Even though wildfires are a part of the natural process of creation and destruction in the environment, the bad thing for people is that sometimes their homes are located directly in the path. A large number of people have to worry every year whether a wildfire will affect their area, but if you own your home and you know what to do, there are things that can protect your home from them. Depending on the circumstances and where your home is located, it may not be enough, but it certainly cannot hurt to try and you may actually end up saving your home.
Using fire-resistant materials on the exterior of your house is essential. The roofing material is the most important, since this has the largest amount of surface area and sparks of fire called firebrands will be picked up by the wind and possibly carried over your house. Having the fire-resistant roofing material such as metal, fiberglass, or tile will slow down the spread of the fire from the roof and it may not even catch on fire at all from one of these small sparks. You do not want to use oil-based roofing materials on a home that is located in a place at risk of wildfires.
Fire-resistant materials on the outer walls of your home will also slow down the spread of the fire, such as stone, metal, or brick, so if you are considering having a home built for you, these are materials you really want to consider. You should also have smaller windows on the exterior of your home, since large windows are more likely to break and allow the hot air and fire sparks from the outside of the house inside, where it will catch curtains and everything else. If you have to have large windows, have multi-pane ones instead of single-pane.
If there is a wildfire close to where you live, wet down the exterior of the house, especially your roof. This will give a little extra protection against firebrands floating by on the wind. Wetting down the yard and vegetation will also help, but you should do this just before you decide to leave the house.
Get rid of any dead vegetation in the yard and do not allow things like dead leaves to build up, since these are easy targets. If you do have a pile of leaves in your yard, the best thing that you can do before you evacuate is soak them down with water.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
mold removal in Atlanta Georgia and
Water Damage Restoration companies.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Selling Moldy Real Estate
If you are trying to sell a house that is contaminated with mold, you probably have a pretty short list of possible buyers. You also probably do not want to lose any of those possible buyers and you want the transaction to go as smoothly as possible. There are a few tips that you can use when selling a home like this to make sure that you get the most you can possibly get.
You need to allow the buyer to inspect the house for themselves and find out what kind of mold exists on the property. An environmental inspection clause should be included into the sales contract. If you can have the mold removed from the home at your own expense without taking a huge profit loss, you should do so. A buyer will be much more quick to actually purchase the home from you if you are completely honest about the home’s condition. You will also be able to sell the home quicker if the mold inside it is not toxic. If you can prove that it is not via mold testing kits, then the sale will go by quicker.
Again, make no attempts to cover up the mold problem in the house. Do not be nervous about it. If it is beyond your ability to remove the mold, then tell the buyer so. Explain your situation. If they are sympathetic, they may or may not be more willing to purchase from you. If they suspect you are hiding something, however, they will likely walk right out the door.
In the final sales contract, you need to have a clause that releases you and anyone involved in your end of the deal from any legal liability due to the mold. This states that the buyer already knew that the mold existed on the property and that you are no longer responsible for its presence. Include that the home was sold to the buyer in an “as-is” state and that you are not responsible for the property nor is there any warranty on it, implied or otherwise.
List all past major damage that the home has suffered due to water damage or mold so that your buyer has a complete history. Giving this information to your buyer will show them that they can trust you and that you are hiding nothing from them. This should leave you on solid ground once the final contract is signed.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Water Damage Miami and
water damage restoration in atlanta companies.
You need to allow the buyer to inspect the house for themselves and find out what kind of mold exists on the property. An environmental inspection clause should be included into the sales contract. If you can have the mold removed from the home at your own expense without taking a huge profit loss, you should do so. A buyer will be much more quick to actually purchase the home from you if you are completely honest about the home’s condition. You will also be able to sell the home quicker if the mold inside it is not toxic. If you can prove that it is not via mold testing kits, then the sale will go by quicker.
Again, make no attempts to cover up the mold problem in the house. Do not be nervous about it. If it is beyond your ability to remove the mold, then tell the buyer so. Explain your situation. If they are sympathetic, they may or may not be more willing to purchase from you. If they suspect you are hiding something, however, they will likely walk right out the door.
In the final sales contract, you need to have a clause that releases you and anyone involved in your end of the deal from any legal liability due to the mold. This states that the buyer already knew that the mold existed on the property and that you are no longer responsible for its presence. Include that the home was sold to the buyer in an “as-is” state and that you are not responsible for the property nor is there any warranty on it, implied or otherwise.
List all past major damage that the home has suffered due to water damage or mold so that your buyer has a complete history. Giving this information to your buyer will show them that they can trust you and that you are hiding nothing from them. This should leave you on solid ground once the final contract is signed.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Water Damage Miami and
water damage restoration in atlanta companies.
