Instructions for Decontaminating Your Home and Possessions of Mold
STEP 1: Mold Plate Testing
Plan this step ahead of time by taking a walk-through of your environment and count how many test plates you need. Mold test your bedroom, kitchen, den, attic, crawlspace/basement, office and car. MAKE SURE to order extra mold test plates because once you have found contaminated areas to be treated you will need to re-test as you begin the remdiation process ensuring the reduction of mold counts. It is likely that you will test a third or even fourth time in these areas. Each test period is 5 days.
Expose plate for one hour. Your central air system fans must run while you test.
Next TAP test your pet, clothes, mattress, and sofa by holding the plate with media side down and firmly tap the plate down onto multiple locations on the surface of the test item. One plate for each item.
For hanging clothes use one plate to tap all the clothes.
Follow instructions depending on whether you are doing test plates or diagnostic plates.
Begin Decontaminating Your Home
Spray (mist) floors, walls, ceilings and furniture with Ec3 Mold Concentrate. Let solution dry. Repeat. Use a bug sprayer or an electric paint sprayer. Mix one bottle with one gallon of water. For heavy mold contamination use ½ gal. water per bottle of Micro Balance EC3Mold Concentrate.
In each room you spend time, place a plug-in HEPA air filter with two to three Micro Balance EC3 Air Wicks on top. The wicks should be placed on the filter where the air flows out. For example: Bedroom, Kitchen, Den, etc.
Use EC3 Air Purifying Candles - one candle per 12x12 area, burn candles for 3 hours the first day and 1 hour each day thereafter until the candle is depleted. This should get your counts down to zero.
Basement treatment:
Spray (mist) floors, walls and ceilings with Micro Balance EC3 Mold Concentrate solution. Let solution dry. Repeat. You should ensure your results by testing with mold plates.
Crawl Space treatment:
Get a professional to properly inspect your crawl space. Water entry should be stopped from the outside, not with sump pumps from the inside. For a temporary solution, install a vent fan so the air is pulling across the crawl space. Be sure the vent fan exhaust is emptying into the yard in an area that you do not use. Install fluorescent lighting. This can be done until a professional can properly stop the moisture intrusion, treat, and seal the crawl space.
If you seal the crawl space it is imperative that it be done by an experienced professional who is trained in human environmental health, otherwise it is most frequently done incorrectly with substantial loss of time and money, and can cause more environmental contamination. Use only professionals trained in the environmental treatment of human airborne illness.
In the Atlanta, GA , area we recommend Mead Indoor Envirotech as a reliable consultant for all environmental health issues @ 770-916-0070.
HVAC Systems:
Use professionals trained in the environmental treatment of human airborne illness.
Have your house fogged; this will bring the mold count to zero within a hour. This should be done by professionals.
It is best not to have carpet in your home, mold grows in fabric. If you trying to improve your environment to prevent illness, cleaning or vacuuming a carpet is like vacuuming your front lawn. It is a futile exercise for environmental health. If possible, get rid carpet in all areas that you spend 1 hour or more per day. Replace carpet with tile or pre-finished solid wood, not laminate. If you must have some carpet, area rugs are an alternative and can be periodically washed, treated or simply replaced. If you cannot afford to replace the carpet and you are moderately to severely sick on the sinus evaluation on this web site, get a professional to saturate the carpet with EC3 Mold Concentrate spray, cut it into small rows, put each row into a plastic bag, saturate the underlying floor with EC3, finish removing the carpet, then mop the floor with EC3 Mold Concentrate, air dry. The person who is sick should not be present during carpet removal. You can paint the floor with NO VOC floor paint and use small washable floor rugs until you can do something else. Meanwhile you will not be waiting to get well. This has worked well for many people.
Find and fix areas that allow moisture into your home. Look around windows, pipes, etc. Also be careful with plants. Place them outside of your living area. Avoid standing water in plants or the drain pans that they sit on.
Closets: For dry cleanable clothing locate a cleaner who will fog them to remove mold, then dry clean them and return them. Place a HEPA filter in the closet with two Micro Balance EC3 Air Purification Wicks on the outflow track, or use a Micro Balance EC3 Air Wick Dispenser. Hang clothes one inch apart.
