HI Encourages Mold Testing

[dplummer]

Recent Flooding Raises Concerns About Toxic Mold; Local Home Experts Encourage Home Owners to Proactively Test Biologial Growth.
Fox Lake, IL, September 26, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Now that the waters have receded from recent flooding of the Chain O’ Lakes, Fox and Des Plaines Rivers, homeowners may face yet another unpleasant aftereffect — toxic mold.

Steve Beer, an Illinois certified and licensed home inspector advises that homeowners stay on alert for biological growth. Beer is the owner of Fox Lake based A Pro Team Home Inspections who offers residential and commercial inspection services in the Chicago area and Northern Illinois.

“The standing water and excessive moisture that accompanies flooding causes all types of biological growth to flourish,” says Beer. “Even with diligent clean up efforts, mold can still lurk behind walls, above ceiling tiles, in duct work or under flooring, which can cause structural damage to your home over time.”

There are also the potentially serious health effects to consider.

“While exposure to most mold does not necessarily result in health problems,” says Beer. “If left unchecked, active indoor biological growth does have the potential to cause very adverse effects.”

Beer cautions, mold can be serious. There are over 100,000 kinds of mold. Even if one is not normally sensitive to mold, repeated exposure to many types can cause allergic reactions like runny noses, itchy eyes, and skin rashes. People with mold sensitivities, respiratory conditions like asthma, and those with undeveloped or weakened immune systems--infants, small children, the elderly, cancer and HIV patients--may be at greater risk for much more severe symptoms or infection. Additionally, very dangerous molds do exist and can grow in your home, such as Chaetomium and Stachybotrys chartarum, which produce toxins that have been linked to bleeding lungs, neurological and immunological damage.

If you think you may have a mold problem, Beer recommends being proactive and hiring a qualified inspector to test it. Not only can testing find hidden mold, but it can also prevent homeowners from spending unnecessary cash on remediation.

“A professional inspector looks for biological growth in places that most homeowners would miss and knows how to collect valid laboratory samples,” says Beer. “He can also determine the severity of the mold problem: Is it an easy, inexpensive cleanup that you can take care of yourself? Or, will it require expensive, professional remediation? If you do have to go the remediation route, having a valid upfront test will help you to establish whether or not the company you hired fixed the problem correctly.”

Mold problems are of particular importance to home sellers and buyers. Sellers should realize that the presence of mold is a negative strike to most buyers. Beer recommends that a pre-listing home inspection by a professional home inspector can help them to identify and fix the source of a mold problem and other defects before they place their home on the market.

Beer also advises that buyers always make certain that their offer to purchase includes a home inspection contingency that covers environmental concerns. “This ensures that they will be able to test environmentally for mold, radon and other potential issues,” says Beer. It will also allow them to back out of the contract if toxic mold or other molds are detected.”

Contact:

Steve Beer
info@a-teaminspectors.com
630-228-7395
A Pro Team Home Inspections
www.a-teaminspectors.com

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by dplummer

Recent Flooding Raises Concerns About Toxic Mold; Local Home Experts Encourage Home Owners to Proactively Test Biologial Growth.
Fox Lake, IL, September 26, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Now that the waters have receded from recent flooding of the Chain O’ Lakes, Fox and Des Plaines Rivers, homeowners may face yet another unpleasant aftereffect — toxic mold.

Steve Beer, an Illinois certified and licensed home inspector advises that homeowners stay on alert for biological growth. Beer is the owner of Fox Lake based A Pro Team Home Inspections who offers residential and commercial inspection services in the Chicago area and Northern Illinois.

“The standing water and excessive moisture that accompanies flooding causes all types of biological growth to flourish,” says Beer. “Even with diligent clean up efforts, mold can still lurk behind walls, above ceiling tiles, in duct work or under flooring, which can cause structural damage to your home over time.”

There are also the potentially serious health effects to consider.

“While exposure to most mold does not necessarily result in health problems,” says Beer. “If left unchecked, active indoor biological growth does have the potential to cause very adverse effects.”

Beer cautions, mold can be serious. There are over 100,000 kinds of mold. Even if one is not normally sensitive to mold, repeated exposure to many types can cause allergic reactions like runny noses, itchy eyes, and skin rashes. People with mold sensitivities, respiratory conditions like asthma, and those with undeveloped or weakened immune systems--infants, small children, the elderly, cancer and HIV patients--may be at greater risk for much more severe symptoms or infection. Additionally, very dangerous molds do exist and can grow in your home, such as Chaetomium and Stachybotrys chartarum, which produce toxins that have been linked to bleeding lungs, neurological and immunological damage.

