RV Tips for Keeping Your RV Mold and Mildew Free

For RV'ers, nothing is more enchanting than a long road trip with many sights to see along the way. However, nothing can be more frustrating than having problems with your vehicle while on the road trying to have fun. Especially if those problems involve water leaking into your RV while you are out touring a rainy region or flooding from a leaky toilet or sink. Although mold can form while you out on the road, most mold and mildew formation occurs during those months when it is in storage. Under a tarp or stored in a warm, humid storage facility, your RV could become an incubator for mold and mildew. Once you've got it, it can be tricky to learn how to clean up mold properly - the best method is prevention. To follow are 3 tips for preventing mold and mildew from forming in your RV.

Check Your Plumbing and Ventilation

Every time you leave for one of your RV adventures, check or hire someone to check your toilet valves, lines, and your RV toilet stop to ensure it is all working correctly. Make sure your bathroom is vented properly because poor ventilation in small spaces with ample water is a perfect place for mold to grow. Don't forget to have someone look at the plumbing under your sinks and your waiste disposal system. The last thing you need is a leaky toilet or sink supply line soaking your carpet while you're blissfully charging down the road to that next destination.

Keep Tabs on Your Roof and Ceiling

Make sure your roof is water tight by inspecting the caulking, moulding and seams. Examine your roof carefully at least twice a year for exposed fasteners, cracked seams, UV deterioration, mold and mildew, water spots on the ceiling. One clear indicator for RV roof deterioration is a chalky white substance left in your driveway when you wash your RV. If you are a "do-it-yourself-er" (DIY-er), you could start by spraying water and trying to determine the source of the leak, replacing leaky roof vents, removing old caulking and replacing it with new, and repairing damaged seams. If your roof is in need of repair and you are not a DIY-er you may want to try a liquid roof system with no caulk, seams, or leaks.

 

Prevent Mold from Forming During Storage

Store your travel vehicle under a cover that will protect it from the elements while allowing it to breathe, while venting inside water vapor to prevent mold, mildew from forming. One can find a whole host of RV covers that are triple - layered to provide ample UV protection, air vents to reduce wind lofting and inside moisture for around $300.00 with a 3-year warranty. Though the best method is prevention, if you do discover you have mold, you need to think about the health implications. Make sure it is cleaned up properly, and, that you get an air cleaner or purifier to keep yourself and your loved ones from breathing in the spores.

Check for Hidden Mold and Clean it Up

Sometimes mold clean up requires some good detective work where you will have to learn to "follow your nose". Follow the smell and feel around for dampness. Even when mold is not visible on carpets and walls it may be growing on carpet padding or inside walls. Inspect, or have inspected, your air conditioning system ducts for mold, dampness. Once mold spores form in a heating or AC system, they will be spread around the entire space. This could cause some major health problems. For more on how to locate mold and remove it, read this >>

Article by: Adam O'Connor, RV Travel Pro

Mold And It's Effects

Perhaps you may have found the dreaded mold lurking in your dwelling recently. Perhaps you even had to recondition it up. To be sure, it's ugly, inconvenient, possibly destructive and possibly a hazard to good health.

Unfortunately, mold can form anywhere circumstances exist to foster its advance. It regularly evolves in cool damp places. Usually in locations where temperatures range between 40 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, with a relative humidity level of 70% or higher. Though it is possible for certain molds to grow in lower humidity levels, they are not a common occurrence and rarely a concern over the more common types of mold. Read more about your home and other home care issues at http://www.fhhome.com

Typical spaces in a domicile where mold tends to take hold are zones such as bathrooms, basements, ceiling tiles, paneling, refrigerators, air circumstanceers, humidifiers and dehumidifiers, trash cans, heating ducts, windowsills, carpeting and other enclosures where wetness may be captured.

Mold appears in different ways, each with varying levels of risk to health. In low levels mold is pretty much harmless, but in greater levels the person who comes in contact may suffer allergic symptoms from the spores, as well as more harmful effects.

There are two forms of mold called Stachybotrys and Memnoniella which are considered toxic and can have a no-nonsense effect on a persons health. Smaller symptoms of exposure to these toxic molds may include a rash, flu-like symptoms, diarrhea, respiratory difficulties, eye irritations, difficulty breathing, sinus inflammation, headaches, fatigue and sore throat.

More austere symptoms of exposure to toxic mold may include ear inflammation, nose bleeds, bleeding of the lungs, memory loss and arthralgia (joint pain).

