Well they don’t call it the Pacific Northwest for nothing… Bellingham is a damp and rainy place and mold loves it here. Dealing with mold in your home is a little bit complicated and may involve collaborating with your landlord to deal with the problem through multiple methods.
What Causes Mold
In a nutshell, mold is caused by condensation and condensation comes from warm, damp air inside coming into contact with cold surfaces like windows, outside walls, ceilings, and even toilets. What causes the problem is when the air inside is too damp and there’s too much moisture to evaporate before mold grows. The level of moisture in your indoor air is called relative humidity.
High moisture content in indoor air comes from 3 main things:
- Weather leaks from outside
- Plumbing leaks from inside
- Steam intensive activities like showers, cooking, hanging wet clothes and doing laundry especially without a fan on.
Who is Responsible
Your landlord is responsible for ensuring that weather is not leaking in from outside and for fixing all plumbing and moisture issues, but you as the tenant, are responsible for controlling excess moisture inside your house and making sure you are not creating a friendly place for mold.
If you have followed the below guidelines for taking care of yourself and your home and you still have mold in your house, then it is probably a leak or moisture problem and your landlord is responsible for remediating it under the Warranty of Habitability. If this is the case, the next step is to talk to your landlord about the mold in your house and getting a mold inspection.
How to Prevent Mold
Here are some basic tips you should always be following:
- Keep relative humidity below about 40 to 50 percent.
- Control (reduce) relative humidity by using effective bathroom, kitchen, and utility room exhaust fans above common moisture sources.
- Make sure the clothes dryer is venting properly.
- Cook with lids and do not dry clothing on indoor clothes lines or racks.
- Check that exhaust fans are actually moving air: the suction should hold up a tissue.
- Make sure the “used” indoor air gets exchanged daily: Flush the unit aggressively with cold outside air by opening doors and windows for 5 minutes or so; if windy, maybe 60 seconds will do.
- Confirm your safe relative humidity level using a reliable digital gauge. A good relative humidity gauge (called a thermometer/hygrometer) will cost about $25 and this is cheap insurance to protect property and occupant health.
- Use a dehumidifier if necessary
For more information on this topic check out the Northwest Clean Air Agency website. For a handy PDF printout about mold click here.