How to Dehumidify a Room and Stop Mold from Coming Back

Got a mold problem at home? Frankly, homeowners today don’t need to lift a finger when it comes to mold removal. You only have to hire competent mold remediation experts to kill mold and dispose of damaged materials like rotten drywall and infested insulation.

But all this cost money.

Angie’s List estimates mold remediation costs at around $2,365 on average. DIY remediation can cost as low as $50. This is true only if the fungi are in the early stages. They should not have caused much damage yet.

If you don't train and prepare with the right tools for mold removal, you risk mold coming back. You may also experience respiratory issues and allergies from being around mold.

Removing mold costs money to remove. And, regrowth can happen if one does not remove it properly. Mold damage also inevitably occurs with water damage.

Fortunately, you can save yourself the expense of mold remediation and repairs by learning how to dehumidify a room and create a hostile environment to stop mold from growing—again, and again, and again.

Why does mold keep coming back, and how do you stop it? That's the focus of today’s blog.

Why Does Mold Keep Coming Back?

Mold thrives wherever there’s moisture and organic material to digest and consume. This is why they’re considered valuable: they play an important role in the decomposition of organic materials. But mold is only good out in nature; when indoors, mold can do a lot of damage to health and property.

How do you prevent mold from coming back, then? Stopping mold spores from entering your home is not the answer. This is because spores are everywhere and can easily enter buildings through open windows, doors, and vents. The best way to remove mold for good is to keep crawl spaces, basements, and other damp rooms dry.

How to Dehumidify a Room to Prevent Mold

Many ways to dehumidify a room exist naturally. One example includes improving ventilation. But if you're asking how to dehumidify a room quickly, the best answer is to use a dehumidifier.

How Dehumidifiers Work

Dehumidifiers extract vapor from the air through condensation. It pulls in warm air and pushes it through a cooling coil. In this stage, the dehumidifier has cooled the air to its dew point.

When the vapor condenses, the droplets fall into a collection tank or through a drainage tube. Then, light and fresh air can flow back into the room.

Indoor humidity levels in your home are steadily lower as the dehumidifier absorbs moisture from the air. Modern dehumidifiers have smart features and built-in moisture sensors. They will control indoor humidity when it reaches your target level.

What is the best setting for a dehumidifier to prevent mold?

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends keeping indoor relative humidity (RH) between 30% to 50%. If you’re turning on the dehumidifier for the first time, you can set it to a lower setting first.

For instance, you can set it to 30% to 40%, to quickly bring down indoor humidity. When the room is dry and comfortable enough, raise the setting a little to around 50% to maintain your Goldilocks zone.

However, don’t overdo it. A too-dry environment can cause dry, itchy eyes, flaky skin, sore throat, and breathing and sleeping problems.

Do dehumidifiers remove mold?

No, they don’t, but they do prevent mold from spreading by depriving it of moisture. You’ll notice that after a few hours of using a dehumidifier to control mold and reduce the humidity in a room, any visible fungi will look dried out. It will no longer release spores or develop further.

Ironically, this is also how problems with recurring mold emerge.

The Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia, which has extensive experience in mold mitigation and knowledge about mold life cycles, warns that dormant mold isn’t dead. They are viable and can still regrow if there’s enough moisture in the air to activate it.

If you use a dehumidifier for mold removal, you must be consistent with using it. This will keep indoor humidity levels low and prevent mold regrowth.

How to Stop Mold from Coming Back

“The key to mold control is moisture control.” That is the EPA’s credo regarding mold control. With this in mind, we give you these guidelines on how to permanently stop mold.

Find ways to lower indoor humidity.

We have already established that using a dehumidifier to reduce mold is one of the best and quickest ways to do the job. The best part about using a dehumidifier is that it can run quietly in a corner.

It also pays to know how to dehumidify a room in other ways in case you can’t use a dehumidifier or if the dehumidifier you’re using right now isn’t the best match for the space you’re working on.

Here’s what you can do to manage moisture from indoor humidity:

• Open the windows to allow airflow.
• Improve ventilation in windowless rooms by installing vents or using air movers or circulators.
• Switch to “dry” setting when using the air conditioner.
• Place bowls of rock salt, activated charcoal, or silica gel in tiny, hard-to-reach spaces like on upper shelves and inside closets.

Find the source of the moisture and fix it.

While you can prevent mold with a dehumidifier, it may not be enough to stop the fungi from coming back. To eliminate mold for good, find the source of indoor puddles. You should also figure out constant humid hotspots in your home.

The most common causes of indoor dampness are humidity and faulty plumbing. Start from there and explore all possible causes of abnormally high moisture inside your home.