Exposure to any type of mold can always have the possibility of bringing on negative health effects, so it is wise to remove mold when it is found and to foster contingencys, which can help minimize the chances of mold appearing again in the future.

First of all, if you find mold in your domicile, purify it right away. For mold advancing on solid material like metal, basic soap and detergent should do the trick. Be sure to dry them immediately afterward. For materials more porous, where mold has sunk in, such as mattresses or other furnishings, the material should be replaced, as it is impossible to remove mold completely from these materials.

To prevent mold from forming in the future, check for any and all sources of wetness. In bathrooms check for leaky faucets or pipes which are no-nonsense culprits for fostering the incidents for mold raiseth. Once you have finished, lower the humidity level of your dwelling to between 30 and 60%. Since most mold advances in circumstances of 70% relative humidity of higher, keeping humidity low in your home will greatly reduce the risk of mold forming again in the future.

The steps set forth above are very urgent to follow, especially for those who may suffer from allergies. An ounce of deterrence now could save you inconvenience, discomfort, as well as funds in the years ahead.

Yvonne Volante, the author, has had extensive experience with mold and writes for moldcasr.com, which is the premier mold resource on the internet. You can see all of the articles over at http://www.moldcasr.com

Concrete stepping stone molds

How many times have you scolded your kids as they run on your beautifully laid garden grass? But is it really their fault or you need stepping stones so that you kids and anyone else walking on your garden can enjoy beauty without spoiling it. Stepping stones can be a great way to preserve your garden grass along with adding a touch of class to your garden as well.

But getting stepping stones from the market can be an expensive business. You may end up spending a lot for a few stones and getting them fixed too will cost a lot. You will have a tough time also finding the right kind of stones that may suit your garden or lifestyle.

There however is an easy way out. Just make stepping stones at home. Yes, don't be alarmed. It is a great way to get your kind of stones that too without spending much. Making your stepping stones can also be a great hobby and you can even get your kids involved and have a great time with them. A few basic things needed for making stepping stones include molds. You will need a mold which will be used to shape the stone according to your style and design in mind.

There are various varieties of molds available in the market which may vary in shapes, sizes, material used and so on. A good bet is a concrete stepping stone mold. This is a great way of making your own molds. You can use concrete stepping stone molds a number of times and get great value for money from them rather than buying expensive stepping stones from the market.

Concrete stepping stone molds come in a variety of designs and you can choose the ones you like the most. They cost from anywhere between $18 to $30 depending upon the design and type you are buying.

Different patterns to suit everyone's taste are available in the market and you are sure to find the kind you are looking for. Whether it's a leaf design, or a fish pattern, some flowery pattern, sun, moon or stars anything that your imagination may have is available in concrete stepping stone molds. Opting for concrete molds also gives you an advantage of their durability and reusability. You can make great stepping stones time and again as you want to. So go ahead and buy one. You will see how much you can experiment with your garden using stepping stones which will make your pathways beautiful.

Scott Byers is the owner of Stepping Stone Info, a complete stepping stone mold resource with articles on stepping stones and directions on how to make them

How to Use Do-It-Yourself Toxic Mold Test Kits

 

How to Use Do-It-Yourself Toxic Mold Test Kits

VANCOUVER, CANADA. Many homeowners, landlords, renters, property managers, business owners, and employees want to know, and need to know, the precise identities of the various toxic mold species inhabiting their home, rental property, or place of work, according to Phillip Fry, Certified Mold Inspector and author of the mold book Do-It-Best-Yourself Mold Prevention, Inspection, Testing, and Remediation.

To identify correctly toxic mold species, take these two steps: (1) use do-it-yourself mold test kits to collect mold samples during a thorough and complete building mold inspection and investigation; and (2) send the collected mold test samples to a mold laboratory for mold analysis and mold species identification.

Testing Visible Mold Growth

If a resident or occupant sees mold growing on a wall, ceiling, floor, heating or cooling duct register, or any other surface, he can scrape mold particles off the mold growth area onto the sticky surface of the opened mold test kit.

During such scraping of the mold growth, the tester needs to wear rubber gloves and a full-face respirator mask with organic vapor filters (such as the 3M brand from a large hardware, home improvement, or safety store) to protect against toxic mold exposure.

To do the scraping, use a new or thoroughly disinfected (with ethyl or rubbing alcohol) paint scraper. Disinfect the scraper after each individual sampling to remove any possible mold contaminants, and thus avoid mold cross-contamination in the sampling process from one sample location to another.

