If you were to rank the most important rooms in your home, bathrooms would probably show up near the top of the list. They’re in constant use, and they’re important to your home’s overall atmosphere and market value. Design, fixtures, and maintenance habits are important. There’s certainly a big difference between stepping into a clean, elegant bathroom and one that is disorganized and poorly maintained. It may be a stretch to say that bathrooms make or break a home, but it’s not that big of a stretch. When a guest, friend, or prospective home buyer steps into your bathroom and is pleasantly surprised, they’ll remember it.
What you don’t want anyone to remember is mold. Bathrooms are one of the most common places for mold to grow—namely because of the constant presence of running water, and especially steam from hot water. Over time, this moisture can encourage mold growth on the surface of bathroom walls and fixtures. Mold can also grow unseen beneath tiles or even behind walls.
Obviously, you want to prevent this from happening. The longer mold grows unchecked in your bathroom, the greater your chances of having a serious cleanup operation on your hands—along with a serious bill. So how do you protect your bathroom from mold, and avoid all the problems that go along with it?
Step 1: Clean/replace those mats and curtains
Since moisture is constantly soaking into the mats and curtains in your bathroom, these fixtures are a perfect breeding grounds for harmful mold. It’s also easy to wait far too long before cleaning or replacing these items. Day by day, they become more saturated with moisture and more susceptible to mold.
It’s not always necessary to throw away and replace your mats and curtains, so long as you clean them regularly. Keeping your tub and/or shower dry is another important mold prevention step. By drying the area daily (after the day’s last use), you’ll make the bathroom much dryer and less susceptible to unwanted mold.
Step 2: Use materials that resist mold growth
Some homeowners are surprised to learn that many common bathroom materials (including tiles and grout, sealant, and even paint) are now available with special properties that resist mold. Does this mean you should renovate your bathroom completely in order to make it mold proof? Probably not, unless you were planning on renovating anyway. But you may be able to address weak spots and strengthen your bathroom’s mold resistant properties but replacing certain outdated materials with a focus on newer products that are designed to resist mold.
Step 3: Hire a specialist to prevent future mold growth
You can make any number of minor adjustments to your bathroom, and you can be more conscious of preventing the conditions that lead to mold growth in bathrooms. These are important mold prevention efforts, but they still don’t compare to a professional assessment. By seeking the opinion of a qualified mold prevention specialist, you’ll know exactly what kind of mold you’re dealing with (if any), and exactly how to make your unique home stronger in terms of mold prevention.
Keeping bathroom mold at bay
Preventing mold from becoming a real problem in your bathrooms is a matter of common sense prevention measures, as well as the expert advice you can only get from a dedicated mold prevention specialist.
We hope this information is useful in your mold prevention efforts. Thanks for reading!