I have concluded that mold and “mold load” in homes is getting worse, not better. Over the past 40 years, we have made some significant changes, that have negatively affected our home's indoor air quality. Here are a few reasons for the increase in mold exposure to all of us. 

1. Homes can't breathe: In a cold climate during the heating season, moisture vapor inside a building is driven outward into exterior walls. When it reaches a surface that’s below the dew point, the vapor condenses into a liquid. That surface is typically the backside of the exterior sheathing. Rigid foam board, particularly the foil-faced kind, creates a vapor impermeable barrier, so the wall cannot quickly or fully dry out. 

2. Changed the way we build homes: We are using less and less real lumber: We have exchanged real lumber for manufactured particleboard, and pressed wood. Particleboard is a widely used material in the building industry. It is created by placing wood chips, fibers, or even small scraps of wood under intense pressure with adhesives and chemicals. Cost is the overriding factor and the main reason builders choose particleboard over any other building material. It is a fraction of the cost of lumber. When building large projects that require hundreds of sheets of material, or even when you use it for small pro
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