California is essentially a desert. But don’t be fooled. Mold can and does grow here, showing up in many areas of a home that people may never see, all the while it can cause illness and health conditions.
“People who have asthma or any kind of respiratory issue may have mold in their homes. And we get a lot of our business from doctors or alternative health care professionals saying that they have patients that have issues with mold sensitivity,” said Mold Zero owner Rusty Tweed,
According to Tweed, there are hundreds of different types of molds, some more problematic than others.
“Black mold may be in the news probably a little more,” Tweed said recently, “but really, there’s a ton of different molds.”
Tweed explained that he and his wife own a home in Glendale that was built in 1926.
“For years after moving in there,” said Tweed, “my wife had different physical problems, and we could never really get to the source of it. She had asthma, got migraine headaches, she got joint pains. She had trouble sleeping, and this kind of went on and on and we would get a handle on it, and she would get better, but then it would get worse again.”
Finally, he recalled, a blood test revealed that she had fungus in her blood — mold. After completing a mold test, they realized it was the house.
“And then,” said Tweed, “the problem was how do we get rid of it? And we really wanted to have some kind of solution that wasn’t over-the-top expensive.” According to Tweed, the normal mold remediation process is ‘just ripping everything out.”
Companies just go in and just start tearing out walls and cabinets, he said. In an older home, Tweed said, “you have no idea how many of those walls have mold behind them. “
That was when Tweed came across a new technology that was both non-toxic and effective.
“Sometimes you have to rip some walls open or whatever,” he explained, “but you don’t have to rip the house apart the way you would in most situations. That’s what we liked about it. It worked. It worked fantastic.
Tweed then bought the rights for the product for the state of California. And Mold Zero was born
And that bring s us back to California.
“I have an office in Florida. Mold is really obvious there, when you see mold all over the place because the humidity is so high. What’s funny about California is that it’s a desert. People don’t think about mold because they consider it dry, but people don’t realize it’s not the outdoor environment, it’s the indoor environment,” Tweed said.
“There’s a lot of mold here in California. I mean, mold is everywhere. It’s just a matter of how obvious it is and how aware people are then. When the rain comes in January, and you have a leaky roof,” said Tweed, often wet spots never completely dry. “It’s hidden behind the walls, and then it just sits there. And as soon as you go past 48 hours with dampness, you have mold.”
Further, “any kind of water leak, whether from a leaky pipe, a leaky toilet, behind a sink, even sprinklers spraying on the outside wall of a home, water soaks through the wall and you end up with dampness behind there, and you don’t see it from the inside, and you don’t think about it, and it could be there for years without you noticing, and all that time it’s growing mold,” Tweed said.
It’s a far more common problem than what people realize, said Tweed, explaining, “I think what’s happening is because people are spending a lot more time at home because of all the COVID-19, and being at home as long as they are, they begin to notice more.”
There are any number of ways to detect mold growth in the home as well, said Tweed. The familiar musty smell is the first and most obvious sign. Another is water stains on ceilings or walls.
“You might’ve had a leak in your home a year ago and it never dried out correctly. And so behind those walls, there can be mold. We run into that all the time,” said Tweed.
If a house has had any kind of leak, explained Tweed, and a family member develops asthma or any kind of respiratory issues, “there’s a high ikelihood” that there’s some form of mold in that house.
Mold Zero can then have a third-party lab perform testing to verify whether any actual mold is in the house.
Should the tests show the presence of mold, says Tweed, he can “guarantee” its removal.
According to its website, Mold Zero uses a patented two-step process to eliminate dangerous mold, viruses, fungus and bacteria on a microscopic level. The process is fast and efficient, with most jobs being completed within a single day.
The process creates a fine “dry fog” with a proprietary InstaPURE™ fogging solution that penetrates into every corner of a room without dampening surfaces. The particles in the dry fog seek out harmful mold and pathogens
and destroy them on contact. According to Tweed, the InstaPURE™ solution contains ingredients listed in the Environmental Protection Agency’s List N (Disinfectants for use against the Coronavirus — aka SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19).
All surfaces are then treated with an EverPURE™ protective antimicrobial layer. The protective layer is designed to kill harmful pathogens that come into contact with these surfaces for an EPA-registered 90 days.
“We guarantee that we get rid of that mold. And we guarantee the result,” Tweed said.
Mold Zero is at 2060 Huntington Drive, San Marino. Call (626) 412-8124. info@moldzerollc.com.
