IAC2 releases new Mold Inspection Standards of Practice.

[Nick Gromicko]

http://www.iac2.org/sop.php

[Wilfred O. Hellner]

Thank you Nick for that imfo. I will print it.

[Howard Tennyson]

Thank you Nick...by the way, where is the best place to get a sampling kit?

[Joe Farsetta]

Nick,

Based on the SOP and what will be inspected to extablish conditions, I believe that this may indeed fall into the category of a home inspection in many licensed states.

Also, as extablished protocols call for but a single outdoor sample. how did we wind up with 2 samples required?

[James E. Braun, CMI]

EMSL has the same requirement. You will notice that when the labs set the protocols, there is always two outdoor samples. Only reason I can think of is more $ for them. I will not use a standard that makes the customer pay for two samples outside until I can get a better explanation why. It does not make sense, like the rule of sending a blank sample in and calling it a room in the house to make sure your lab is doing their job right. If I cannot trust the person 100% who is analyzing the sample, I will not send in the sample. But that can be a different thread.

[Dennis Wright]

Hello Nick,

Do you have any references to H.I. being sued for not reporting mold? I read on this board somewhere that one inspector was sued for not stating there could be mold and another was sued by the home owner for saying that there could be. I a just a little afraid of the mold testing business.

Thanks,

Dennis Wright
Quality Home Inspection

[Nick Gromicko]

A home owner who is not your client has no standing and so can't sue you for what you tell your client. We did have a complaint where a client said the inspector was not aggressive enough in recommending a mold inspection when he noticed mold. If you think your client should do a full mold inspection, tell him/her to. If he/she refuses you might want to use the mold waiver: http://www.nachi.org/documents.htm#28

[Gerry Beaumont]

Originally Posted by jbraun

EMSL has the same requirement. You will notice that when the labs set the protocols, there is always two outdoor samples. Only reason I can think of is more $ for them. I will not use a standard that makes the customer pay for two samples outside until I can get a better explanation why.

Hi to all,

The answer to that is quite simple, different areas around the home will produce wildly differing spore counts, for example at my own home a sample from the rear yard which is somewhat protected, shaded and therefore damper, would have a very different spore profile to my front yard which is fully open, full sun etc.

Regards

Gerry

[Nick Gromicko]

Gerry is correct. That is why you take one in the front yard and one in the back.

Ideally you would take 5 or 6 outside samples to try to determine how much the outside is influencing the inside; spores float. But no one can afford that.

[James E. Braun, CMI]

I thought that somebody might see it that way but I have taken air samples a few miles apart, at a different job, but come up with the basically the same results. Any heavy shaded areas will have a different count than unshaded areas because of the mold from the trees. And I have found to stay away from strawed yards also when testing.

[Nick Gromicko]

Some of it is just for defensibility purposes and the samples aren't terribly expensive.

[John M. Acaron]

When I took the Mold class with ESA in Orlando 2005 +/- the recommendation was for ONLY one outdoor sample to be use as the control sample. So, ESA is wrong?

Who determined that we need two outdoor sample . @ $125.00/sample and two inside + $250.00 for mold screening, lab results and Mold assessment report. A client will be paying $750.00 rather than $625.00. No way somebody will pay that kind of money.

So maybe the solution is to do the mold screening and do a Mold report free of charge and just charge for he samples and lab report only. No way Jose . Liability is to great to just relinquishing the lab report only.

Hard to find a client that will pay for two outdoors samples.

[Nick Gromicko]

Yes, ESA is wrong.

An extra outdoor sample is only another $25 in lab fees. Do it right.

[James E. Braun, CMI]

Then so is IESO, IAQA, AmIAQ, MICRO, AHIA, NMPA, and so on and so on. Sounds like IAC2 and EMSL is standing alone on this issue.

[Howard Tennyson]

I'll ask again...where's the best place to get a mold sampling kit?