Recommendations for mold-sensitive homeowners

There is one flooring option is never recommended for people with mold illness; carpet. 

Carpets harbor human skin cells, dust mites, animal dander, dirt, etc. and it’s generally not great to breathe these elements every day. 

If you can’t live without carpet, try to find a wool carpet option that fits your budget. Wool doesn’t off-gas in the same manner as polyester and nylon carpet. However, you need to control the moisture content of wool carpet since it is an organic material and can grow mold if water is regularly present. 

If you spill a large amount of liquid on a wool carpet, it will need to be vacuumed thoroughly, and a fan should be kept running on the affected area for a couple of days. 

What do we recommend? Hardwood flooring, Tile, or Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP). 

LVP is typically waterproof, and both tile and mastic (the concrete like substance to make it stick) are not naturally organic materials and are not as prone to grow mold. 

Tile is self-explanatory, but again I recommend waterproof grout for this application as well. 

Hardwood floors allow you to mop up water quickly without serious damage, but sustained water pooling, or water migration under the hardwoods between the flooring and subfloor, will typically grow mold within 24-48 hours. 

For this reason, I’m no longer a big fan of pre-engineered hardwood. These products are factory finished individually, and therefore water or oil-based polyurethane is not applied over all the wood joints. This allows spilled water to migrate between the boards to the lower portion of the flooring and more importantly into the subfloor. Pre-engineered manufacturers have done what they can by sealing many of the flooring options on all four sides, but this doesn’t keep water out of your subfloor.