Print clearly and neatly on a large pressure sensitive label the property owners name, the property address, the precise test location at that address, the testing date, and the type of sampling method (mold test kit settling), time duration of the test (e.g., thirty to sixty minutes) along with the testers name and contact information.

The label should also include each individual test number, as listed on the mold chain of custody form, available free from the mold laboratory. Attach the label to the bottom of the mold test kit that contains that respective, numbered mold sample.

Mold Testing of the Indoor Air

Use a separate mold test kit to collect a mold sample from the air of each of these areas---

1. Heating/cooling duct register. Expose the sticky side of an open mold test kit (one for each duct register) to the outward airflow from each separate heating/cooling duct register. Tape the open test kit to the duct grill so that the airflow directly hits the sticky surface.

Run the heating/cooling system on fan ventilation for 10 minutes prior to removing the mold test kit from each tested duct register. Then close, seal, and label each mold test kit.

2. Room Air by the Settling Method. Mold test the air of each room, attic, basement, crawl space, and the garage by first running a cleaned fan to stir up each room or areas air all around for about 15 minutes.

Thoroughly clean the fan blades and fan guard with rubbing alcohol or ethyl alcohol after the fans use in each separate testing location.

Then shut off the fan, open up a mold test kit, place it open side upwards in the middle of the room [on the floor, or upon a table or chair] for thirty minutes to one hour to allow airborne mold spores to settle down onto the sticky surface of the mold test kit.

Be sure to use the same time for all air test locations for the standardization of the mold test results. Then close, seal, and label the mold test kits.

3. Outdoor Mold Control Test. The mold lab results of the indoor mold tests have the most significance when the results of each indoor locations testing can be compared with the results of the outdoor mold control test.

The control test should be a mold test kit left open on the ground outside the building and at least five feet beyond the drip edge of the room. Use the same time (thirty minutes to one hour) that was utilized in the indoor air tests for the settling method tests. There should be no rain or snow falling.

Self-Interpretation of Mold Test Kit Results

The tester can then either watch the test kits himself for mold growth, with self-interpretation of the mold test kit results, over a seven day time period, or send the mold test kit to the mold lab immediately, or after the self-observation growth period.

Here is how to self-interpret the visible mold growth in the mold test kits after seven days of mold growth---

1. If the tester observes and count a greater number of mold colonies of any particular mold colony type (possessing the same or similar color, shape and/or structural pattern) growing in one indoor mold test kit than in the outdoor control mold test kit, then the tester can reasonably decide that there is a possible indoor-generated mold infestation in the area/location involved in that particular mold test.

2. If the tester observes a particular mold colony type growing in a particular indoor mold test sample that is NOT present in the outdoor control mold test, then the tester can reasonably conclude that there is a possible indoor-generated mold infestation in the area/location in which he conducted that particular mold test.

3. If the tester observes three or more of the same mold colony type growing in one mold test kit, then the tester can reasonably conclude that there is a possible mold infestation in the area/location in which he conducted that particular mold test, regardless of the number of similar mold colonies present in the outdoor control test.

Why is that conclusion possible? Consider this rat analogy: if there are only three rats living inside a particular area of ones home or building, is there no indoor rat problem just because there are more rats living immediately outside of the home or building?

It is the time-cumulative exposure and body intake of even modest numbers of indoor airborne mold spores that makes residents or occupants sick from mold exposure. Because residents or occupants spend many hours per day indoors in a home or workplace, they are continually inhaling or ingesting mold spores.

When the mold spores enter into the residents eyes, nasal/sinus areas, lungs, stomach (eating and drinking food and beverages upon which airborne mold spores have landed), or open body sores, the mold-spores, once inside the body, can begin dangerous mold growth inside the body because of the abundance of body moisture and food to eat (peoples bodies)!

4. If the tester observes three or more of the same mold colony types in several or many mold tests taken from different areas of the home or building, the tester can reasonably conclude that the mold species is possibly widespread in its contamination of the tested home or building.

The most dangerous mold species to residents and occupants are the molds that are omni-present through out the home or building, thus causing widespread, cumulative mold exposure and body intake.

For more information about the use of mold test kits, mold laboratory analysis, and mold species identification, please visit---

http://www.moldlab.biz
http://www.moldinspector.com
http://www.moldmart.net
Mr. Phillip Fry is a Certified Mold Inspector and a Certified Mold Remediator. He is the author of the ebooks Mold Health Guide and Do-It-Yourself Mold Prevention, Inspection, Testing and Remediation. He also co-authored the another ebook known as Mold Legal Guide.