In this episode, I dive into mold testing, explaining when it’s necessary, how it works, and what the results mean. Learn about the different types of tests—air sampling, surface testing and more—and how to choose the right method for your situation. We’ll also share common pitfalls to avoid, how to find a reputable mold inspector, and what to do once you have your test results. Whether you're concerned about toxic mold, buying a new home, or just want peace of mind, this episode will give you the clarity you need to make informed decisions.
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to The Mold Money Podcast.
I'm your host, Daniel Stih.
Today, we're going to cover mold testing.
First question, do I need a professional mold tester or can I do it myself?
Some say professional testing is more accurate and identifies hidden mold specific types.
That's not necessarily true, it depends on who you hire.
And if you're going to shop for the cheapest mold test, you're wasting your money.
Not because the test is a waste of money.
Get the cost down on that mold inspection.
They're going to do very few of the test.
And mold is everywhere in the air, ubiquitously in the environment, climate where there's grass and there's trees.
Unless you're living in the desert, there's a lot of mold in there.
So how do you tell what mold is in your house from doing an air sample?
You need comparisons, you need an outside.
So the cheapest test you'll see a home inspector could do, a mold inspector.
One outside and one inside or two inside.
That is still so minimum, it's kind of a waste of money.
The reports, by the way, kind of semi-waste of money.
They'll give you a fungal gloss, redictionary and everything.
You don't need that.
You need a wall check test and you need cultured air samples using an Anderson air sampler.
Very few mold inspectors know how to do cultured air samples using an Anderson.
When I say cultured, I don't mean petri dishes.
You buy Home Depot and cultured them.
And you need outside in comparison.
There's more of this on the website, healthylivingspaces.com.
You can do it yourself.
I have videos to walk you through how to do it yourself and what equipment to order, and even give you case studies with examples of real homes, the problems, and here's what the results look like when there is mold, and here's when there's no mold.
Next question, what's the best way to test for mold in my home?
There's surface testing.
Some people think swabs are good.
No, swabs just mash everything up so the analyst at the lab can't tell what it is under the microscope.
If you look at mold under the microscope, the best way to do it is you take a piece of clear sticky tape, could be packing tape or clear scotch tape.
It has to be clear.
You have to see it under the microscope.
When you see it, what you'll see is just like is if you took leaves on a tree, the stalk on the tree, the tree trunk are the roots for mold, and then all the leaves are the spores, and you see the whole thing.
You can see the pattern on the branches on how the leaves are attached to the tree.
That's how you tell, is it mold and what kind.
So that's a tape lift sample.
How much does mold testing cost?
How good a job you want to do it?
You go to the doctor, am I gonna run one test or two?
I need to know why I'm sick.
I need to know if there's mold in my house.
Some say $200 to $600.
For $200, you cannot get, you're wasting your money.
Even at $600, you're probably only getting the one outside, two inside of that.
And that's a hit or miss.
Honestly, you're gonna have to go to the acac.org, that's the American Council for Accredited Certification.
Look for a CMC, that's a Certified Microbial Consultant.
And those will typically start at around $700 for a real professional, unless you want to do it yourself, which is why I made the courses on my website.
I think it's only $90 a month, and you can do just one month if you want, or six months, and do all the testing.
Actually, you can save a lot of money that way, because when they charge you, say, $100 for a lab sample, and it really only costs them 50, that's how they make up for only charging you less money.
They make it look like it's in lab fees.
So by learning to do your own testing, healthylivingspaces.com, courses, videos, you can actually save probably half the money and do the better test.
How accurate are do-it-yourself test kits?
If it's the Home Depot one, I don't know how it's legal to even sell those.
It's complete misinformation.
You can do your own testing, go to healthylivingspaces.com, do one of the courses.
Next question, what should I look for in a professional mold inspector?
Certification, as I just mentioned, should be from the acac.org.
That's the American Council for Accredited Certification.
And they should be certified microbial consultant, not any other kind of certified mold, whatever.
Because microbial consultant, first, consultant means they have at least five or eight years of experience, like an engineering degree, or they have to have some education or a lot of experience.
It's an engineering accredited certification.
The accreditation body is the engineering standards board.
Microbial means this person knows everything about things get wet, what grows besides mold.
They're super mold experts compared to other certifications.
So I'm speaking of the certified microbial consultant with ACAC.
Next question, should I test for mold even if I can't see it, but I suspect it's there?
Absolutely.
If you have any thought that there could be mold, test it.
That's the wall check.
Cause if you suspect you have it, you probably know where you have it, which room.
Pick the walls.
You may not see water damage, but you smell it.
