Mold is a serious concern, it can have adverse health effects to people who are sensitive and exposed to mold. Sometimes, you can see the mold, sometimes you can smell it, sometimes both and sometimes you just suspect mold (maybe you do not feel well). In all these situations a professional mold evaluation is warranted. What is a Professional when it comes to mold is subjective.
The photo below is normal and unusual. This is an unfinished attic with a drop down set of stairs located in the primary bedroom closet. Mold grew with reckless abandon in the space. The wife of the couple who owned the home was having issues they suspected those issue were due to mold, since there was an exposure pathway in their bedroom. Curren Environmental inspected and tested and sure enough, mold was impacting the bedroom from the attic. The remediation of this area included remediating the mold but also correcting the cause of the mold.
So the solution was two fold, removing the mold and fixing the cause of the mold which was actually three different causes. This was easy as we have seen it before.
Now there are way to many people who talk the "mold talk" but don't quite know what they are doing. Its pretty easy to sample mold either on a surface or in the air. The hard part is understanding the test results.
It is all to common that people have an inspection with testing, and the lab report is confusing to all parties, including the people who did the testing. We know this because we are mold experts and we get calls and emails everyday asking our opinion regarding test reports. It is a real problem that people who paid for testing can’t get a straight answer on what the testing means. From the number of calls we get throughout the United States we can see this is a widespread issue. It doesn't help that there are no federal regulations, with only 11 states having actual mold regulations, people can get easily confused regarding mold.
The fact is many people involved with mold do not know what they are talking about and that only compounds the problem.
Unfortunately, the consumer is partially to blame. People want suspect mold evaluated, so they hire someone without a clear description of what they were going to do to evaluate for mold or how the mold testing will be interpreted. I have read thousands of reports and the vast majority of the reports are very vague regarding the test results and cause. When I have inquired by calling the people who did the inspection and testing regarding what they were trying to say, the common response is the report is vague on purpose.
The rub is people spend money for mold testing and or evaluation and then need a 2nd opinion because the first opinion is so vague. The 2nd opinion is needed because the first opinion is unclear, they don’t agree with the opinion or lastly there is no opinion just lab data.
This is where Curren Environmental comes in, we have tested and evaluated thousands of sites. We can peer review your data. A peer review is a 2nd set of eyes evaluating data and providing an unbiased interpretation. You are going to spend a couple hundred dollars on average to have your testing reviewed, but the piece of mind is immeasurable.
What are common mold second opinions?
- We review lab data where a company says mold remediation is warranted and it isn't.
- Areas have to undergo a second mold remediation because the the prior mold work was done improperly.
- We find mold where others didn't
Fact
Too many people involved with mold want to put money in their pocket rather than working in the best interest of the client.
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