Wondering whether you should clean the pesky mold buildup in your home with bleach or not? Read on to find out some pros and cons of using bleach to eradicate mold growth.
Almost all homeowners have had to deal with mold buildup in their homes. This is because mold tends to thrive in moist environments and your basement is one of the rooms in your home that can have a lot of trapped moisture, and bad air circulation. With that said, many people fail to recognize obvious signs of mold growth such as a strange moldy smell or even unsightly black, blue, green mold growth in small amounts on their walls and floors.
When you do realize that you have a mold problem, it’s often too late to manage and clean on your own. However, many people tend to use the universally loved chlorine bleach to get rid of the mold growth in their homes. But does bleach work to remove mold?
Well, to figure this out, let’s take a look at some pros and cons of using bleach on mold buildup:
Pros
- Bleach is a readily available and pretty inexpensive cleaning product. You can easily find it in your local store or home improvement center at reasonable prices, which makes it a pretty convenient cleaning product.
- Bleach is a great cleaning agent that works perfectly to eradicate germs and bacteria. Moreover, it’s pretty easy to apply on large surfaces, which means that you can easily target large amounts of mold buildup on your floors and walls.
- Mold tends to cause various unsightly stains and discolors the surface that it grows on. Bleach is pretty effective at bleaching the affected surface and lightening its appearance from an unsightly black or green color to a neutral appearance.
- You can easily apply bleach on hard surfaces such as tiles and porcelains where mildew tends to grow.
Cons
- Even though bleach is readily available, it’s not a good substance. It’s highly corrosive and when used carelessly, it can cause chemical burns. When mixed with other cleaning substances such as ammonia, bleach might react and create a highly dangerous toxic gas. Additionally, the smell of bleach is so strong that it can cause difficulty in breathing.
- Despite the ease of application and its effectiveness to eradicate germs, it’s not an effective disinfectant when it comes to cleaning active mold growth.
- Even though bleach mitigates the appearance of mold, it doesn’t kill it. It simply bleaches the surface, which gives the illusion that the surface is mold-free.
- Although mildew is often considered to be the same as mold, it’s certainly not! Unlike mildew, toxic mold usually grows on porous surfaces such as drywall, manufactured wood, and even plaster. It establishes its roots within these surfaces and continues to grow at a rapid pace. So, even though bleach cleans the top of the surface and the mold growth, the remaining mold roots within the porous surface will eventually show up again.This is why bleach isn’t the long-term solution that you need.
As it turns out, using bleach to eradicate mold buildup isn’t the most effective way to deal with mold growth. The best way to get rid of mold and deal with mold damage is to hire a professional cleaning and restoration company.
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