Test a couple walls in the room.
That's the nice thing about going to Healthy Living Spaces, doing your own testing with courses.
You can do more tests.
And the home inspector, the mold consultant, is not racking it up to where it's $1,000 in tests because they're marking up your lab fees.
You can do as many tests as you want.
Once you see how easy it is to do your own testing.
Next question, how long does mold testing take?
If you mean, how long will a mold inspector be in my house?
It should be for a couple hours, at least two hours, because you're not just collecting samples.
Never pay someone to just come, quote, collect samples.
That's a waste of money and also a red flag.
So I've been doing this 25 years or once.
I would get those calls.
Just come do testing.
It occurred to me, well, could I do testing?
And the test results don't pick up mold, and there's mold in the house because I didn't do all of the testing I might want to do or didn't know where to look because the client just wanted me to come, quote, take an air sample.
So I pretty much in my business strategy, I don't want to make mistake.
I will not just show up and take an air sample.
I need to look around the house.
And by doing that, a lot of times I would often find mold using the moisture meter, using my eyeballs.
And I'll go, we don't need to test for mold.
Cause another one of my rules, my business rules, the common sense, if I see mold, I'm not going to test the air.
Why?
It's expensive.
Two, you're trying to answer, do I have mold?
You do.
What you really want to test there for is to see if, well, you can see mold, I want to know how bad the air is.
That doesn't work that way.
Because at any given moment, there could be a draft, a vibration causing mold to come off the wall or wherever it is.
Change, spike the air, and you could be exposed to intermittent high levels that you didn't capture if you did the air sample and thought you have no mold in your house.
How long does it take?
Someone should be at your house for two hours.
And if you do it yourself, probably less even following the courses on the Healthy Living Spaces because you're watching the video doing it as you go.
Maybe the same amount of time.
What happens during a professional mold inspection?
They should look, use the moisture meter.
Air samples are the very, very, very last thing I do when I do a quote mold inspection.
Think about the word mold inspection.
You're supposed to be looking at mold, looking for mold.
And if you see it, again, you don't need to test for it.
Once in a while when I go, you know what?
The client would tell me, I got to be out of here in exactly two hours, to which I would start looking around and then start taking the air samples while I finished looking around, and then find mold and go, you know what?
I'm not sending these to the lab.
Just pay me for the money in supplies, the spore traps, the samples, supplies because I'm not sending it to the lab.
I found mold now.
So that's what they should do.
Look, and then of course the report, photographs are nice.
Some inspectors are carried away with the fungal glossary and is a toxin mold.
No, it's just say, moisture readings, wet or dry.
Where there's damp conditions or smell, they should report smells as well in the report.
Where they see mold, the kicker is the mold inspection report.
Well, even though they should know better.
Instead of telling you, here's a really disappointing thing with quote mold inspection reports.
I have almost never seen one, due to liability is what they'll probably blame it on.
I blame it on, they can't really, they're charging money and yet they cannot have the courage and the professionalism to tell you, matter of fact, is it a mold, yes or no?
This is especially true after you do mold remediation and you have the mold inspector to come.
And what's the first thing you want to do?
Air samples.
Sometimes they're even looking around and even if they look around and things don't look perfectly clean, they'll go, we got good air samples.
So what?
The client doesn't care about good air samples.
They want you to tell them, is your mold in my house absolutely, positively yes or no?
You, I will almost guarantee you, never find a mold inspector who will do that.
And they should.
It'd be like if you went to the doctor and said, is my bone broken?
Not sure once in a while it happens.
Well, I can't tell on the X-ray for sure, but at least they're telling you, explaining the rationale.
Mold inspectors will just say, air samples look good.
This is lab results.
Air samples look bad.
This is lab results.
It would be like a doctor telling you, look at the X-ray.
Doc, just tell me.
I just want to know yes or no.
You won't find that.
So which is another reason you should consider doing your own testing, taking my courses.
I walk you through how to interpret the results.
So you can see for yourself.
You could also take these courses just to, if you get a professional mold inspector, to see in my examples, how I interpret the results.
Sometimes the lab will tell you there is mold.
Sometimes they'll tell you there's not.
It's based on an algorithm, but it's not quite perfect.
And you'll see what I mean in the examples to which if you hire a mold inspector who doesn't have the courage to really put his opinion on the line or the experience to know how to do it, this would be a way for you to quick learn and curve, learn, okay, this is what Daniel says, how to do it.
That's it today on been talking about mold testing.
If you've got a question, go to healthylivingspaces.com, ask it, book a consultation with me, get the book.
It's on Amazon or wherever you buy books.
Till next time, I'm Daniel.