If you think you may have a mold problem, Beer recommends being proactive and hiring a qualified inspector to test it. Not only can testing find hidden mold, but it can also prevent homeowners from spending unnecessary cash on remediation.

“A professional inspector looks for biological growth in places that most homeowners would miss and knows how to collect valid laboratory samples,” says Beer. “He can also determine the severity of the mold problem: Is it an easy, inexpensive cleanup that you can take care of yourself? Or, will it require expensive, professional remediation? If you do have to go the remediation route, having a valid upfront test will help you to establish whether or not the company you hired fixed the problem correctly.”

Mold problems are of particular importance to home sellers and buyers. Sellers should realize that the presence of mold is a negative strike to most buyers. Beer recommends that a pre-listing home inspection by a professional home inspector can help them to identify and fix the source of a mold problem and other defects before they place their home on the market.

Beer also advises that buyers always make certain that their offer to purchase includes a home inspection contingency that covers environmental concerns. “This ensures that they will be able to test environmentally for mold, radon and other potential issues,” says Beer. It will also allow them to back out of the contract if toxic mold or other molds are detected.”

Contact:

Steve Beer
info@a-teaminspectors.com
630-228-7395
A Pro Team Home Inspections
www.a-teaminspectors.com

Stop trying to scare the public into mold testing and buying your servces!!!!

The "toxicity" of moulds has not yet been thoroughly researched with standards developed/set and species characterized by category.

The cluster of "infant deaths by bleeding lung caused by mold" theory has never been proven and, in fact, most mold specialists and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) dismiss this theory!! From Dr. Fungus' site: "The CDC has since published a statement effectively retracting the conclusions of the original investigation.

However, the damage was done and the horse was out of the barn. Recommendations based on the original investigation had been published by prominent authorities. Numerous articles in the lay press further served to spread the faulty message."

Other tidbits from this site include:

"The amount of exposure required to produce S. chartarum-related disease has been estimated to be at least 1,000-fold higher than amounts reported in most environmental surveys."

"Identifying the specific fungus that is infesting a wall is less important than getting rid of it and preventing its return." Or as Joe Lstiburek says "If you can see it or smell it, you know you have mold. Don't spend money trying to find out more about the mold. Use the money to clean up..............."

Here's the specific page on the site:
http://www.doctorfungus.org/mycoses/...ase.htm#toxins

[wsiegel]

you know what they say: mold is gold.

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by wsiegel

you know what they say: mold is gold.

Or as I see some firms here doing: "Scare the $h_t out them, then pick their pocket!!"

26 months ago: A gent called and said he'd phoned around to an environmental clinic, gov't, etc. and my name came up frequently.....was I available in the next couple of days?

The Scene:
Both his retired mid-70's parents were in the hospital during a very humid August, 2005, so no one was home to manage dehumidifiers, air the place out and so on. A small bit of mold (less than 10 square feet) developed in the basement section of a 1973 3-level side split. The original wood roll-up garage door had some white filamentous fungus (Poria sp., maybe) decaying the wood at one joint. There was also some condensation staining and mold spotting on the roof sheathing but it was not known if it had been active recently.

Someone who was watching/checking the house for the elder couple smelled some mould/mustiness and called the hospitalized gent. The older gent phoned the largest local engineering firm to have a look and report back to him.

From the son who called me: Report said full clean-up was estimated at $8,000-$10,000. "Do not go into the garage.......hazardous to your health."...........By corollary then, "Do not go into the woods where spruce, pine, fir are.........as it's hazardous to your health" (since the white filametous fungi decaying the garage door is most likely the same one that decays these trees when they die!)

By chance, the next afternoon, I had an inspection about 3-4 streets over from his parents place. I told him I could meet there about 4:30-5:00. By the time I got there the next day, he'd opened the windows and had the dehumidifier working- there was no smell of mould/mustiness in the dwelling. I looked at the garage door, and the small amount of dark coloured mold in the basement, we both inspected a very small dry crawlspace with a concrete floor, I had a look in the attic............After all of 25-30 minutes, we concluded there was no major mold problem and I gave him some materials from our national housing agency, CMHC, about mold cleanup. Told him to replace the garage door......quite evident anyways....and to replace the old shag carpet still in the basement- it was probably a hazard waiting to happen!

I usually charge $150 just to go to a home for a short 1 hour+ consult without report. He didn't have a cheque with him so I asked what he had in cash....$60 he says......done I say (since I only had to drive about 1/2 mile and had made $350 for the previous 3.5 hours......a decent afternoon!!!)

I have not had a call back from these folks so I assume that all is OK!!

It was criminal for the engineering firm to propose to charge these older folks $8-10,000 for a whole house cleanup- What was to be accomplished other than robbery? They were not sick due to their house!

