Mold Testing 

     People seeking mold testing really need a thorough investigation into moisture problems and the damage it can cause, and oftentimes this is something they can do on their own. 

    There are many testing methods that can detect molds. They can be used to find mold particles suspended in air, in settled dust, or growing on surfaces of building materials and furnishings. Some methods can identify a portion of the types of live molds in a sampled environment, but these may also miss or undercount those are not live or will not grow well on the nutrients used to incubate the sample. Other methods are better able to characterize the total amount of molds in a sample which includes the non-living portion. 

     It is vital to appreciate that a test result only gives an estimate for a single point in time and a single location and how well it represents other locations and times is uncertain since the amounts and types of mold in the environment is always changing. Caution must also be used in interpreting surface testing results, since mold growth or deposition may not be uniform over an area and may increase or decrease as time passes. On the other hand, tests reflecting typical conditions may also miss evidence of problems that only occur infrequently. 

      Despite these limitations, there are situations where Mold Testing by skilled investigators may be valuable, for example, to “justify” remediation expenses or to document that cleanup has met expectations. In some cases, tests can also provide clues that may help find hidden mold, but the growth still has to be found by looking for it so that it can be removed.