How To Check a House for Mold

8/23/2021 (Permalink)

Mold testing

How to Examine a House for Mold

There are a number of situations in which you may want to check a house for mold growth. For example, if you’re thinking of buying a house in Milton, TN, or if you’ve experienced a significant water event in your own home. If a thorough visual inspection of the house, including the attic, closets, basement, or crawlspace, doesn’t turn up mold but you still suspect there may be a problem, you may want to call a certified indoor environmental specialist.

If the house has any of these issues, it may have a hidden mold problem:

• A musty or moldy smell
  
• Past flooding
  
• Leaks
  
• Humidity over 60 percent
  
  

What Is a Mold Test?

When you hire indoor environmental specialists, they will conduct a mold test. There are air tests, surface tests and bulk tests. A spore trap is a device with a sticky surface inside. When air passes through it, any mold spores in the air stick to the surface. When a dye is applied, it stains the mold spores so the tester can determine the number and types of mold spores present in the air. If your home has a higher spore count than the air outside, there’s a good chance you have hidden mold.

The surface test works in a similar way. An adhesive strip is applied to surfaces and then analyzed for mold spores. A bulk test actually removes suspect material from your home - for example, drywall damaged in a flood - and tests it for mold.

What Is a Moisture Assessment?

A qualified indoor environmental specialist in Milton, TN, can also perform a moisture assessment. Not only can this pinpoint the locations of hidden mold growth, but it can also locate the source of moisture problems that foster molds, like broken water pipes, leaking roofs, or areas of poor ventilation. These are carried out with moisture meters, infrared imaging and careful tracking of humidity, temperature and dew point.

If you suspect a mold problem but you can’t see one, hiring a professional to carry out a mold test and moisture assessment can give you the peace of mind you’re looking for.