Mold Spore Air Testing Question

[Sawtooth]

I have a customer that moved into a new to them house about 6 months ago and over the last 3+ months the wife has developed a serious cough and has been diagnosed that she has asthma and is now on medication to help her breath especially at night. There is nothing visible in the house or under so her doctor recommended that they have a mold air test done to eliminate that as her health problem. I can find someone in the phone book but I was hoping somebody here has someone they deal with or have used in the past that they feel did a good job. I have someone that I used in Havasu when my place flooded but that does me no good as this location is in the San Gabriel Valley. Any information anyone can provide would be much appreciated, thanks.

 

[termiteguy]

there is a guy here in south oc that uses dogs to sniff out mold (labs)google k9 mold detection you should be able to find him I have seen the dogs work they are really good

 

[spectras only]

anyone tried testing kit from Home Depot?

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.do-it-yourself-mold-test-kit-s.1000494687.html

 

[termiteguy]

anyone tried testing kit from Home Depot?

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.do-it-yourself-mold-test-kit-s.1000494687.html

not something you want to save a few bucks on hire a pro

 

[Angler]

Contact Scott at SOUTH COAST RESTORATION INC, Office: 949-951-3637
He took care of my Mom's house. He is also a member here. :thumbup:

 

[OCMerrill]

You need an industrial hygienist. They can perform air sampling and gather the results related to Total Fungal Ecology inside your home vrs outside and know there is an actual issue or not.

I have been Mold Certified for 10 years, am a certified inspector, certified in remediation / restoration, certified renovator. If mold is visible or I can find wet walls which I can open to visually / physically find it thats one thing. With health complaints w/o any moisture located that's another issue relating to old damage or there is not an issue with the home its self but more with whats outside.

Keep in mind there are molds that sporulate (giving off spores into the air - allergens) and those that don't so an air sampling is the only way to find out the air quality inside your house. A non sporulating Fungi should not bother anyone unless there is constant direct contact (touching or ingestion).

These tests return results in PPM or Parts Per Million. Higher outside than inside is the simple answer but there are factors to what percentage. Also certain molds are looked for that you shouldn't normally have inside that would indicate issues.


Places we find issues on a regular basis:

Plumbing -Drains and especially if you have a bathroom that is not regularly used.
Leaking showers - wet walls and sub-floor around a shower enclosure
Under sink vanities and kitchen base cabinets
Sprinklers hitting exterior walls on a constant basis. Look for water damaged baseboard

Lastly an Industrial Hygienist is not trying to make a work project out of your home. They are fact finders and not Mold Remediators so you dont have a Rooster running around fucking all the Hens if you get my drift. If issues are found they can give you specific instructions on how to proceed. Don't let anyone swab your walls as that will always return mold results. Settled spores are everywhere.

 

[BajaMike]

I would trust OCMerrill advice 100%. He has done great work for me.

Mold abatement is a huge racket. Medical issues blamed on "environmental toxicity" is also a huge racket.

There are hundreds of doctors (who are broke due to Obamacare) who will say your illness is due to home mold. Did they check the workplace....the car.....the air (smog) in the neighborhood?

Are there vague symptoms? A lot of this is hypochondria and hysteria. OCM is right....you can find mold everywhere....when I lived in Austin, they had a "mold report....mold index" every day on the news.

Trust OCMerrill!

 

[COCA COLA COWBOY]

I would trust OCMerrill advice 100%. He has done great work for me.

Mold abatement is a huge racket. Medical issues blamed on "environmental toxicity" is also a huge racket.

There are hundreds of doctors (who are broke due to Obamacare) who will say your illness is due to home mold. Did they check the workplace....the car.....the air (smog) in the neighborhood?

Are there vague symptoms? A lot of this is hypochondria and hysteria. OCM is right....you can find mold everywhere....when I lived in Austin, they had a "mold report....mold index" every day on the news.

Trust OCMerrill!

I totally agreed with you until I bought a flip house that had known mold in it. I felt like crap till I moved out and had the issue resolved. I used to preach about it being a bunch of balogne and everything.

Did the home inspectors use a thermal camera when they did the physical inspection? That will usually show any moisture in areas. I've also seen mold hide behind wallpaper that was tough to detect.

 

[OCMerrill]

I totally agreed with you until I bought a flip house that had known mold in it. I felt like crap till I moved out and had the issue resolved. I used to preach about it being a bunch of balogne and everything.

Did the home inspectors use a thermal camera when they did the physical inspection? That will usually show any moisture in areas. I've also seen mold hide behind wallpaper that was tough to detect.

The only SURE way to know is to get an Industrial Hygienist on board. I have a $1500 thermo camera and we just consider it part of the search but if stacky is floating around in the air you need to know. Thats evidence of old damage that has not been found previously.

 

[OCMerrill]

I would trust OCMerrill advice 100%. He has done great work for me.

Mold abatement is a huge racket. Medical issues blamed on "environmental toxicity" is also a huge racket.

There are hundreds of doctors (who are broke due to Obamacare) who will say your illness is due to home mold. Did they check the workplace....the car.....the air (smog) in the neighborhood?

Are there vague symptoms? A lot of this is hypochondria and hysteria. OCM is right....you can find mold everywhere....when I lived in Austin, they had a "mold report....mold index" every day on the news.

