The Mould Hunter

Every year my wife points out the (small) area of mould high up on the wall (11ft stud in this room) of one of out lounges. It’s an outside wall, and she says, every year, that perhaps there’s a leak in the spouting in that area, or that water is accumulating in the spouting there.
We used to blame it on the gas heater, something we’ve long stopped using. I liked gas heaters but sometimes there was a smell that permeated and became intolerable after a while. Usually it was a problem with the heater rather than the gas. I liked them because they were close to open fires in ‘feel.’ Open fires – I miss ‘em. We used to have two in our house: one was absolutely pathetic, but it survived quite some time. The other we got rid of early in the piece when we made two rooms into one. But there’s nothing quite like an open fire. (Now with global warming stuff going on all around us, open fires in houses are almost unheard of.)
Back to the mould. I came across the New Jersey Mould Company (sorry, guys, I can’t spell mould the way you spell it – it just don’t look right at my end of the world). And when I checked out their site, lo and behold they have a Mould Dog.
I quote, "Traditional mould sampling won't find the mould hiding inside your walls. Hunter the mould dog will."
I’ve included a picture of Hunter, who looks like a nice friendly feller. The people at NJMC go on to say: "Dogs have been trusted for hundreds of years to detect and locate things that humans can’t find. Since 2003 we have been using specially-trained dogs, trained just like bomb dogs or drug dogs, to detect and locate the source of mould growth by detecting the gasses (MVOC’s) mould growth gives off."
I find this most intriguing. I’m not sure that Hunter would have much trouble tracking down the annual mould at our place – although he might have a bit of trouble reaching it…! However, he might also find mould we hadn’t discovered ourselves. Now that would really give my wife something to "mention" each year!

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The NJMC has a link to a very interesting article on the use of dogs in tracking down mould. Well worth a look.

Humidifiers - as opposed to dehumidifiers.

Well, you live and learn. I’d only ever heard of de-humidifiers, probably because here in Dunedin, because we're a coastal town, we tend to get a moist atmosphere, especially in winter, and there’s a need to keep things drier to avoid mould and damp. I guess if I’d thought about it – but I hadn’t – if you have de-humidifiers then of course you must have humidifiers. Though there are lots of words in the English language such as uncouth which don’t (any more) have an opposite. I use the word ‘couth’ occasionally, but my spellchecker isn’t impressed.

Anyway, back to humidifiers. I now appreciate that they add some moisture to the air where the air is too dry, particularly in places where a furnace may heat the air up to such a degree that it takes the moisture out. I suppose it’s like the saucer of water we use to put on top of the gas heater to stop the air drying out. An extremely simple form of humidifier. Apparently in the States they use humidifiers that are attached to furnaces in the house (furnace humidifiers, in other words!) as a more economical way of approaching the issue.

One of the problems with overly dry air, it seems, is that it can cause dry skin and sore throats. Hmm, I wonder if that’s a factor in our house when things heat up too much. (Fat chance! LOL)

Seems like there are all sorts of humidifiers: steam/vaporizers, warm mist, evaporation wick (like the sound of that one!), impeller and ultrasonic. I was going to be silly and write about the last one of the group sending out sound waves – in fact, they do! Apparently the ultrasonic sound waves vibrate the water (that’s needed to humidify) and this creates a mist. These are one of the quieter humidifiers.

Well, there you go. Discover some little thing and off it sends you into a whole new world!
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