Mold can be a big problem. Some molds are toxic, but even if you don't have toxic mold in your home, mold can still promote decay and rot. Moreover, mold is constantly sending out spores that can ride even the smallest air currents in your home and start a new colony of mold wherever they land. If you want to keep your home safe, you need to clean up any mold you find. One place that people often forget to look at is the inside of the air ducts in your home. 

How Mold Gets in Ducts

Since you have an air filter that screens the air flowing into your HVAC system, you might think that there is no way that mold spores can get into your ducts. On the other hand, when your AC or furnace are not running, spores can easily fall through the air vents in your home and settle into the dust, dust mites, insects droppings, and other filth that has gathered in the ducts.

The Threat

As long as there is no moisture in your ducts, the mold spores will just sit there, but if you have any sort of a flooding event—from water splashed out of bath tub to an overflowing river—that can get water into your ducts, the mold spore can take root. The new colony thus created can then send mold spores out and the air from your HVAC system will carry the spores all over your home.   

The Answer

Mold spores are just one of the dangers that may be lurking in your ducts. Pollen, pet dander, and other lung irritants may also be accumulating in your ducts. Thus, you should inspect your ducts regularly and have them cleaned whenever you find signs that filth is starting to accumulate in your ducts. If water gets introduced to your ducts, you should not wait. Instead, you need to have your ducts cleaned immediately before any mold spores that may be biding their time in your ducts have a chance to colonize your whole home. 

The best way to stop an invasion is to stop it before the invaders have a chance to set up camp behind your borders. This is true of mold invasions. Rather than wait to see if you have mold cropping up where you can see it in your home, have your ducts cleaned by an air duct cleaning service to cut off mold invasions before they have a chance to start.