What is Mold Air Testing?

When does mold testing mean you need mold remediation?

Do I need mold remediation?

Everyone thinks staining on a building material is mold

Everyone thinks if they smell something funny or musty its mold.

The EPA actually says you should not test for mold, if there is a level of confidence that mold is present.  The rub is we test thousands of sites and we do not always find mold so, mold can be difficult to pin down. 

When testing for mold spores, you can take a surface sample of staining or do air sampling. Obviously surface sampling is completed where you see staining that is suspected to be mold.  So say you see a white film on the ceiling in a basement or crawlspace, you test the staining.

You suspect mold is in a room or in the air you take air samples from "complaint" rooms for example - the basement, a bedroom, kitchen in short, an area where there is suspect mold or some complaint with mold or heath concerns.  The testing inside typically has a background sample obtained, and often times additional air samples are acquired from other areas of the building as a general background.   Generally speaking, the more testing data you have the better the base of data that can be interpreted.

So if you read this far you likely had mold testing completed and don't know if you need mold remediation, although the testing company 100% believes you need mold remediation.

Call the Mold Experts

888-301-1050

Let's say that if you have visible mold growth and everyone agrees its mold or you have tested it and it's proven to be mold, how do you properly remediate mold.   Well you are going to get a quote and anyone that tries to scare you and mention black mold, well, toss those in the recycling. 

Here are Mold Remediation Red Flags

Mold warranties are typically tied to the fungistatic coating applied to the organic surface. For a crawlspace, basement or attic it would be the wood ceiling that gets treated. The warranty comes from the MANUFACTURER of the coating, which the standard warranty is 10 years.  Any warranty under 10 years is likely is likely a personal warranty or small business warranty.   Be wary of any company providing a warranty with a market capitalization of under 500 million.

Do not Allow a Clear Cost to be applied:  Mold resistant coating, clear coatings are frowned upon as it is difficult to see where the coating has or has not been applied. Think of when you have ever painted and when you think you are done you notice you may have missed some spots or some areas have too light of a coating. Well with clear coating it is amplified 1000% particular when you are applying in a crawlspace or attic which is not well lighted. The more popular coating by far is white as it leaves a visible demarcation of where it was applied.

The area to be treated is not defined, they reference sporadic mold growth, but mold is opportunistic. If you have mold in one part of the space expect it to be in other areas. In addition, unless you are going to control humidity, you will always have some level of moisture in the space, that makes it necessary to treat the whole space, not spot treating.

The vagueness of the quote makes me believe that it will not be a thorough project or appropriate for the space. This can also be derived from the price.   We peer review mold scopes and cost for banks and insurance companies and many low bids get rejected, which is surprising, but eople get burned and learn.

What does Mold REmediation Cost?

A small Area maybe $1,000.00

A Crawlspace? Under $5,000.00 on average

Attis?   $3,000 to $6,000 on average

A room where sheetrock has to be removed?  $3,000 to $10,000

As of 2023 only 11 states had mold regulations or licensing's, so the quality of work varies, and it is also hard to find a company to do quality work.

Call the Mold Experts

888-301-1050