Mold Testing? To Test Home for Toxic Mold If Any Problem Occur-Part 1
Often I am asked the question by home and building owners about the need for mold testing, when mold is either seen or suspected. This particular subject has evoked a lot of controversy in all throughout the country. Opinions on the matter can be widely varied from the perspective of regular homeowners whose health has been compromised to insurance providers who would like the world to believe that mold is harmless. Whether or not to test can be a touchy subject and the reason is simple there are costs involved.
When I am called to visit and inspect a mold property my primary function is to be a detect problem. The principle thing I am looking for is water. Usually a great deal of information can garnered by interviewing the homeowners, but by far my best tool for this difficult job is my eye and a powerful light. Mold can be challenging to discover because the main body of the mold plant grows beneath the surface of what it is feeding on. The fuzzy colorful growth are familiar with our association of mold is actually the fruit-body or the seeds of the mold. When mold is flowering in one square inch there can be upwards of 5 million spores! When these are conglomerated they become visible to the naked eye. Amazingly over 10,000 spores can fit on the head of a pin!
This can make spotting the mold colonies early in the growth phases difficult. You see mold is called a colony because it starts out a single spore and then begins to multiply from around the individual spore. When the colony has less than 10,000 spores its invisible! What’s worse when mold is disturbed it goes airborne sending clouds of mold aloft right into the air you breathe! Once airborne they can stay aloft on a single current of air for up to three days. This can create real problems with people who have asthma, and allergies.
When there has been a significant water event in a home or a building, I would like to believe that I am usually capable of discovering the majority of the mold problem and designing a mold removal protocol; which can be followed by a competent mold remediation contractor without taking a test. It is often possible to assume based on square footages of contamination. I have overseen thousands of projects and have a vast reservoir of experience to draw from. But like a good Doctor or a good detective the more information that is available to me, with whom I may form an opinion the better informed and more reliable is the remedy I prescribe. The simple fact is that mold can be completely invisible.
Mold can even be growing…. Right behind your bedroom walls or in some other unseen hidden area! What’s worse, with mold it can make you sick if it’s growing inside your home! Testing can help to create a picture of the hidden mold in a home. Air samples can be collected from both the ambient air and the inside of suspected wall cavities. In fact, some of my most challenging mold problems may not have been discovered at all, without the assistance of solid laboratory evidence.
About the Author
Charles Boday is a Certified Mold Inspector and Contractor, graduate from Certified Mold Inspector & Contractors Institute. He has worked with some of the countries top scientists seeking alternative poison-free mold remediation techniques. He has testified as an expert foundation witness and is the Author of the books, The Ultra Dry Basement.
How to remove harmful mold contamination – DECON EXPERTS