Tell Your Insurance Adjuster About Mold in History
Getting your insurance company or your landlord to repair the mold damage to your home or apartment is almost the equivalent of trying to pull teeth without going to the dentist and receiving no anesthetic. Most insurance policies do not cover mold damage to your home unless it is due to something that your insurance policy DOES cover, such as water damage (except when said damage was due to a flood). If you have a landlord and the property that you live on is infested with mold, getting the landlord’s attention and getting him to remedy the problem is sometimes a big problem by itself, even though the property does not belong to you.
Some landlords and insurance claims adjusters will tell you that mold is not as big of a problem as some media stations and remediation companies are making it out to be, but the fact is that the proof is there. All you have to do is research for yourself and the Centers for Disease Control and even the Holy Bible itself says that mold is a serious health threat. You do not have to look very far into the Bible to see its account of what mold infested homes used to go through.
Leviticus 14:37-49 says if you suspected that your home was infested with mold you were to do what anyone else who lived during that time would do for almost any problem occurring in their lives: you would visit the rabbi. The rabbi would come to your house, inspect it, and deem it either diseased or clean. If it was deemed to be diseased or “plagued”, everything was removed from the household. These items were taken far away from town to what the Bible calls an “unclean place”. The house was closed for seven days and the rabbi returned at the end of that period to see if the infection remained. If it did, the house was torn down, the building materials taken to that unclean place, and the home re-built. Clothing deemed contaminated by the rabbi was also thrown away.
So, no matter what any landlord or insurance claims adjuster might tell you, mold is a dangerous threat to yourself and has been a problem since ancient times. Do not agree with them when they tell you that the mold is not a health threat or that the contamination is somehow your fault. Remain consistent in your effort to file your claim or to get your landlord to fix the problem.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Water Damage Miami and
water damage restoration in atlanta companies.
Some landlords and insurance claims adjusters will tell you that mold is not as big of a problem as some media stations and remediation companies are making it out to be, but the fact is that the proof is there. All you have to do is research for yourself and the Centers for Disease Control and even the Holy Bible itself says that mold is a serious health threat. You do not have to look very far into the Bible to see its account of what mold infested homes used to go through.
Leviticus 14:37-49 says if you suspected that your home was infested with mold you were to do what anyone else who lived during that time would do for almost any problem occurring in their lives: you would visit the rabbi. The rabbi would come to your house, inspect it, and deem it either diseased or clean. If it was deemed to be diseased or “plagued”, everything was removed from the household. These items were taken far away from town to what the Bible calls an “unclean place”. The house was closed for seven days and the rabbi returned at the end of that period to see if the infection remained. If it did, the house was torn down, the building materials taken to that unclean place, and the home re-built. Clothing deemed contaminated by the rabbi was also thrown away.
So, no matter what any landlord or insurance claims adjuster might tell you, mold is a dangerous threat to yourself and has been a problem since ancient times. Do not agree with them when they tell you that the mold is not a health threat or that the contamination is somehow your fault. Remain consistent in your effort to file your claim or to get your landlord to fix the problem.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Water Damage Miami and
water damage restoration in atlanta companies.
The Bible Talks About Mold
No matter where we are or what time we have lived in, mold has always been there to make us sick and to affect our property and belongings. Insurance companies are quick to tell you that mold is not that much of a health threat and that it has been around longer than we humans have been, but this is just an argument they use so they do not have to pay your insurance claim. If your insurance claims adjuster comments that mold has been around for thousands of years and that it is not a real health threat, whatever you do, DO NOT agree with him. Dispute it. If you agree to anything he says and even remotely say that you might not have a claim, you will not have a claim and you will receive no benefits. Be steadfast when filing your claim and if necessary, you can even cite the Holy Bible to show that mold has always been a health threat to human beings and their animals.
Leviticus chapter 14:39-47 states that mold living in a building was not to be tolerated. It blatantly calls the building “diseased” or “plagued”, depending on which version of the scripture that you read. Rabbis were sent into the homes to inspect them and if they were found to be infected, the stones in the house that had mold on them were removed and taken to a landfill of sorts far away from the village. The house was sealed up for 7 days and after that, the rabbi came back to see if the mold infection returned. If it did, all the building materials for the house were torn down and thrown into the same landfill the first stones were and it was rebuilt. Any clothing that had been contaminated with mold was shown to the rabbi and if it was found to be infected, it also was taken to that landfill.