Use this list as a guide:

• Watch out for dampness near plumbing fixtures like sinks, faucets, and embedded water pipes on the floors and walls.
• Repair leaky faucets, sinks, and exposed pipes.
• If there’s no plumbing near a damp floor or wall, check for cracks in the concrete and seal them.
• Unclog slow-draining drains.
• Inspect the roof and gutters for damage.
• Regularly clean gutters and downspouts.
• Seal leaks in the roof structure.
• Seal air leaks, specifically the weatherstripping on glass walls, doors, and windows.
• Install exhaust fans in the kitchen, laundry room, and showers.

Remove mold and dry the area thoroughly after.

When Should You Call a Professional for Mold Removal?

Assess the severity of your mold problem. If it’s minor, you can save yourself a couple hundred dollars and do the cleanup on your own. But how do you know when to call a professional?

Here’s what the EPA guidelines on mold cleanup says:

• DIY mold removal - It’s safe to DIY mold cleanup if you discovered the problem so quickly, the fungus is still in the early stages of development and contained in a small area. As long as the size of the affected surface is less than 10 sq. ft., which is a little over 3 x 3 ft, you don’t have to spend money on professional services just yet.
• Professional mold removal - If mold has spread to more than 10 sq. ft. and has already done substantial damage to structural parts of your house, call the professionals right away. Extensive mold remediation requires tools, treatment solutions, and expertise that only professionals have. Moreover, it is unsafe to tackle this problem without the protective gear that professionals wear.

Another reason to call professionals is that they might have to do more besides treating mold. If the problem has been undetected for months or years, there could be walls that must be knocked down or entire panels of tiles ripped out. Professionals will be better equipped to do all these and cleanup and disposal afterward.

How to Clean Up Indoor Mold Safely

To remove mold without the help of a specialist, wash off the fungus using detergent and water. You may also use commercial mold-killing products if the material or surface can handle them. Soak a sponge or brush in the detergent or cleaning agent first. If you’re using brushes, choose bristles that can remove mold without doing too much damage to the surface under the mold.

If you are not sure how to clean up or find that the problem is worse than you thought, call a removal company.

Dry the area thoroughly after cleaning the mold. This is the best time to bring in a dehumidifier. Let it run for a few hours until all the wet areas are completely dry.

Get rid of moldy objects.

Unless you can wash and disinfect them, be prepared to throw out anything you own that’s been infested with mold and mildew.

Mold makes books some of the most vulnerable and, therefore, disposable objects. You can’t wash them, and if you keep them in storage, any residual mold could spread further in your home. Foam or cushion for chairs is a close second. As it is highly porous and absorbent, it’s nearly impossible to remove mold once it takes root in foam.

If you have furniture, appliances, and other household items with mold that you can’t repair just yet, you must remove the mold as best you can.

Monitor and maintain indoor relative humidity (RH)

What is indoor RH and how does it work?

We’ve briefly mentioned relative humidity earlier in this blog. Relative humidity is the measure of water vapor in the air relative to temperature. For example, a reading of 35% RH means the air contains 35% of the maximum water vapor it can hold at the current temperature.

Keeping in mind that warm air can hold more moisture than cold air, 35% RH at 45°F constitutes less moisture than 35% RH at 80°F.

Remember:

• Indoor RH increases the colder it gets.
• Indoor RH decreases the warmer it gets.

What does RH regulation have to do with preventing mold?

When RH is high, moisture doesn’t evaporate quickly. This is because there’s already too much water vapor in the air.

Even if the sweat on your skin cannot evaporate, you’ll feel sticky and uncomfortable. Moisture on the floor, walls, and other surfaces cannot evaporate. When indoor humidity is high, it will stay damp.

This explains the importance of a consistently low indoor RH. It helps moisture, from condensation on windows or a spilled drink on the carpet, evaporate quickly. This stops mold spores from having a chance to grow.

How do you track indoor RH?

A modern, digital hygrometer is a great tool for monitoring indoor relative humidity. You can also simplify things by buying a dehumidifier with a built-in humidistat. It detects indoor relative humidity and displays the percentage in real time.

Argendon, for example, has an adjustable humidistat, user-friendly digital panel, and LCD display. If you feel that the air has gotten too dry or too moist for comfort, you can easily adjust the target humidity percentage until you’re satisfied.

Maintain a Mold-Free Home with Argendon, Your Trusted Dehumidifier Brand

Knowing how to dehumidify a room and use it for mold removal is the first step towards living mold-free. Maximizing a dehumidifier for mold control is the long-term insurance to keep the fungus from coming back.

Argendon is a good partner for mold control, not only in homes but also in commercial and industrial locations. This strong and efficient dehumidifier is just what you need to eliminate mold and keep it away for good.

Visit our Shop to learn more about our energy-saving and effective home dehumidifiers.