Interpreting Indoor Air Quality Test Results

[MrBean]

Greetings,

We recently had an indoor air quality test performed in our place and I am trying to interpret the results. They should be attached to this post. There is definitely a moisture problem as a result of bathroom exhaust fans going straight into the attic instead of outside. That is going to be repaired and attic remediation has been recommended.

These results are after running a dehumidifier and cleaning up as best we could. Does the data in the following report indicate doing anything more?

Thanks for any help!

Download Attachment: Mold Report.pdf

64.83 KB

[Les]

Hey Dan,

Where is page one? What did the "mold collector" have to say?

I certainly can't tell you much of anything from the couple of pages here. Read the report carefully and use your own common sense.

[blindrid]

So you pay for a company to provide a test and they do not explain? I would question that initially.

Not very useful data . . . . . .

[kurt]

It looks to be missing a page or two, but in general it's another worthless mold report.

Worthless as in, it's not useful information. It's "factual" to the extent I trust their counts and identifications to be accurate, but it doesn't tell us anything.

There are no medical standards established to bounce any of these numbers off of. It's just measurements, and telling you what the measurements are. It quite literally doesn't mean anything. It's just mold counts. If they can make you uneasy, that's the goal; then, maybe you'll continue to pay them for more useless information.

It's also useful to note their control numbers....notice how a lot of the control is at or similar to the amounts in the rooms? IOW, the same amount of mold is in the ambient air as in the rooms.

Personally, I'd wrap fish in it; at least it would recycle the paper into something worthwhile.

All my diatribe doesn't mean mold isn't a problem, but going at the problem with a lot of expensive useless information doesn't provide solutions.

Find the water, stop it, wipe down what you got (which is damn little compared to most of the reports I see), and move on with life.

[John Dirks Jr]

Its interesting because most home inspection SOP guidelines exclude mold. At the same time, people want to know about problems with mold in their house.

So, a smart guy could start a business as a mold inspector and not have to worry about home inspection license laws. Mold is not regulated and is excluded by the HI organizations SOP. However, the mold inspector has a right to visit the house in question and obviously he'll take some samples and provide a report.

All that said, the mold inspector should look for moisture problems and make recommendations on how to control them. You see, the "mold inspector" platform is a ticket onto the property to do inspection services that would otherwise need to be done under regulated licensed circumstances.

I know there has to be a few good "mold inspectors" out there. They just use means that are excluded from the home inspection profession to gain access to property and help people solve problems.

If a all a person gets is a paper with spore counts on it, I consider it a ripoff. If a report is included that addresses moisture issues and how to correct them, maybe its a decent service.

[Tom Raymond]

Does anyone really need to read any further than this line to know what this report is worth?

"SPORE TRAP REPORT: NON-VIABLE METHODOLOGY"

[Scottpat]

Greetings,

We recently had an indoor air quality test performed in our place and I am trying to interpret the results. They should be attached to this post. There is definitely a moisture problem as a result of bathroom exhaust fans going straight into the attic instead of outside. That is going to be repaired and attic remediation has been recommended.

These results are after running a dehumidifier and cleaning up as best we could. Does the data in the following report indicate doing anything more?

Thanks for any help!

Download Attachment: Mold Report.pdf

64.83?KB

As others have said what you have is not very much. You really do not have an IAQ report but rather a Mold spore report.

It looks like this is for a school of some type, so I highly recommend that you contact an Certified Industrial Hygienist (CHI) and let them do a proper IAQ survey of the building.

Mold spores can be just a small part or might not have anything to do with poor IAQ. You can have high levels of CO, high levels of VOC from all types of things like paints, building products and stored chemicals just to name a few that can cause IAQ problems.

Do yourself, employees and students a big favor and contact a CHI.

[hausdok]

OP,

Here's the bottom line. There is no such thing as "toxic" mold. There is fungi. Lots of varieties and some people are allergic to various types while others are not; the same way some folks are allergic to certain pollens and others are not, or some are allergic to penicillin (a mold) and others are not; or some folks are allergic to peanuts while others are not, etc.

Mold is ubiquitous in the environment we live in and always has been. It's on your clothes and hair this instant, there is a layer you can't feel stuck to each of your eyeballs, it's in your mouth,your nose and your lungs, and it always has been since the day you were held upside down in a delivery room and someone slapped you on your ass. Every time you walk inside from outside you carry some outdoor varieties indoors and every time you go out you carry some indoor varieties outside. It's been that way since before our ancestors crawled out of the primordial slime and it's going to be that way long after humans have run their course and are extinct. You might as well get used to it.

Trying to completely eliminate mold from a house is like trying to find a pixie; ain't gonna happen.

You've admitted there are high moisture conditions that are probably causing the normal ambient level of mold to blossom. Address those and then go to the EPA website and download their free booklet on how to deal with mold, follow those instructions and go on with your life.

You've now learned a life lesson; "inspectors" that take your money for mold samples that they've taken are stealing your money because they haven't bothered to make you understand, before you paid for it, that the whole "toxic" mold thing is a myth created by lawyers and that mold "testing" is junk science. Now that you know what it feels like to be victimized, please spread the word to others who think they're being poisoned by the "toxic mold" and tell them to avoid these firms like they'd avoid sending their kids to a daycare center run by a predatory pedophile.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike