Mold In Your Attic? Here’s How This Can Impact Your Roof

Mold is something every home owner does not want to find. There are some areas of the home where it is easier to go undetected for a long time, like in crawlspaces or attics. While it may be obvious that dark damp spaces like crawlspaces are susceptible to developing mold, your attic can be at just as much risk. It is important to inspect your attic spaces to see if you have mold, and remove attic mold immediately to avoid further damage, or if there are risk factors that should be addressed.

What Causes Attic Mold?

There are several potential reasons you may find mold in your attic:

Roof Leak

It may be obvious, but one of the most important ingredients to mold growth is moisture. If you had a poor roof installation, a damaged roof, or an old roof, your attic may not be protected from exterior moisture getting in. If this goes unnoticed, you may have spots develop mold. Over time this can spread and become a major problem that can be hazardous to you. Even after fixing a leak, mold can still be present. As such, it is important to keep monitoring the area to ensure there is not an ongoing problem.

Inadequate or Missing Ventilation

Attics need to breath, and ventilation is how you attic breathes. Without proper airflow, warm moist air can become trapped. This type of environment is the perfect breeding ground for mold. You may be surprised to know, mold spreads faster in winter than in summer. The optimal temperature range for mold to grow is between 40 and 90 degrees. In the summer, your attic is often too hot for mold to thrive. In Chicago, the blending of the warm air from inside the house meets with the cold roof. If there is not proper ventilation this temperature mixing will cause condensation that likely will cause mold

Improperly Installed Bathroom or Dryer Vents

There are parts of your home that require ventilation from your home. To expel hot air, moisture, or odors, we use vents to protect the interior of our home from things like the dryer, shower, and toilets. If these are not vented outside, but instead vent directly into the attic, you will be encouraging moisture and mold growth. Another area of concern is where these vents meet the roof. Any roof vent needs proper flashing and sealing to make sure they do not expose your attic to the outside elements.

What Should You Do To Protect Your Home?

Mold is hazardous to your health from exposure to high quantities over time. If you do not remove attic mold in a timely manner, it will encourage growth and spread throughout your home. This makes it crucial to fix anything that may lead to mold, and remove any discovered mold. Areas of your home like the attic are not easy for most home owners to monitor, therefore it is important to partner with experts.

Davis Roofing, an Arlington Heights roofing company, has been helping keep homes safe for over 70 years. Our experiences staff will provide you with a comprehensive inspection to identify any areas of risk or already compromised spaces and work with you on a plan to address these area. While our inspection may not find any current areas of concern, it is important to set up a schedule to monitor your attic over years to make sure problems do not develop.

If we identify any mold, it is critical to take care of it quickly. Depending on how severe the case is, you will have different options to fix it. Because of how dangerous it is, you should not try to remove attic mold yourself. When you work with us, you can be rest easy that you will not have to worry about the dangers of mold. Contact us today to schedule your roof inspection.