Five Rules to help you decide when to hire a Professional

to Inspect for Mold and to Prepare a Mold Remediation Plan

This article is intended to help readers decide when it is appropriate to perform mold inspection and testing on a building allowing you to avoid spending money on mold testing.   However, you also want to avoid spending money on unreliable mold "tests" and inspections that do not validly support any conclusion about the building.

Often visible fungal growth is quite obvious. What is less obvious, and what will require an expert inspection, is the extent of mold cleanup needed in the building, possibly including hidden mold in wall and ceiling cavities.  To be effective and to produce advice based on more than a wild guess, building investigations for mold, allergens, gases, or other indoor air quality concerns must take a broad approach to site and building examination for probable sources of moisture, toxic/allergenic mold, or other allergens.

In order to have some confidence that we understand the building, how it works, where the risks and problems lie, we examine at the entire structure, inside and out, and its mechanical systems are examined as well. Partial inspections, like partial remediation, risk the cost of having to repeat the process if it was not proper and complete the first time.

It is very important to note that even though a little or a larger amount of mold is visible on the drywall or other interior walls of a building,  professional inspection is probably needed to define an accurate assessment and identification of the location and extent of moldy material removal and cleaning.

If your ONLY concern is the identity of the mold you've already seen, and if you are confident that there is not a possible problem elsewhere on the property, you could simply send a mold sample to any mold lab for determination. Relatively inexpensive kits for an inexpensive and easy way to test mold or to screen settled dust for mold are at stores such as Home Depot or Lowe's.  Just keep in mind that those test kits will only give you lab results for the one spot you test and often the results can generate more questions than it will provide answers.

Here are five reasons to consider a more

extensive on-site investigation for toxic or allergenic mold:
 

1.  People in the building are at particular health risk: elderly, infant, immune-impaired, asthmatic, history of respiratory illness or other medical complaints which might be caused by or aggravated by mold, allergens, or other bioaerosols.

2.  People in the building are sick and there is reason to suspect that the building is causing or contributing to health, air quality, or similar concerns. You need a building or apartment evaluation and diagnosis to answer the question that may be posed by your doctor: might the building be contributing to or causing these complaints?

3.  The building has or is suspected of having had a history of significant leak events or even a single event which flooded some areas: plumbing leaks, roof leaks, ice dam leaks, basement water entry, sewer backup, ventilation problems, air conditioning system problems; forced-air central heating/cooling concerns. If hidden building cavities have been wet, the mold you see may be just the tip of a "mold iceberg" that does need an expert to find the extent of mold, cause of mold, and to remove the mold.
 

4.  Large areas of water damage or mold contamination have been seen and you need an estimate of the extent of demolition and mold remediation which will be needed to make a proper cleanup and repair.

    Small mold problems: If you are confident that the amount of mold is less than 30 sq. ft. of contiguous mold (and that there is no         significant risk of a larger hidden mold problem) then mold remediation guidelines suggest that professional remediation is not appropriate. You do not need to hire someone other than perhaps a handyman or general cleaning service. BEWARE: if during cleanup of a small mold problem you discover that it is actually a large one, stop work and bring in a professional to advise you on how to proceed.

    Large mold problems: If more than 30 sq. ft. of mold-infected material is found or is already visible, then you need professional advice as more serious health risks and mold contamination may be involved.

5.  Contractors have already bid a variety of expensive mold-cleanup approaches to building cleanup/remediation and you need an unbiased, informed professional to help sort out these proposals.

Got mold?   call the Mold Pros of Ohio !