Humid Chicago, Basement Mold, and Basement Storage May be a Tragic Combination
Chicago basements are deep and roomy, perfect to store our things. Many of us store our clothes, seasonal draperies, winter coats, wooden chests full of the treasures, old photos, old books, our children’s report cards. Then there’s furniture we plan to use again, a leather couch, a wicker chair, the bassinet we hope to see a grandchild in one day. There’s carpets down there, paintings, toys and dolls. They’re packed in boxes, most at least, on pallets to keep them off the wet floors. You think they’re safe, but they’re not. In humid Chicago, basement mold is poised to devour all these things and more.
In a Chicago basement, mold finds a particularly hospitable environment. We live up along the lakes. To live, molds need water. Molds thrive in damp and humid environments, and basements are notoriously damp and humid. Basements are made of concrete, but as solid as concrete is, water vapor continually passes from the outside through the concrete and into our basements. Water will also leak through wall cracks and mortar joints and rise up through the floor. Most homes have plumbing mainlines in the basement, and pipes always leak. Hot summer days don’t help either. The hot air is drawn into the cool basement and the relative humidity in the basement rises. In humid and wet Chicago, basement mold finds its perfect home.
What about the fact that you’ve got nearly everything packed? If everything is packed air tight, no, you’re not in much danger of having your precious belongings attacked. Air tight packaging prevents the spores of mold from getting inside. Even if your belongings are not packaged air tight, in your Chicago basement, mold can still be controlled if you run a dehumidifier. If you’re not and your stores are not packaged air tight, you’re very likely to find mold on your stores when you open them. Humid air condenses and can wet your belongings inside the boxes, and the microscopic mold spores can easily make their way inside. Once they’re in, they’re there until they run out of food. Tragically, the food they eat is your valuables.
Molds live off of dead organic matter. Those clothes, papers, books, furniture, carpets, most of what you’ve stored, are made of dead organic matter, mostly dead plants, except the leather. Mold beaks down the organic matter to get its nutrients. Unfortunately, most of what is stored in a Chicago basement, mold will devour.
Given this scenario, storing things made of dead organic matter in your basement is not a good idea. When you’re tight on space, however, this may be your only storage option. If you keep your basement sealed, dry, free of leaks, and free of mold, if you don’t stack your packaged stores against the walls and put the boxes up on pallets, you can reduce the possibility of your things being infested by mold. There’s still a risk of mold infestation, so do a mold inspection often.
In Chicago, basement mold is on the rise. Very likely, there’s mold in yours. If you find mold in your basement and you’re storing things there, you need to remove that mold now. Call us at HomeServ to do the job for you. If it’s there, HomeServ’s basement mold removal service can wipe it out and help you keep those stores mold free. Ah, one less worry on your mind.
