are designed to carry water away from your home, if it isn’t properly placed it will send puddles of water around your home’s foundation or near a window. This can cause water to seep through tiny cracks and spread.

You’ll want to make sure to install your downspout away from your home so that the water flows at least four-feet from it. You might also consider connecting it to an underground pipe or storm sewer system so the water is sent well away from your home.

Watch What You Put Down Drains

What you flush down your drains can play a big part in whether or not your home might face future water damage. For instance, thick substances, like oil and grease, can clog pipes. If these substances aren’t removed, they can end up overwhelming the pipes causing them to crack. Eventually, this could lead to major water damage that could spread throughout your home’s interior.

Water damage can be a huge headache for homeowners. Not only does it spread quickly, but it can be very expensive to fix. RCS in Santa Rosa, CA can help you with fixing any water damage your home might have as well as do periodic checks to make sure that there aren’t any hidden leaks.

Why You Should Determine if You Have A Crawlspace Leak Today

Why You Should Determine if You Have A Crawlspace Leak Today

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.

How to Grow Mold in Your Home

How to Grow Mold in Your Home: Avoid These Situations

Mold is an organism that is capable of growing indoors as well as outdoors. It is part of our environment, everywhere and anywhere we happen to go. For mold to grow, it requires a porous material for food, oxygen, moisture, warmth, darkness, and time for it to be left alone.

Mold found in indoor environments, however, is not a serious issue until the home is humid or has a lot of moisture. When mold starts to appear in a certain place, it will start growing and feeding on porous materials in the home, such as wood, drywall, carpets, and padding. Once it grows, mold becomes damaging to the home’s structure and dangerous to live with.

How to Grow Mold in Your Home: Avoid These Situations

Here are some of the most common reasons mold appears in the home, even though you may think your living situation is adequate.

Leaky Pipes

You might have a water problem in your drywall. When there is water dripping somewhere inside your wall, it creates an enclosed dark, porous environment with lots of moisture for mold to grow in. Water leaks can either be major or minor, and you won’t be able to hear water running in most instances, so it often takes a while to notice your wall growing mold. In such a situation, people generally discover the mold because they smell it.

Leaky Roofs

If you notice mold growing from the ceiling of your home, you might have a leak in your roof. When it rains, and your roof has a weak point, the water will get inside your home and into your attic or insulation. Over time, this area will become humid and an excellent spot for mold to grow. To prevent mold from growing on your ceiling, have regular maintenance done on your roof and, if damaged, be sure that your roof is repaired right away.

Wet Clothing

If you leave clothes wet for a long period of time without drying them, you can grow mold on not only the clothes, but other materials it touches. If damp or wet clothes are cast aside and left unwashed, you will notice that mold will start to appear. To keep this from happening with your clothes, do not let dirty clothes pile up for long lengths of time and make sure to dry clothes quickly after washing.

Lack of Ventilation

A home with poor ventilation collects the moist air that mold thrives in. As water evaporates, it must exit your home through an open window, door, or vent to outside to maintain a certain level of humidity in the home. Open your windows on a regular basis.

3 Signs Your Water Heater Needs Repair

3 Signs Your Water Heater Needs Repair

Your water heater, while you may not interact with it directly, is an appliance that your entire family uses every day. It is responsible for making water in your home warmer whenever you want it to be, from taking a shower to washing your dishes. The threat of losing your hot water is bad enough, but you also want to avoid the costly and hazardous structural damage caused by a leaky water heater. Below are the main signs of a water heater malfunction so you can get it addressed sooner rather than later.

3 Signs Your Water Heater Needs Repair

Your water is cold.

If cold water is coming from your faucets and sinks all the time, it is because your water heater has little to no more heat left. Sedimentation is a common cause of this, and it is the accumulation of sediment at the base of the heater’s tank. Faulty heating elements also cause this. We use the hot water in our homes often enough that we usually notice when the temperature drops even a little. Unless someone in the home is using more hot water than normal and draining the tank, a temperature drop is a sign that something needs to be repaired.

You hear a weird noise in its vicinity

If your heater is making popping, clunking, or rumbling noises, this is a sign that the water in your heater is boiling or overheating. The noise is primarily coming from water that is trapped under the sediment, similar to how boiled water in a pot will push up a lid that tried to keep it contained. With this in mind, it is possible for your heater to burst as a result of overheating. Again, contact a repair service right away.

There is a puddle or wet material in the water heater’s vicinity

If you notice warer near or underneath your water heater, find out where this water is coming from, fast. This could be caused by one of multiple different things from a leaky gasket to a leaky pipe to a loose fitting. Make sure that your connections are all secure and tight, with no holes or leaks anywhere. If you see a hole or notice something you cannot fix right away, shut off the water and have a repairman solve this problem.

It is also possible for the temperature pressure valve to leak water. If you see puddles forming around this valve, examine it to make sure that it is closing properly. In some cases, this valve will turn out to be defective, and will have to be replaced. A faulty temperature pressure valve needs to be replaced as soon as possible, as it can lead to very serious consequences such an explosion from your heater’s tank.

If you see rusty looking water near the base of your water heater, the base is leaking and rusting out. This is a sign to get a new heater when this happens.

After a leak, seek water extraction services to ensure the area is free of water damage and the opportunity for mold growth.

Regular Examinations

Be sure that you are following a scheduled examination of your water heater from qualified professionals, as it is the most effective way to identify, solve, and prevent these problems in the future. It is also necessary to drain your heater at least once a year to fully clean it of sediment.

 

How Insects Could Signal A Leak

How Insects Could Signal A Leak

When it comes to some insects in your home, you will find that they are a direct result of moisture in your home as well as the mildews and fungi in your home. If you happen to see a lot of insects in your house, then it might be an indication that there is a water leak or some other form of moisture problem inside of your home. Some insects are feeders on mold and mildew, and they typically will require the humid conditions that mildew usually prefer.

If you want to find one of the best ways to look for a leak in your home, you really should keep an eye out to look for insects that might be in your home. If they happen to be the type of insects that gravitate towards water or mildew and mold, then it’s time for you to consider the fact that you might have a problem.

The following are some of the top insects that might spell leak:

The main one is the foreign grain beetle that comes along with a couple other tiny beetles that like to feed mainly on mildew and fungal spores that might occur when you have a leak in your house. Typically, you will find that it is common in new homes because there is mildew on some lumber that has absorbed water and provides a great food source for the insects, resulting in the infestation.

Additionally, there are some other insects that might cause some problems in your house and could indicate a leak such as the merchant and sawtoothed grain beetles and psocids.

Roaches and water bugs also gravitate toward water, so a sudden infestation of those may indicate a leak also.

If you’re wondering how to deal with a problem when it comes to an infestation with these bugs, then you will find that there are some helpful tips you can follow. For starters, ensure that you increase your home or building's ventilation, take measures to reduce the moisture, and have good sanitation at all times. Additionally, you need to understand that weeks and weeks of drying out may be necessary to help stop the infestation so don’t think you will see immediate results when you stop the problem.

As always, if you have excess moisture or a leak and you don’t take care of it, then the problem is just going to persist. Before you try and take care of the infestation, make sure you take care of the leak that led to the infestation, otherwise you will have the same problem in just a few weeks or it might not ever go away.