Safety Practices for Removing Mold

8/19/2020 (Permalink)

Mold removal in Nashville, TN

Protect Yourself During Mold Removal

There are crucial steps you must take to ensure your safety when you are removing mold from a building. Before beginning to remove mold, you must know a few of the steps, so that you can protect yourself.

Wear PPE
You should always wear PPE when removing mold to protect yourself from spores, dust, and any other dangers that may arise. The PPE that you should always wear includes:

• Hard hat
• Eye protection
• Job appropriate gloves
• Protective footwear
• Respiratory protection
  

Use Safe Practices
Aside from wearing PPE, you must also take necessary precautions to minimize your exposure to spores while performing mold remediation. You should throw away any items you find that have water damage, have been wet for 48 hours, or have extensive mold growth and cannot be cleaned. Wrap any items that you intend to discard in plastic bags or sheets. Once they have been properly sealed, you can throw them away as usual. Remember to be cautious while performing these tasks to avoid disturbing the mold. Since you will end up disturbing some of the mold spores during your removal, have natural or local exhaust ventilation at all times.
Clean any salvageable materials with a mild detergent. If you notice that mold remains after rinsing the detergent off, use bleach or another strong cleaner to disinfect the items. However, you should never mix bleach with cleaning products that contain ammonia. Once the area has been thoroughly cleaned and dried, you should vacuum all surfaces with a HEPA vacuum. You may also use a HEPA vacuum in surrounding areas to ensure you have removed all of the mold and spores. At no point during this remediation should you eat, drink, or smoke in the workspace. Because of these necessary precautions, it is often best to let mold remediation professionals come and remove your mold for you.
During your mold removal project, you must take the necessary steps to protect yourself. Wearing PPE, such as eye protection and a respirator mask, avoiding disturbing mold, and thoroughly cleaning salvageable materials will allow you to safely remove any mold from your business in Nashville, TN.