Mold Creeps Up Across Green Country

Friday, July 13th 2007, 10:13 am

By: News On 6

It's going to take much more than Fridayâ€™s smattering of sunshine to dry things out this summer. Damp conditions are driving many Tulsans mad over mold. The News On 6â€™s Heather Lewin reports Green Country's getting a little too green for some this summer, with brackish water breeding moss and mold in their neighborhoods.

â€œActually there's like a little stream going in the street all the time from all the houses, all the water,â€ said homeowner David Karam.

Karam says this is his first encounter with the fast growing fungus.

â€œThis is my first time seeing it, especially on that tree. That's the first time I've seen it, but it's been raining like constantly for six weeks now, so we're seeing it everywhere,â€ Karam said.

"You get a lot of problems when the moisture doesn't go away,â€ said Best Hardware employee Shawn Calaway. â€œThe mold is gonna proliferate."

Calaway says customers have been coming in seeking solutions. The most basic mold killer is a bottle of bleach. It works best on small spots, but can damage your plants and grass, so Calaway recommends putting down some plastic first.

Bigger jobs need a deck wash which won't strip your finish, but will rinse off mold and mildew.

"You can't keep it from happening,â€ said Calaway. â€œThere's not much you can do when it's there.â€

You can kill it, but until things dry up, he says it'll probably keep coming back. Still it's better to launch a counter-attack right away. Calaway says waiting until the end of the summer will just leave you with an even bigger problem to tackle.

"Until it gets dry, this is gonna be a problem people have to worry about inside and out,â€ said Calaway.

Doctors say mold isn't normally a serious health concern unless you're one of about 6% of people allergic to it. Mold can cause problems for those with respiratory issues like asthma or bronchitis.

For more information on how to deal with mold, click here.

Watch the video: Mad Over Mold

For more flooding information, check out our STORM ZONE web page.