{"id":249,"date":"2015-09-14T03:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T07:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/?p=249"},"modified":"2015-09-14T08:40:13","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T12:40:13","slug":"is-it-mineral-staining-or-mold-in-my-basement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/14\/is-it-mineral-staining-or-mold-in-my-basement\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It Mineral Staining or Mold in My Basement?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you have a basement, often times you may see\u00a0discolorations of\u00a0fluffy build-up\u00a0on the walls. The first thing that usually comes to mind is &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/03\/not-all-mold-is-the-variety-called-black-mold\/\">we have mold<\/a>&#8221; but that isn&#8217;t always the case.<\/p>\n<p>An active problem in\u00a0basements is efflorescence, also known as mineral salts. You may see\u00a0discolorations including\u00a0white, green, tan, yellow, brown,\u00a0or grey colored\u00a0crystalline powder on the walls and covering the mortar between block joints. The efflorescence is created due to moisture. As the moisture evaporates, it leaves behind mineral staining.<\/p>\n<p>When checking your basement for mineral staining, efflorescence may have the characteristics of\u00a0a fibrous or spiky substance, fluffy cotton, fiberglass, white powder, or a crusted or fuzzy appearance.<\/p>\n<p>The bad news is efflorescence isn&#8217;t picky about the type of material it affects. Mineral salt residue leaches\u00a0out of\u00a0stucco, concrete stone, brick, concrete and stone. The\u00a0good news is it is not mold but it is a red flag that wet conditions are present that could lead to a moldy basement.<\/p>\n<p>As there are different kinds of mineral salts including vanadium, nitrates, chromium, and chlorides, to\u00a0find out what type is in your basement and how to treat\u00a0is best determined\u00a0by a professional. That&#8217;s what we do at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/index.php\">Stern Mold<\/a>.\u00a0Our experienced technicians\u00a0test\u00a0the substance in your basement to determine if it is mineral salts or mold.<\/p>\n<p>If water seepage is causing a problem with efflorescence that could lead to mold, you&#8217;ll want to have your basement inspected as soon as possible.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/about-stern-mold.php\">Contact our staff<\/a> for any questions, information, or concerns about mold problems and\u00a0to schedule a free mold inspection and price quote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you have a basement, often times you may see\u00a0discolorations of\u00a0fluffy build-up\u00a0on the walls. The first thing that usually comes to mind is &#8220;we have mold&#8221; but that isn&#8217;t always the case. An active problem in\u00a0basements is efflorescence, also known as mineral salts. You may see\u00a0discolorations including\u00a0white, green, tan, yellow,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,4,1],"tags":[25,83],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mold-identification","category-mold-treatment","category-news","tag-mold-id","tag-mold-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sternmold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}