Mold In Your Ducts: Causes And Preventative Measures With A Duct Cleaning Service | Arlington, TX
Air ducts are vital in the smooth operation of the central air conditioners and the furnace because they supply the heat and cooled air throughout your Arlington, TX home. The HVAC market offers different ductwork options, allowing you to choose from rigid sheet metal, fiberglass, fiberboard, and flexible ducts.
Whichever type you have in your house, they can be a ground for mold growth if moist, thus requiring a duct cleaning service provider to disinfect them. Knowing the causes of mold growth in the HVAC ducts is one way of understanding how to prevent them from getting in there in the first place.
Reasons Behind Mold Growth in Ducts
Humidity
The ducts are home to aspects that can make mold spores grow, thrive, and spread to other parts of your house, compromising the indoor air quality because of the darkness, warmth, and moisture. Humidity, which should be optimally between 30 and 50 percent can be higher during the summer months, increasing condensation.
As the cold air from the air conditioners passes through the humid air ducts, any mold spores grow spontaneously. Since the spaces are dark, it might take your time to notice the problem and call for professional help from a certified and qualified drain cleaning service expert.
Dirty Air Filters
Air filters trap dirt and numerous other pollutants, preventing them from entering the air conditioning system to protect them from damage. Dirt, dander, dust, and air contaminants are the culprits that can clog an air filter in your HVAC units. Failure to call a duct cleaning service contractor to clean or replace the air filters increases the chances of the air ducts becoming dirty as some of the contaminants from the filters find their way there.
Since mold feeds in organic particles, the debris and other dust particles moving into the ducts from the filters can act as their food for spontaneous growth. The organic contaminants in the dirty air ducts with high humidity levels can make your home the breeding space for molds. If you are the type that loves maintenance, the drain cleaning service professionals can identify the problem early before it causes substantial damage to your home, lowering its structural integrity.
Poor Insulation
The insulating duct is an essential aspect that most HVAC installers prioritize to ensure they maintain the desired heat or cold temperatures they supply into your Arlington, TX home. The insulation also lowers the utility bill because they make the air conditioning system perform at its peak, ensuring all rooms receive adequate cool or warm air during the hot and wintry seasons.
The cold air moving through the warm pipes causes condensation that can leak due to poor insulation of the ducts, which is a problem that requires quality services of a duct cleaning service technician. The gaps in the ductwork can make conditioned air escape, increasing the energy bills.
Aside from higher energy usage, the poorly insulated ducts can also allow dirt and pollutants such as mold spores to sneak out of the system to other moist places in your home.
The small openings can also let in spores that become productive in the dark and humid space. The duct cleaning expert might notice gaps, molds, and other microscopic issues as they clean and tune up the ductwork and fix them with immediate effect.
Preventing Mold Growth in Ducts
Molds in your house can be catastrophic because they destroy anything they grow on, like furniture, walls, floors, air conditioning systems, and ducts. It is an issue that duct cleaning service experts can avoid at all costs through thorough maintenance of the HVAC units. Some of the mold prevention measures include:
Ductwork Inspections
The HVAC professionals make regular inspections of the ductwork and the HVAC units that help in the early detection of molds. They can detect the mold through a musty and moldy odor, visible mold, or allergic health reactions such as irritated throat and itchy eyes. So, regular inspections of the ducts, heating, and cooling units can prevent molds from growing and thriving in your HVAC systems and house.
Controlling Moisture in Ducts and ACs
One way of averting the possibility of molds growing and thriving in the ducts is by controlling moisture and temperatures. The duct cleaning service professionals check for leakages that can lead to water damage and fix it.
If the leakages have already caused water damage in some spots in your home, they make sure to remove all the water, leaving the wet places in the ducts and parts of your house dry. The duct cleaning service expert can recommend the installation of whole-home dehumidifiers to remove all the moisture that might be accumulating in the house.
Cleaning Condensate Drain Pans
The condensate drain pans are notorious for creating extra moisture in the air conditioners if they are clogged, increasing mold growth that can spread to the ducts. Therefore, it is wise for the duct cleaning service providers to clean and disinfect the ductwork and the HVAC system to ensure no clogs or dirt can obstruct the smooth flowing of condensation to the drain lines, pan, and eventually to the drains.
Proper Sealing of Ducts
The duct cleaning service experts can ensure the ductwork is properly sealed and insulated. Insulation prevents condensation from building up in conditioned and non-air-conditioned spaces, eradicating any possibility of mold growth in the house and protecting your house from structural damages and allergic reactions that can lead to respiratory health issues.
We Offer Professional Mold Removal and Prevention!
Feel free to call One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Fort Worth if you see signs of mold growth in your home. We have served the heating and cooling needs of customers in the Arlington, TX, area since 1988.
Our technicians are also highly trained and NATE certified to handle a wide range of issues, design and install air conditioners and heaters, and are available for emergency services. In addition, our duct cleaning service providers provide solutions to indoor air quality problems such as mold growth that contaminates clean air. We also offer our HVAC consultations, installations, repairs, and replacement services at convenient hours.