Mold has bothered our life for a long term, once it gets in the room, it will potentially affect our health. And it will make our home smell bad, following this article, I will show you what are the symptoms of mold exposure, how to get rid of mold spores in the air naturally, how to stop clothes smelling musty in wardrobe, and how to remove musty smell from a house.
What Does Mold Smell Like In House?
Typically, mold smells can be humid, sour, bitter, and fusty. While some species emit natural scents, others can have a sweet, fermenting, or alcohol-type aroma.
Even within the same species, odors can differ depending on their life cycle. Reproduction, growth, or even digestion can produce various malodorous aromas.
Simply put, if your garbage is out, mold should be considered an option when a lingering foul smell sticks around. Let's just hope it doesn't become a smell you get used to.
What Causes Mold or Black Mold to Grow On Wall?
- The formation of mold must have the following four factors:
- temperature (5°C-35°C), ideal temperature (20°C-30°C)
- relative humidity (45%-85%) and humidity meter value (10- 15)
- Nutritional substances (such as putty, white paint, and latex paint) and other decoration materials contain a large number of fungal business substances.
- Mold spores, the seeds of mold, are floating in the air.
- The formation process of mold: the mold spores floating in the air fall on the surface of the wall, absorb water and nutrients, and grow and multiply when they meet a suitable temperature.
- The phenomenon of mold formation In the early stage of reproduction, mildew spots will appear on the surface of the wall, and mildew spots will gradually form, and a large area of mold will form in the later stage.
What's the Effect of Mold and What are the Symptoms of Mold Sickness?
- Long-term contact and inhalation of mold can cause respiratory diseases and allergic symptoms, such as bronchitis, tonsillitis, hay fever, asthma, etc.;
- People with low immunity may cause headaches, fever, skin or mucous membrane inflammation, poisoning, or produce carcinogens;
- Cause fungal pneumonia and other diseases;
- Cause other allergic diseases.
According to the National Institute of Health and Medicine: Researchers studied 1,100 adult asthmatics and found that patients with mold allergies were five times more likely to be allergic to mold than those who were allergic to other substances. The mold that causes moldy phenomenon not only releases allergens and causes allergies, but also hides a large amount of hepatitis virus and influenza virus in the mold, which poses a great threat to health.
Indicator to Tell You Need a Mold Removal
- Towels and bath towels become sticky: there is a slightlyrancid smell. On a humid and hot rainy day, a towel that is not thoroughly washed and dried will often have invisible mildew within 3 to 4 hours.
- Is there a musty smell in the air: If you can smell a special musty smell, it means that there are mold spores floating in the air.
- Grease or fried food has a foul smell: The oily or fried food in the home will become darker and have a foul smell after short-term storage, which means that there are more molds in the air.
- Small black or yellowish-brown dots appear on the wall: At this time, it means that the mold spores in the air have found a suitable "blessed place" for growth.
- Unexplained sneezing, nasal congestion, watery eyes,and other allergic symptoms.
How to Get Rid of Mold Smell in House or Basement?
The musty smell must be removed in time, because it means that there is a smell of mold growing in the room, and mold spores will float in the air., and it always exists in a basement. It is not good for people to live in a room with mold for a long time. A colleague of my company recommended me use OPD deodorizing disinfectant, saying that it can remove mold, and it can also atomize and disinfect the air. I bought a humidifier and also an air purifier, to disinfect the walls and air of the room, and made a comparison.
There will be no more musty smell in the room under either machine's work. While for the humidifier, moisture gets removed. Moisture in the air not just gives mold good living condition, but also create a moist environment that we need. So I don't recommend your humidifier, but a MSPure air purifier for mold. It can keep our breathing air fresh by killing mold.
How to Get Rid of Mold Smell in Clothes?
It is best to use vacuum bags for clothes that are not often worn, and wrap them in vacuum bags. Dry it before wearing it when the season changes. There will be no musty smell when you wear it. You might find clothes smell musty after washing, the second is to put the wardrobe in one place to ventilate the thick coat or quilt first, and dry it regularly to prevent a musty smell.
How to stop clothes smelling musty in wardrobe? Use scented flowers and plants to make sachets and hang them in the cabinet, which can also remove the musty smell. Cut lemon peel or orange peel into shreds and dry it to make a sachet, and hang it in the wardrobe to remove the musty smell. The simple way is to use newly bought soap, tear the package open, and put it in the clothes in the closet, which is also one of the effective ways to get rid of the musty smell.
How to Remove Musty Smell from Wood Furniture?
Closet smells musty? Mold is a fungus that can easily cause infection through the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract. Normal people's bodies can completely resist, mainly the elderly and children have poor resistance and are prone to infection. The smell of mold in the home is only a little less in the case of ventilation. In fact, the mold spores are still there. It is recommended to do home disinfection. For places prone to mold such as wardrobes, wipe them with light salt water.
Wooden furniture:
- If the mildew is only on the surface of the furniture, you can first use a clean soft cloth to dip a little furniture-specific cleaner to remove it, then apply a layer of furniture wax or furniture essential oil on the moldy part, and then wipe it with a towel.
- If the mold has grown into the bamboo and wood fiber, we need to use the furniture mold remover at this time. Use the furniture mold remover to spray the moldy furniture surface until it is wet, and then use a clean rag Apply it evenly, and then wait for it to dry naturally. The drying process is the process of furniture mildew remover decomposing mold spots. If the furniture is too moldy, wait for it to dry to see if it is completely clean. If there are still some mildew spots, theycan be treated again according to the previous method, and finally sprayed with an anti-fungal agent.
If you think there is still a musty smell, you can put soap on the musty place or hang a gauze bag filled with dried tea leaves, which can effectively remove the musty smell.
What About Other Types of Furniture?
Fabric furniture:
- Remove the coat of the fabric furniture and expose it to the sun, then use a brush to clean the mildew on the fabric coat, and then wipe these places with alcohol or scrub with mung bean sprouts.
- Wipe the moldy place with 5% ammonia water or turpentine, and then wash it with water.
- Wash with citric acid and rinse with cold water.
Iron furniture:
For mold spots on wrought iron furniture, it is necessary to repair them in time, remove the mold spots and then spray paint to isolate the air and prevent rusting again.
The above are several moldy treatment methods for furniture made of different materials. Moldy furniture not only affects the use of furniture, but the musty smell of furniture will pollute the air environment at home, causing harm to the health of family members. Therefore, once you find moldy furniture at home, you must deal with it in time.
How to Prevent Mold?
How much is it to remove mold from a house? Don’t waste your money, all you need to spend on is just a small air purifier. An air purifier for mold can efficiently solve the mold problem, it can directly cut off the source of mold which might spread in your room. Air purifiers have obvious effects in removing mold, with the help of HEPA air filters, they can trap pollutants at 3 microns, prevent the pollution of germs, and improve the air quality in the room very well.
Why is an Air Purifier Better Than Humidifier in Mold Removal?
The working principles of both machines for mold removal are different. A humidifier, it kills mold by adjusting the air condition to kill the mold, which is reducing the moisture in the air. And through that, the air will be unfriendly to your skin and breath system, you might get irritated eyes, asthma, bronchitis, and other respiratory ailments.
While totally different than a humidifier, an air purifier for mold kills the mold in the air by trapping them in its HEPA filter. The airborne way gets cut, and you are out of mold problem bothering. What's more, with the core HEPA filter, can help you remove some other air pollutants among 3 microns, which means if there's an asthma patient at your home, you should buy one air purifier as soon as possible.
