How A Thorough Mold Inspection Can Help You Find The Source Of Musty Odors In Your Home
Mold spores float through the air, and they'll begin to grow on any surface that provides them with sufficient food and moisture. If you have any water damage or excessively damp areas in your home, it's very likely that you will eventually develop a mold problem. You can typically tell that you have mold in your home by its smell. If you smell mold in your home, it's a good idea to call a mold inspection service to have your home examined for the presence of mold.
High levels of mold spores in the air can potentially cause respiratory problems, and some people are allergic to certain mold species. Finding the source of the mold will allow you to have it removed. To learn more about how a mold inspector finds the infestation in your home, read on.
Airborne Testing
In some cases, you may have the persistent smell of mold or mildew in your home without being able to see any visible mold. This situation is where airborne spore testing is useful. When performing airborne spore testing, a mold inspection contractor uses a device that compresses air from the room and blows it onto a microscopic slide. This catches mold spores that may be floating through the air.
The slide is then sent to a laboratory and viewed under a microscope, which allows the technician to count the number of mold spores present on the slide.
However, mold spores are everywhere. If you sampled the air in homes without mold problems, you would inevitably see some mold spores. In order to determine if your home has a mold infestation, the mold inspection contractor also needs to take samples from the air outside your home. The slides from these air samples are compared to the slides from the samples taken inside your home. If your home's air has more mold spores floating in it than the air outside, it's very likely that your home has a mold problem.
Additionally, taking air samples in different rooms can allow you to narrow down the source of your mold infestation. Mold may be growing in your air ducts or inside your wall cavities, where you won't be able to see it. If the samples taken near an air conditioner register or in a certain room are unusually high compared to samples taken elsewhere in your home, you'll know that the mold infestation is located somewhere near where those samples were taken.
Strip Testing
Once you've managed to visually locate the mold infestation, a mold inspection contractor can use strip testing in order to obtain a sample of the mold spores that comprise the infestation. When performing strip testing, a clear strip of tape is applied to the mold growth and then slowly ripped away. After that, it's applied to a slide and then sent to a laboratory to be viewed under a microscope.
Strip testing allows you to determine the species of mold that's infesting your home. In most cases, this information isn't that relevant — legally, all mold is treated the same. If you have mold in your home and you need to remove it before renovation work can be performed, then the species of the mold does not matter.
However, if you have been tested for allergies to certain species of mold, then this information can be useful. If you have been having suffering from respiratory symptoms and there's mold in your home that you are allergic to, it's very likely that your symptoms were caused by the mold.
Strip testing and airborne spore testing can both be used to verify that mold remediation was completed properly. If the level of spores in your home matches the level of spores outside and the strip test on the infested area does not contain any spores, you'll have proof that the mold was completely removed. This information is useful if you need to provide it to a contractor before they can begin renovations or to a buyer before you sell your home.
Overall, a mold inspection service allows you to quickly locate any mold infestations in your home, allowing you to have them removed. If you have noticed the smell of mold or mildew in your home, it's a good idea to call a mold inspection service to have the source located. Removing mold early helps to prevent it from spreading further throughout your home.
To learn more, contact a mold inspection company.
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