Some other scams have come up from engineering firms here but I have to go...may reveal them later.

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Another promotion from an engineering firm doing mold and asbestos remediation:

FALL 2005:
--Got a call from the firm asking for my mailing address; 2 wks later got a letter promoting their service of making house attics mold resistant! They had a couple of colour pictures of mold splotches on very light coloured plywood sheathing accompanied by a text that went like this: "Home inspectors will find roof sheathing mould growth.........Home buyers will not buy homes with mould". "Call us when you see mould in the attic."

-- Their pitch was to remediate the sheathing by spraying it twice with a weakened solution of hydrogen peroxide, letting it dry between applications and then to spray on "Aegis" -an anti-microbial that works simply by the physical characteristics, not chemical, it displays when attached on the surfaces (a great product- I considered becoming a master distributor for it in 1991 but was too busy setting up and promoting an IAQ subsidiary for an engineering firm).

--The cost of the remediation was $4-5.00/sq ft of sheathing!!! So a small bungalow of 1000 sq ft with a 4/12 roof slope would cost about $4,500 or so.

--Their plan was to get HI's to call the attic mould, create fear and then refer them. I called the company and talked to second in command: Asked whether this attic mould is active (some of it s from the first year of the house when concrete, wood, drywall/plaster is drying, water vapour gets to the attic via air leakage and mould develops then but never gets active again....... but the old stain is there forever!). He said "probably not" for most. (at least he was honest; the only way you can tell if it's still active is to monitor the situation over the fall, winter, spring here when condensation may occur)

--Asked him if this surface mould would get down into the house (attics here have higher levels of insulation- R32, 40 or higher- acting as a filter and ......air movement is from the house to the attic in 99.9999% of houses due to stack (or chimney) effect and negative attic pressures caused by attic venting. So how can the mould move down except in extremely serious attic moisture problems.) He said "probably not"

--Asked him "Why are you scaring people with this ploy through the HI's?" His answer: "It'll make people feel better". I added "and you'll make easy dollars"

--A month or so later, I got a call from a top volume realtor about a house she was selling. HI had called attic mould and suggested the treatment; she got my name from another realtor (I've become a "go to" HI here when there are problems but most of the realtors don't recommend me regularly...don't do fluff reports). I explained the situation and had her calmed down but over the weekend, her vendor went over her advice and had the attic done at an "introductory price" of $2,500 for 1,000 or so sq ft attic.

--From what I can assume, this scam has now died down but it prompted me to add comments on my website:
http://www.ahi-ns.ca/Healthy.htm - see the last two sections of this page. (note: my website is getting a bit dated...been promising myself to update for 1-2 years now)

[Doug Wall]

Has any Home inspector ever read the ANSI approved IICRC S-520, "STANDARD and Reference Guide for Professional Mold Remediation"?

Just curious, everyone have a great week.

I enjoy looking at this message board on monday mornings.

Doug Wall, CIE
Radon & Mold Professionals
www.naplesmoldinspection.com

[Joe Funderburk, CMI]

Nice website. Visitors can click the NACHI logo to find out you are not a valid member.

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by Doug Wall

Has any Home inspector ever read the ANSI approved IICRC S-520, "STANDARD and Reference Guide for Professional Mold Remediation"?

Just curious, everyone have a great week.

I enjoy looking at this message board on monday mornings.

Doug Wall, CIE
Radon & Mold Professionals
www.naplesmoldinspection.com

Good info on your site to set the public straight, Doug. In particular, this article from Realty Times:

A Florida Seller Fights Unregulated Mold Report Stigma

http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20030925_stigma.htm

[Barry Adair]

Originally Posted by Brian A. MacNeish

Good info on your site to set the public straight, Doug. In particular, this article from Realty Times:

A Florida Seller Fights Unregulated Mold Report Stigma

http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20030925_stigma.htm

Appears there is no regard for
Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws -- http://www.loc.gov/copyright.

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by badair

Appears there is no regard for
Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws -- http://www.loc.gov/copyright.

It's a funny thing to print on that article as directly below the notice are two buttons that say "Mail this" and "Print this". Do they want the article spread or not to be used by others at all??

If I E-mail it to someone, is it not unauthorized use since they do not have control over where I mail it? Do I have to have permission before I mail it?

[Barry Adair]

Originally Posted by Brian A. MacNeish

It's a funny thing to print on that article as directly below the notice are two buttons that say "Mail this" and "Print this". Do they want the article spread or not to be used by others at all?? Yes or no either will do.

If I E-mail it to someone, is it not unauthorized use since they do not have control over where I mail it? Just copy don't hit send Do I have to have permission before I mail it? OK

That's why I posted it makes no sense.