Will Lime Limit Mold in a Crawl Space?
When you find mold in a crawl space of your home, it is a good idea to get it taken care of as soon as possible. This will ensure that the crawl space stays safe and secure and that the mold is not able to spread to other parts of the home and make you and your family sick. And since it is estimated that up to 40% of the air in your home comes in through the crawl space, anything like mold and pathogens stuck there can cause havoc on the whole home.
There are several options that you can use to help kill the mold in your crawlspace. It is important to go with something that will not only kill the mold, but is safe for your family and will keep the mold away. Lime is a good option that will kill mold, but you need to be careful about putting it near plants. If you plan to use lime in the crawlspace, this is not a big concern but keep it in mind if you plan to use it in any other part of the home.
Lime is an effective way to kill off the mold in your crawlspace and keep it away. Let’s take a closer look at how lime can work to help with killing off all that mold in the crawl space before it spreads everywhere.
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Using Lime to Clean Up Mold
When you notice there is a n odor or something going on with the crawlspace, it is important to get it checked out as quickly as possible. Leaving these alone and not taking care of them can lead to a big mess within the home. Bleach is often a good choice to use, but it can leave a strong smell that will permeate the whole place.
There are several types of lime that can be used. It is a little safer and does a better job at kicking all of the mold out of your home. The lime powder that you are able to find at various garden centers and home stores, can be a great way to clean the mold and can absorb some of the strong smells that come from the crawlspaces.
The lime is so effective because it will keep the odor of the mold from getting into your home. And it is able to dehydrate out the mold so it stops growing again. Mold needs moisture to help it grow. When you take away the moisture with the lime powder, you are able to keep it from growing and getting into your home.
Types of Lime to Avoid
With that said, it is important to be careful about the type of lime that you use. The powdered lime that we just talked about is effective, but options like calcium hypochlorite, which is sometimes used in pools as a type of disinfectant, is not going to do this job in the crawlspaces very well for you. This type of lime is going to become unstable when it gets exposed to moisture and air. There is always air in your crawlspace and there is obviously moisture there if mold is able to grow so this is not a good thing.
If you try to put the calcium hypochlorite into the crawlspace to clean things up, it is going to create a lot of heat and then let off a chlorine gas. Since the crawlspace is so small and lets the air go right into the home, it is probably not best to use this kind of chemical to help clean things up. Stick with the powdered lime instead.
How to Use the Powdered Lime
If you do decide to go with powdered lime to help take care of the mold in your crawlspace, then there are a few steps that you can use. If there is already some mold in that area, then you should use some bleach to help clean up the area, buing thorough as you go and making sure that you mop up all of the moisture that you use to do that. Use some protective gear if you decide to go with the mold.
Once the mold is cleaned up, or if you plan to use this method to help prevent mold in that area, you will just sprinkle a bit of the powdered lime on the existing vapor barrier that is found there. If mold was already there, you will want to add on some more powder every few days to make sure that it absorbs all the moisture and keeps the mold out of the way. If it is being used more as a preventative method, then you can do it every few weeks to make sure that the mold does not get in.
This is an effective method that you can choose no matter where you think the mold is going to form and where you want some protection. The most important thing to remember with this though is that the lime may start to kill off plants if you use it outside. If you are planning to use this in the crawl space and other areas inside your home, it will be an effective treatment and you will not need to worry about this issue.
Keeping Mold Away From your Home
If you are concerned about mold getting into your home, it is important to take care of the issue as soon as possible. Whether it is in the crawlspace of your home or somewhere else, you need to take quick action to prevent the mold from spreading around to other locations along the way.
The good news is there are a lot of methods that you can use to prevent mold or remove it if it finds its way into your home. With some good cleaning, proper home maintenance, and the lime powder being used to remove all of the moisture that mold thrives on, you can keep your home safe from mold.