Insurance companies can dispute the ill health effects of mold on the human and animal body as much as they want to, but the proof is there. The Bible states that mold was considered a problem and a cause of disease in ancient times and we should consider it no less today. If your landlord, insurance claims adjuster, or anyone else you are trying to make a claim with insists that mold poses no real threat to you or your family, disagree with them and get the money for the repairs or relocation that you deserve.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Los Angeles water damage and restoration services and Denver water damage restoration companies.
Leviticus chapter 14:39-47 states that mold living in a building was not to be tolerated. It blatantly calls the building “diseased” or “plagued”, depending on which version of the scripture that you read. Rabbis were sent into the homes to inspect them and if they were found to be infected, the stones in the house that had mold on them were removed and taken to a landfill of sorts far away from the village. The house was sealed up for 7 days and after that, the rabbi came back to see if the mold infection returned. If it did, all the building materials for the house were torn down and thrown into the same landfill the first stones were and it was rebuilt. Any clothing that had been contaminated with mold was shown to the rabbi and if it was found to be infected, it also was taken to that landfill.
Insurance companies can dispute the ill health effects of mold on the human and animal body as much as they want to, but the proof is there. The Bible states that mold was considered a problem and a cause of disease in ancient times and we should consider it no less today. If your landlord, insurance claims adjuster, or anyone else you are trying to make a claim with insists that mold poses no real threat to you or your family, disagree with them and get the money for the repairs or relocation that you deserve.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Los Angeles water damage and restoration services and Denver water damage restoration companies.
The Mold Remediation Equipment You Need
Depending on how much mold needs to be removed from your home, the equipment that you will need in order to finish the job will vary greatly. If you cannot afford to hire a professional and plan on doing the entire job yourself, you probably want to know the best and safest way to complete the job. If you do not take care, you should realize that kind of biological hazard that you are exposing yourself to if you do not purchase the right level of protection equipment. This can include aggravation of your asthma, emphysema, the occurrence of skin rashes, respiratory infections, and eye infections can result, among other health complications. If you are sure you want to take on this job by yourself, consider yourself warned.
Washing mold off of drywall or other porous surfaces with chemicals will work only on a superficial level. It will not kill the mold that has worked its way into the depth of the drywall and contaminated the other side in the wall. Most drywall that becomes contaminated with mold will need to be completely replaced. If the mold growth appears to be light and you catch it new, you might be able to avoid this. Purchase heavy duty trash bags that will hold all the contaminated materials that you remove from the home, but make sure to not touch contaminated items to non-contaminated items, because of the possibility of cross-contamination.
Respirators should be used when doing any kind of mold remediation job. An N-95 respirator is recommended at the very least for light jobs and for more extensive jobs, a full face respirator with a HEPA filter should be purchased. These larger jobs are usually done on older houses that are being renovated and almost completely gutted to remove contamination, but any job that requires removing drywall and throwing it away requires a respirator of some level. A full face mask will cost you around $130. Protective clothing can also be purchased, such as rubber gloves and shoes that will not allow the mold spores to come into contact with your skin.
A vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter will also help you tremendously when you are cleaning your home after the remediation is done. This will collect all the mold spores and particles from your floor and carpet and deposit them into a receptacle that you can empty when you are done. Be careful emptying this container, though, and do not touch the contents with your bare hands. Do not stir up the contents any more than you have to in order to get them into the trash bag
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Los Angeles water damage and restoration services and Denver water damage restoration companies.
Washing mold off of drywall or other porous surfaces with chemicals will work only on a superficial level. It will not kill the mold that has worked its way into the depth of the drywall and contaminated the other side in the wall. Most drywall that becomes contaminated with mold will need to be completely replaced. If the mold growth appears to be light and you catch it new, you might be able to avoid this. Purchase heavy duty trash bags that will hold all the contaminated materials that you remove from the home, but make sure to not touch contaminated items to non-contaminated items, because of the possibility of cross-contamination.
Respirators should be used when doing any kind of mold remediation job. An N-95 respirator is recommended at the very least for light jobs and for more extensive jobs, a full face respirator with a HEPA filter should be purchased. These larger jobs are usually done on older houses that are being renovated and almost completely gutted to remove contamination, but any job that requires removing drywall and throwing it away requires a respirator of some level. A full face mask will cost you around $130. Protective clothing can also be purchased, such as rubber gloves and shoes that will not allow the mold spores to come into contact with your skin.
A vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter will also help you tremendously when you are cleaning your home after the remediation is done. This will collect all the mold spores and particles from your floor and carpet and deposit them into a receptacle that you can empty when you are done. Be careful emptying this container, though, and do not touch the contents with your bare hands. Do not stir up the contents any more than you have to in order to get them into the trash bag
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Los Angeles water damage and restoration services and Denver water damage restoration companies.
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