Tip #30 to Prevent Mold Growth

If you have a flood, a water incident that affects the kitchen, say from a plumbing leak or a nearby wash machine that overflows from the utility room…

You call your insurance company and a water damage restoration company to dry things out. No problem. They have 24-72 hours to get things dry. After that mold will grow. They will bring in lots of big and fancy (and expensive) blowers and drying equipment.

Yes, they will get the walls dry…on the outside.

But what about the walls behind and next to kitchen cabinets? This is the last place things dry because the air from the blowers can’t reach them. Note: some companies will drill holes in the bottom of the kick plates under the cabinets and inject air. This is a good thing and might work. But given, in general, behind the cabinets is often a place where mold ends up growing.)

Here’s a preventative measure:

When building the house, don’t install the cabinets until the contractor has cut out the bottom 2 inches of drywall where the walls meets the floor, behind and next to any cabinetry.

You see, mold loves drywall (a.k.a sheetrock), the white-board walls are constructed out of. There’s a paper backing on sheetrock that’s baby food for mold. Water wicks up drywall and gets stuck between the cabinet and the wall in places where air from the dryers can’t blow.

If you cut off the bottom two inches of drywall off before the cabinets are installed, water can’t wick up the wall, and mold cannot grow on the sheet rock. The exception would be if you get standing water in your house greater than two inches. Most floods from leaky pipes don’t go that high and if they do you have bigger problems.

To read more about how to prevent Mold read my book, Healthy Living Spaces: Top 10 Hazards Affecting Your Health

Or see the free information in the on-line resource library at HealthyLivingSpaces.com