DIY Mold Test Kits – Are They Worth the $ Money?
Every professional mold assessor gets calls from homeowners who want to confirm or disprove a mold problem in their homes. Professional Mold Inspectors spend many years learning their trade. What they do is not without cost or effort – therefore a practical cost is involved. Beside the manpower, analysis by an accredited lab analysis costs. With that in mind, home improvement centers and online allergy supply stores have decided to jump into the market with home mold testing kits. So, are these DIY mold test kits worth the money? What information can the average home owner glean from a $45 investment? As a professional Mold Assessor, I decided to have a look myself.
There are more different types of mold testing kits than can be describe here.
The most common is a petri dish that you merely place on a table and allow to sit for a period of time, hoping a specific amount of mold will settle on it. Those results are the easiest to criticize because they are less than worthless – there is no scientific means of collection. How did air turbulence affect the particles that fell out of the air and decided to deposit on that petri dish. Professionals take samples on similar media, but the air flow is controlled and deposited via costly instruments that calculates the airflow and is deposited via 400 precision-drilled holes on to the agar medium. That sample is then sent overnight to the lab for analysis while refrigerated.
More sophisticated sampling can be prepared with a pump the lab sends you. Do you take one sample? Two? Three? Four? Where do you take samples? What results do expect from those sample results?
Then, there are the labs that ask you to remove and handle a piece of wallpaper or drywall material with suspect mold and mail it to them for analysis. Usually if it looks like mold, it is. Now, what does that tell you?
Mold is everywhere – how much is normal and how much is too much? The results could range from “no mold found” to “high” counts of a specific genus of mold. There are values in the middle; how much is OK and how much is too much. The reality of learning anything from the lab results of these consumer samples is questionable. What size area of the home is affected by this representative mold sample? What is reasonable to find on a surface sample? What’s the difference if there is a low amount of Stachybotrys or a high amount of Basidiospores. The results of the air samples are actually no different – does the type of mold truly matter?
There are so many aspects of analyzing the data from mold tests; it’s not something an assessor can learn in a few hours of class, or a two week apprenticeship with a PHD microbiologist. A true professional mold assessor collects the samples with scientific accuracy, inspects the location where the samples are taken, and knows the time of day, the weather conditions and the neighborhood where the samples were taken. With all that information in hand, the inspector begins to determine if there is truly a problem in the inspected area. IF there is a mold issue, how did the mold get there? What caused the mold to grow in that particular location? How should the mold be removed so that it does not contaminate the entire house? Did mold already become airborne and contaminate other parts of the home?
It’s easy to understand that the results of the samples are the key to resolving the problem. Taking the sample and sending it to the lab is the effortless part. What do the results say? How do they help you in resolving the problem?
True, anyone can take mold samples with the right equipment and proper instructions, but it takes a real professional to use that information properly. Mold Assessors are required to have experience in building technology, heating-ventilation-air conditioning, microbiology, safety, investigative and troubleshooting techniques, and chemical interactions. Do you play doctor? Do you prescribe aspirin for you headache? Probably. Will you remove your own tumor? That’s up to you!
Got a mold problem? Get answers you can trust. Call Alpha at 813-514-MOLD.