Mold Testing Mold Inspection - BNF Consulting, Inc (3)

1. Mold Testing Mold Inspection - BNF Consulting, Inc. 109-20 Queens Blvd #3E, Queens, NY 11375, United States +1 914-297-8335 mold removal Mold Inspections - Make the Best Choice Before a person ever decides to search for the best mold inspection company in their area, they should first know a few facts: 1. In the author's opinion, every house on the planet has mold in it. Mold is a member of the Fungi family and exists naturally in our environment. It is airborne and enters our houses whenever a door or window is open and in numerous other ways. 2. Inside of a house, mold will not be a problem unless it has been exposed to water for more than 48-72 hours. So, if you have seen, or know of evidence of water inside your house and you suspect that it has been there for at least 48 hours, you are most certain to have harmful (toxic) mold. 3. Even if you can't see any water, it still may be lurking behind your walls, sinks, or tubs; perhaps under windows or other locations. If you can smell a musty or unpleasant odor (some in the family may detect it while others can't), you have a harmful mold problem. 4. If you or other members of your house have asthma, other respiratory problems, coughing, runny nose or eyes, headaches, or tend to feel much better when you are away from the house and worse when you are in it, you almost certainly have a mold problem. Knowing that you likely have a mold problem but not knowing what to do next, speaks volumes in favor of hiring a professional. But which one? You could likely have several mold inspection companies to chose from on sites like Yahoo or Google; but how does a homeowner find the best one for their needs? My advice is: First I recommend that the company specializes in mold. Not mold and/or radon, lead, air ducts, etc. Next, I recommend that they have both education and experience at least equal to or better than their competitors. While most every state requires that home inspectors be licensed, only two states require so of mold inspectors.Are they certified? This would tell you that they cared enough about their profession to acquire knowledge and training to meet standards. Experience counts. How long has the inspector been certified? How many jobs have they performed? Not just the company, but the individual inspector? Can they get references? Have they been cited by the Better Business Bureau for any deceptive, misleading, or dishonest practices?

2. The next criteria is critical: Are they also in the business of mold remediation or removal? If they are it could be a blatant conflict of interest. Wouldn't it be to there interest to overstate the level of mold problems and/or the amount of remediation needed if they were in line to pick up a job worth several thousands of dollars? Therefore, I recommend that you find a professional who only inspects for mold. OK, so now how should your inspector look for and find your problem? When they are finished will they be able to tell you for certain where your mold is and why you have the problem? Isn't that how you would like to spend your money? Testing for mold is most often done by the old fashioned method called air testing. This procedure sucks air into a machine that then traps it into a laboratory testing dish, which in turn gets sent to a laboratory for culturing. This process can take a week or more for the results. When air testing is performed, the inspector should always take one test outside of the house in order to determine a benchmark as to what mold(s) are prevalent in your area. They then will try to take as many tests inside of the house as the customer can afford. In most areas of the country, these tests cost about $100 each. Some of the problems with air testing are: 1. The more tests that are performed, the more costly the job. 2. Air testing is highly inaccurate. All it can do is to tell you what was in the air at that location at that moment in time. Results can vary widely over time and method used. Airborne fungal spore concentrations vary greatly over the course of hours, days, weeks, and seasons. 3. In colder climates when there is snow on the ground, the results of the outside test will be useless in that spore count is greatly or totally reduced. I have yet to hear that a customer was told this fact. 4. There are no numerical standards to which tests can be prepared, making interpretation difficult. 5. Even the best tests can not determine how much exposure people in the house have had in the past. 6. Fungal air tests are expensive. 7. Results are slow to receive. 8. Knowing the type of mold does not change the way that you would respond. All mold that is active, or was active, is bad mold. Then what does represent a professional, accurate, and helpful mold inspection? The most intelligent inspections should: Find all mold. Determine the cause; i.e. Where is the water problem(s). Explain how to fix the problem(s). This inspection requires work, experience, and knowledge. It is also labor intensive; lasting about 2 hours or more on average. It begins with an intensive investigation of the property outside of the house. It finds flaws in roofs, chimneys, gutters, downspouts, foundations, and/or landscaping. In short, anywhere and any way that water could get into the house and cause a problem. Then, moving inside the inspection closely is conducted looking throughout the house, basement, and attic for issues under windows, sinks, tubs, showers, washer and dryers. Tools such as moisture meters, hygrometers, and boroscopes should be utilized as appropriate.