Washable Clothes: Wash clothes with your regular detergent and add 1 oz. into the rinse cycle reservoir of Micro Balance EC3 Laundry Additive. The Laundry Additive can be used in addition to your normal bleaching agents and is also safe in HE washers. Place clothes in new plastic container with a top until you are able to decontaminate the clothing areas. Decontaminate your washing machine before starting. See Washing Machine treatment below.
Decontaminate Your
Washing Machine From Mold
for clothes use Micro Balance EC3 Laundry Additive
- Add 1 cup of bleach to hot water on the small load cycle, (with only water no clothes), and let the cycle run until it is complete.
- Run a second cycle with hot water small load with 1 cup baking soda (not baking powder).
- Repeat weekly for maintenance.
- DO NOT GET A FRONT LOADING WASHING MACHINE. They have a problem with mold. If you own a front loader, check on the Internet to see if you have the make and model number involved in a class action lawsuit regarding the mold issues.
- LEAVE THE LID OF THE MACHINE OPEN WHEN NOT IN USE. This is very important in preventing re-growth of fungal spores.
- NOTE FRONT LOADER WASHERS HAVE PROBLEMS WITH RETAINING MOISTURE SO THAT THEY GROW MOLD NO MATTER WHAT TREATMENT IS DONE -- SO GET A TOP LOADER WASHER. THERE ARE CLASS ACTION LAW SUITS VS. FRONT LOADER WASHER MANUFACTURERS. DO NOT GET A DRYER THAT HAS A STEAM FUNCTION.
Bedding & Fabric Furniture Mold Decontamination
It’s best to replace these items because they cannot be decontaminated successfully in most cases. If you are unable to replace bedding, use a good HEPA-filtered vacuum and vacuum the mattress and box spring thoroughly, then spray with Micro Balance EC3 Mold Concentrate. Let dry. After 5 days tap test with a mold plate. If it grows over 4 colonies in 5 days, discard the mattress. If the mattress is not contaminated, cover mattress, box spring and new pillows with the dust mite covers from National Allergy.
Car Treatment Protocol
Cars are often are source of mold exposure and we recommend treating after rain and/or weekly for maximum safeguard based on your specific situation, this may vary.
If your car carpet got wet in rain and was not dried immediately, it must be removed, or until you can change cars, saturate it with Micro Balance Mold Concentrate, and towel and fan dry it after about 1 hour.
If your car has a leak, you must replace it in order to stop your mold exposure.
Car treatment is done with the same Micro Balance EC3 Mold Concentrate you use for treating your home, but in the following manner:
- Turn your fan on high using the car’s air climate control system.
- Press the button that makes the car suck the air through the vents from the outside. DO NOT USE ON RECYCLED AIR SETTING; USE THE FRESH AIR SETTING.
- Standing outside your car, pass a tissue over the outside vents next to the windshield wiper and where you see the air pulled down into the vent is where you spray a large amount of the botanical concentrate allowing it to be pulled into the vent system then delivered into the car.
- Leave the doors open and the fan running for about 10 minutes.
- Mist the entire inside of the car; seats, carpet, under seats, etc.
BEFORE moving into a new home, always test with mold plates
When moving into a clean environment from a mold contaminated environment, NEVER BRING ANYTHING INTO THE NEW ENVIRONMENT UNTIL IT HAS BEEN DECONTAMINATED. Don't contaminate your new environment! This includes the clothing you are wearing. It is best to discard all fabric items such as mattress, and sofas, all items that cannot be washed. Discard any wood items that have visible mold. All items must be sprayed down and cleaned thoroughly before placing in a clean environment.
If your environment was badly contaminated or you had severe systemic symptoms such as severe fatigue, join or muscle pain, memory problems, GI bloating diarrhea, muscle weakness, bladder weakness, or hearing or visual problems, discard all items that cannot be washed in a machine. Start with Mold Test Kits then if the environment is contaminated move on to a mold remediation kit.
For all environmental health issues we recommend your consult a professional who is trained and certified in HUMAN HEALTH REQUIREMENTS FOR ENVIRMENTAL TREATMENT. In the Atlanta area, we recommend Mead Indoor Envirotech as a reliable consultant for all environmental health issues @ 770-916-0070.
NOTE: The products recommended on this website have been thoroughly tested. The Micro Balance Health Products offerings are ones that Dr. Donald P. Dennis has been instrumental in formulating and has seen great success with when used by his patients.