Judgement call

[ejones2]

I had a lady call today for a 2nd opinion. She had found some mold in her house and had it tested by another inspector. The tape test came back as stachy but the air test came back as not elavated. The inspector advised the lady no remediation was needed since the air didnt have elavated levels of mold. He told her to clean it up with a bleach solution. The mold is in her kitchen. I advised her to contact a remidiator for further review. Anyone have thoughts?

[iniquette]

Originally Posted by ejones2

I had a lady call today for a 2nd opinion. She had found some mold in her house and had it tested by another inspector. The tape test came back as stachy but the air test came back as not elavated. The inspector advised the lady no remediation was needed since the air didnt have elavated levels of mold. He told her to clean it up with a bleach solution. The mold is in her kitchen. I advised her to contact a remidiator for further review. Anyone have thoughts?

How did the other inspector conduct his testing? How large was the area that you looked at? Need to know the parameters of the situation on this before we can start shelling out opinions, which I'm sure there will be plenty.

[ejones2]

I didnt actually look at it she didnt want to pay for me to come out. It was her kitchen not sure of the size. She had a pet watering dish that had leaked water for about 6 months and the water had gotten under the linolium and created mold. I doubt if it was a real large area of mold since it was from a pet watering dish. The inspector did air testing using air-o-cells and a tape for a sample.

[James E. Braun, CMI]

Of course bleach is a bad ideal. And only a certified remediator can remove Stachy. Stachy is hard to pick up on an air test because the spores are so heavy and they do not float well. If the inspector did not take the sample in the room with the mold then he probably would not had picked it up with an air sample if the mold growth was small.

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by ejones2

I didnt actually look at it she didnt want to pay for me to come out.

Please heed this warning.

It is not uncommon (it happened in MO in 2007) for a HI licensing bill to be pending in the House of Representatives and there be media "set-ups" and "stings" where the proponents for licensing will search and search and search until they can find one bad inspector...then they will exploit him and build a case that the law is necessary to protect the public from the one bad inspector.

Usually, it will be a house pre-inspected by a cooperating ASHI member. Five guys will be called out to inspect it and the guy who finds the least number of defects will be publicly castrated.

Another way to get into trouble is by doing what you just did. Giving advice over the telephone to a client without visually assessing the situation.

You could have been talking to a TV Producer....or his mother as he she read from his script and he taped the call, after a forensic scientist has already identified the presence of a deadly substance.

Every inspector in the state should have his guard up.

[ejones2]

I didn't give advice just defferred to a professional remidiator for further review.