Common Approaches to Addressing Mold Concerns

Those who are concerned that something in their indoor environment such as mold is making occupants sick usually contact either an environmental consulting company or a mold remediation company.

What is an Environmental Consultant?

An environmental consultant should be able to address concerns related to mold, bacteria, chemicals, gases, various particulate or any other concern about the environment. However, it appears that most in the industry focus primarily on mold.

Mold testing companies inspect homes and offices for mold and water damage, and attempt to identify the root causes of mold and water damage. Mold inspectors typically take air samples, surface samples using swabs and tape lifts, and also take bulk samples of materials suspected to have mold such as drywall or wood.

After the inspection is performed, the mold inspection company sends the samples to a microbiological laboratory. The mold lab analyzes the samples and emails the lab results to the mold inspector.

Next the inspector will provide a written report with lab results to the client, which may include an interpretation of the lab results, a description of the observations, a mold remediation plan, and other recommendations such as to call a mold remediation company to fix the problems.

What is a Mold Remediation Company?

A mold remediation company is a business who removes mold and water damaged materials from a building. Some also perform free inspections (buyer beware.)

So...who ya gonna call?

A mold inspector? A mold remediation company? both? Neither?

First you'll probably search google, bing, yahoo or the yellow pages for mold testing, mold inspection or mold remediation companies.

Next you'll spend a few hours talking to 3-4 sales reps whose quotes will likely range from "free" to nearly a thousand dollars to inspect your home or office.

Then you'll likely scratch your head and wonder what to do next. If you need help rationalizing the best possible approach to addressing concerns associated with mold or other toxins in your home or office, feel free to call Indoor Air Quality Consultants at 412-894-7218.