How to Test for Mold at Home

Persistent coughing, nasal problems, eye irritation, watery eyes are very annoying health problems. If you don’t know the cause for this health problems and smells odd odor without knowing its source, it would be best to test for mold presence in your dwellings. Chances are molds are already dominating your living space in your household.

Follow these simple steps to find mold presence:

Visual Inspection:

Mold thrives on moisture and therefore your focal point for inspection would be the sources for moisture. Perform a thorough visual inspection of your house. Inspect your attic, basement and crawl spaces.

Significant common areas for examination:

Examine the ventilation, heating and air conditioning systems
Check out the moisture content of floors, windows, ceilings and walls.
Check out water plumbing sites and installations.
Carpet coverings and underneath them.

Look beneath surfaces and all water-damaged areas. By using a non-invasive moisture meter, (consult commercial stores for this), this can be done easily.
By using a calibrated meter (consult a specialist for this equipment), you can test the humidity of your indoor air.

Once detection of mold occurrence is present in your home, you can clean them if they are still in minimal stage or has only infected a ten square foot area. But larger than this, you would need to hire a specialist to remove your mold.

With a mold specialist in your house, expect the following activities to happen.

Specimen Collection:

A certified mold inspector follows and performs this basic inspection. They are trained to ensure that their inspection has consistency in collection protocols. However, while conducting inspection and collecting samples, avoid contamination from samples.

The specialized equipment and procedures used for mold testing allows them to collect specimens from:

Indoor air

Special equipment and procedure is used to test and determine airborne mold spore presence and even counts. It will also include proximate outdoor air as well. On special cases, when the species of mold has to be identified, a collection plate is used with a growth medium in a microbial particle sampler, by which an hour of natural spore settling time can be replicated in just five minutes. By this test, they can determine what type how fast your mold can reproduce.

Wall interior air:

A specialize procedure is used to determine for moisture meter readings of an elevated moisture content of the wall material. This type of testing is for paper covering and drywall installations which are vulnerable for mold growth. The test will require an air sampling pump set at 15 liters a minute, then drawing air from the a wall cavity for about two minutes, running total of 30 liters, or done twice.

Carpeting:

Carpet samples are collected with a system developed as a sampling and analysis technology for the enumeration and identification of both total and viable fungal spores found in dust. This system requires sweeping carpeting with a vacuum. Collected dust is analyzed for viable fungal spore presence and allergens.

Small pieces of contaminated material:

Sometimes it is necessary to remove and test a small portion of the material affected. This can be collected without damaging the item whenever possible.

Water from cooling towers and drain pans:

There can be visible indicators of mold contamination in the immediate water source or from the water main source itself.

What to do with the collected mold samples:

When collection procedure is completed, the right samples shall be magnified and examined by a certified laboratory to determine the type of genus.

Unmagnified appearances may not be reliable indicators. Certain colors can also mean toxic mold occurrence. For instance, the green and purple sheen are associated with Stachybotrys. However, many varieties may not always exhibit the same colors. Black White mold, black mold, green mold and any other kinds all require detailed scrutiny with scientific method to ascertain if the mold is a genus known to produce mycotoxins.

If you are budget conscious and wise don’t be alarmed. Pay only an analysis fee for the samples sent to the laboratory. You don’t have to submit every sample to the lab. Those that are not sent would be placed in a special culturing area. Its mold growth progress will be recorded visually and documented to serve as future reference of mold problems.

After the test, you are aware of mold growing in your home.  Always take the necessary steps to test for mold to determine how to remove them.