Trust OCMerrill!

Yep asking a mold guy to find Mold....he absolutely will no matter what.

Last November in an assoc. in Aliso Viejo I had a lady that was going to sue everyone because her Condo was making her sick. She was acting as a woman scorned, on the rampage.
Hygienist report came back pre any work and no air scrubbing.

inside rooms 1-3 average 160 ppm
living room 145 ppm
Outside 1260 ppm

All this is very normal. Total fungal ecology indicates normal. Condo was cleared. So she went after her work. I have no idea what happened but some people become allergic and thats the way it goes. Get a shot. I suffer hay fever so bad some spring days I can't see. I get shots.

Many times its 5000 ppm inside and 500 outside. So then you have active sporalating fungi growth inside the house. CCC had that issue.

 

[dezertrider]

I have an air cleaner that can help with any current in home issues until the problem is fixed.

We researched many of the product in our industry and after installing several in our personnel homes we now recommend one product now. It kicks ass!!!!

Our first test was a home with 2 dogs, 2 cats, a day care with 6-8 babies in diapers and an owner with bad allergies. One year later and they still have no smells and his allergies are much better inside then outside. Now we have done several houses with awesome results..

 

[COCA COLA COWBOY]

Yep asking a mold guy to find Mold....he absolutely will no matter what.

Last November in an assoc. in Aliso Viejo I had a lady that was going to sue everyone because her Condo was making her sick. She was acting as a woman scorned, on the rampage.
Hygienist report came back pre any work and no air scrubbing.

inside rooms 1-3 average 160 ppm
living room 145 ppm
Outside 1260 ppm

All this is very normal. Total fungal ecology indicates normal. Condo was cleared. So she went after her work. I have no idea what happened but some people become allergic and thats the way it goes. Get a shot. I suffer hay fever so bad some spring days I can see. I get shots.

Many times its 5000 ppm inside and 500 outside. So then you have active sporalating fungi growth inside the house. CCC had that issue.

I have another client that I sold an impecable home to. He suffers from allergies as well, but just had the vents cleaned, then he took multiple hepa filters (those aren't cheap by the way) and built a filter cartridge that goes in front of the intake vent of the AC system. He said it fixes what ails him. When he first moved in he had syptoms, but he knew he needed to make these remedies and felt perfectly fine a day afterwards.

 

[spark2678]

I had a mod problem in our house. Couldn't figure it out as I was getting headaches, brain fog, anxiety, etc. Was effecting my ability to do my job properly.Got some expensive tests done and came back positive. Spent a bunch more money getting whole house cleaned and attack plus getting rid of the problem. Felt great ever since, about 3 years ago.

 

[dezertrider]

I have another client that I sold an impecable home to. He suffers from allergies as well, but just had the vents cleaned, then he took multiple hepa filters (those aren't cheap by the way) and built a filter cartridge that goes in front of the intake vent of the AC system. He said it fixes what ails him. When he first moved in he had syptoms, but he knew he needed to make these remedies and felt perfectly fine a day afterwards.

Filters on the intake are going to cause a lot of other problems. Generally the air is already filtered before it enters the duct so it does not collect in the duct. If you clean standard flexible duct you end up destroying the inner liner exposing the fiber glass into the air stream. We install a lot of variable speed furnaces with a good MERV 10 air filter that helps alot of issues. The variable speed allows for constant air filtration.

 

[pronstar]

I had a mod problem in our house.

That's what happens when you invite Shintoo and DaytonaBabe over

 

[Mandelon]

Different people can have different physical responses to the same exposure levels.

Sensitivity can build up to repeated exposure over time as well.

Heat sensing/FLIR cameras only work well if the area is wet. Old but dry fungal colonies can pollute the air even if not active.

A hygienist can tell you if something is actively growing. Samples will have significant hyphae counts.

 

[Sawtooth]

I would like to thank everybody that responded, OCM do you have a hygienist that you use or would recommend. Talking with the homeowner last night after posting the thread I found out last year they had a leak under the house and according to her there was 6"-8" of standing water under the house so they shut off the main that night and by morning the water had absorbed into the soil. They called whoever they had previously used to do some renovations to fix it, "we don't know what they found/did because it was under the house". The plot thickens!

 

[81eliminator]

anyone tried testing kit from Home Depot?

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.do-it-yourself-mold-test-kit-s.1000494687.html

These are like buying a Chia pet, since there is mold spores every where, they grow mold every time. they do not tell you how much mold you have floating around your home.

 

[AuggieBenDoggie]

I have an air cleaner that can help with any current in home issues until the problem is fixed.

We researched many of the product in our industry and after installing several in our personnel homes we now recommend one product now. It kicks ass!!!!

Our first test was a home with 2 dogs, 2 cats, a day care with 6-8 babies in diapers and an owner with bad allergies. One year later and they still have no smells and his allergies are much better inside then outside. Now we have done several houses with awesome results..

View attachment 471243

Does that filter system require having central air already in the house? If so is there a system you recommend for houses without?

 

[dezertrider]

Does that filter system require having central air already in the house? If so is there a system you recommend for houses without?

Yes, this requires central heating or cooling to work. The duct work and fan are used to filter the air for the entire house. I'm sure there are product out there that plug into the wall outlets but we have never tested any of these