If you find a lot of mold in your walls or oozing around ceilings, you may think that this problem is one you can handle yourself with a bleach spray bottle. While this definitely works in showers, in sinks, and around toilets, it is not the right or correct solution for mold anywhere else in your house. Mold remediation specialists should be consulted or simply hired to clean up this mold problem for you. Here is why your DIY spray bottle of bleach is not a good idea for mold in other areas of your house. 

Bleach Only Works Best on Non-Porous Surfaces Where Mold Collects

Mold can grow anywhere there is moisture and some organic material. However, when it chooses to grow on or around non-porous surfaces, bleach defeats it because bleach removes more than mold. It removes the "food" that the mold is feeding off of. With porous surfaces, that is not happening. Most porous surfaces in your home are wood, plaster, or wood byproducts. Spores of mold can burrow in all over these surfaces, and the porous materials are ever-present and feeding the mold spores you miss. 

Bleach Can Cause More Damage

On porous surfaces, bleach can cause a lot of damage. Imagine your carpeting getting little drops of bleach on it from the spray you are trying to use on the walls and ceiling where you spotted the mold. Now your carpet is a mess. If you have any sort of wood paneling on your floor, this can be damaged too. The finish can be affected, the stain or color on the wood product can be bleached, and the wood can become dry and brittle. Then you would have to replace all of that. 

Bleach Can Encourage the Spread of Mold

Bleach can actually contribute to the spread of mold on porous surfaces. Most commercially available chlorine bleach products have a lot of water in them. When you dilute the bleach to put it in a cleaning bottle, you are adding even more water to the product. What you get is a very wet product with minimal efficacy against mold, plus you are adding a lot of water to porous surfaces where the water will collect and the mold will spread. It sounds bizarre, but that is exactly what happens. Mold remediation and cleaning crews have better products for drying out, killing, and removing mold. 

To learn more, contact a mold remediation contractor.