Mold Testing, simple or complete indoor/outdoor?

What is commonly being done? Are most inspectors doing just a simple inspection for mold found indoors using tape & swabs, or are you doing the complete indoor/outdoor testing system?

And, what equipment do you recommend? All I can find is the Zefon Z-Lite kit and am wondering if I’m missing something.

I’m a new inspector in the equipment gathering phase and want to be competitive so I want to be ready to roll with full service capability, but don’t want to go nuts if it’s not what is most often being done.

Advice welcome!

Richard,

Welcome to inspecting.

That said, slow the train down a little. Get all the training you can and ask questions.
Then proceed with competitive pricing but it is not in your best interest to give mold testing away.
The Zefon pump, cartidges, etc are effective and will work just fine.

When offering your testing services, be clear about what you do and don’t do, then of course have that in your inspection/mold agreement.

Thank you for your reply. I’ve completed all the training through InterNACHI and other inspection training courses and am ready to begin performing inspections. I have compared the pricing of other local inspectors and am matching theirs, not higher, not lower, but I’m not sure exactly what level of inspection they are doing (simple tape/swab or a complete indoor/outdoor air quality testing.

In your own inspections do you use the Zefon equipment or do you use Pro-Lab or some other system?

I use the Zefon pump/equipment.
Cartridges/swabs go to Prolab and I also use a lab in Southeast Michigan.

Richard,
Fill out your profile so we know where you are and can better help.

I have not considered the need for swab/tape lifts.
Air sampling yes, but no swabs.
I advise my clients why should I charge you for a surface swab?
Who cares if it’s green, pink, black, Chinese mold, etc.
It’s mold, it’s gotta go.
Air sampling is another matter to determine if there has been spore dispersal that has elevated the air counts.

1 Like

After taking both Mold Inspection & the Advanced Mold Inspection courses, I find myself wondering if offering this service is practical.

As I understand it, you are unable to take the two outside background baseline measurements when there is wind, cold temperatures, rain, snow, or within 2 hours of a rain storm. This presents a problem in my region as any number of these, or several at a time occur 8 months out of the year. Warm, calm days are not the norm here.

How do I obtain background measurements to tell if there are elevated measurements indoors with these climatic conditions?

You could use the hard numbers established by AGCHI when weather does not permit for an outside sample to be taken.

I would like to bring a different perspective to this. As a mold remediation professional I constantly have people bring me sampling data that has no real value. To be clear, I also as a mold remediation professional refer customers to other qualified contractors for sampling / testing to avoid conflicts of interest. So, I am in no way writing to discourage competition. Also, let me be clear I am not insulting or questioning anyone’s qualifications, but sampling should not be done or sold to a customer unless it is done in conjunction with a thorough visual assessment and is part of a sampling plan that is designed to answer specific questions. I have recently written an article on LinkedIn addressing just this subject.Click here to read it. It refers to several third party sources that also address many questions raised here.

There is a typo in the first sentence of the last paragraph of your article.:wink:

1 Like