Looking around for mold growth in your home is a burden that no one wants to have to take on, but sometimes not looking for it can cost you thousands of dollars in renovations later on after the growth has gotten so bad that the affected areas have to be completely gutted. Knowing how to spot mold early on is the key to saving all of this time and money, but it is not always as visible as some pictures on the internet and the news may have you believe. While mold does come in a variety of colorful species, it is not always as colorful as most of the images you come across.



Some molds are nigh invisible and grow on a few different surfaces mostly undetected unless you know how you need to look for them. Wood paneling, for example, can have mold growing on it and you not even realize it without the use of a simple bright flashlight. To be able to see the mold, however, you will need to know how to use the flashlight correctly. Instead of shining the light directly toward the paneling, you need to shine it along the surface of the paneling at an angle, so as to give the possible mold growth some depth. Only in this way will you be able to detect the extremely light colored molds growing on the different surfaces of your home. These molds tend to be a species in the Aspergillus or Penicillium genus.

Wood paneling is common in older homes and in homes that have been flood damaged, since replacing the affected drywall is a lot more expensive than simply installing paneling in its place. This is one reason mold likes to grow on this paneling: it is typically old and should be replaced.

You can miss these molds easily when you do a casual inspection of your home, but just taking a flashlight with you and knowing how to use it can save you a lot of money in the end. Molds that are not visible to you readily are not necessarily harmless; they can be just as detrimental to the building structure and your health as the molds that you do have the ability to see with the naked eye. Mold is not always an invisible threat, but it certainly can be, even if you think you know how to look for it.