Is there anything more important than breathing?
10 Reasons To Consider Mold Assessment & Testing
1. Helps Minimize Mold Exposure.
If you don’t know you have mold, or how much or what kind or where it is your limited in choosing not to be exposed to it. Mold exposure has been associated with many health issues and is especially suspect when there are other environmental and/or personal health factors compounding it. A mold assessment can isolate traces of toxic mold inside your home so you can minimize exposure and protect occupants.
2. Protects Property From Structural Damage
Parasitical mold damages organic material which is prevalent in a home (paper, cardboard, ceiling tiles, wood, and drywall- the list goes on). If left to colonize unchecked, mold can devour home materials leading the way in some cases to “dry rot”. Stories abound of the kinds of problems folks have had afterward. There are a handful mold types that are specific bad actors in this regard so identifying these from the outset can save your structural damage.
Mold assessors inspect places you wouldn’t normally look for mold (behind walls, in overall air for hints of spore release, under plumbing fixtures, inside flooring or ceiling tubes, underneath appliances). This helps you to eliminate risk to your home.
3. Highlights Water Damage
Mold takes 2-3 days to grow and is related to water damage. Once mold spores settle on a damp surface unchecked, they can multiply at a rapid rate, setting the stage for a full-blown infestation. So to rule out mold, a moisture intrusion investigation is necessary requiring specialized equipment and experience to interpret the readings, patterns and other related findings to support to modify conclusions. This can help you to eliminate mold.
To truly root out mold, you’ll have to address moisture inside your facilities. A professional mold inspector will help you locate zones with high water content by using moisture meters or similar devices. Knowing where moisture exists in your building can help you eliminate mold permanently.
4. Provides an Accurate Assessment
While you may be tempted to invest in an over-the-counter home mold test kit, we’d advise against it. Here’s why.
- An accredited / certified lab is necessary for a professional assessment with accuracy and accountability for the methods used. DIY tests attempt to do scientific analysis in your living room.
- An experience visual inspection is important. Smelling and seeing are vital part of an inspection assessment with supportive laboratory sampling that not only can identify the type but also the quantity of mold and who also utilizes a chain of custody form that hold under scrutiny for insurance and legal purposes should they be needed.
- Mold is everywhere so what’s the point! You need to know what molds mean what kind of condition and what that potentially means for your home materials and/or your health.
- Authorities agree on the role of an experienced professional for sampling strategy and rationale, methods, reports and recommendations.
5. Enables you to Plan Ahead
Because a professional assessment can tell you exactly what you’re dealing with, you can chalk out a definitive course of action plan that works for you. Once you discover the extent of the outbreak, you can estimate how long the removal may take. This, in turn, can help you make alternate living arrangements for your family or move your kids to a different location for the required period. As they say, you can’t act until you know!
6. Improves Indoor Air Quality
Besides many world-wide standards, and the State of Florida laws, the Indoor Air Quality Standard of 2007 regulates IAQ in buildings occupied by public employees.
We all face a list of contaminants of many kinds in our air, food, water and a number of other stressors our body may be fighting off at any given time. Mold is just one, but an important one that may tilt your body’s threshold limits to what it can take before getting sick from one or more various environmental and pathogenic conditions.
Moreover, mold spores, and the release of mycotoxins, by itself can directly impact your indoor air quality. For people who are genetically susceptible to mold, a high concentration of spores and/or mVOCs in indoor air may lead to allergic reactions, eye irritation, itchy throat, and congested sinuses.
A professional mold inspector will sample your indoor air and provide you with an approximate spore count. With this information, you can ramp up your efforts to improve your building’s IAQ.
7. Maintains Property Value
For most homebuyers, mold inspection is a given. Nobody wants to encounter patches of mold growth in their brand-new apartment or feel like they’ve been given somebody else’s problem rather than a new home-life opportunity. What are ramifications of selling a home with mold?
Mold is generally considered a red flag, so its presence can quickly decrease one perception of value and drop the actual property value. Working with a professional can efficiently handle any moisture and/or mold problems and/or give a credible certificate of health.
8. Saves You Money
Given the fact the larger the remediation job the more it will cost (including potentially exceeding a typical homeowner’s policy of $10K), knowing mold’s location, type, and size of the mold amplification can end up saving you a ton of money in the long run. Considering mold amplification rates, acting quickly is in your home’s best interest. Waiting may mean spending more time, money and remediation issues. So detecting mold sooner-than-later can help you mitigate it without burning thru your finances.
9. Gives Valuable Insight into Mold Prevention
Besides inspecting, assessing and recommending about any particular problem you may be having, a professional assessor give you information to help prevent mold issues in the future. So in a sense a mold pro keeps on working for you long after the assessment is complete by this information. Such information may involve your ventilation, exhaust and return system, minor building design and use like drying out areas routinely after use, cleaning and repairing outside sources and even basic roof, plumbing and HVAC maintenance. A CIH is required to work with other professionals behind the scenes to ensure you get the best coordinated efforts for each assessment when needed.
10. Provides Complete Assessment
A professional mold assessment is complete meaning there are many other issues not mentioned here that will be considered during the process of gathering information. Examples include legal issues, infants and the elderly, old home related issues and most of all peace of mind. An “inspector” is not the same as a professional assessor especially one who is a Certified Industrial Hygienist and a Risk Manager too. At GE Risk Management LLC you’re getting the complete package to assess not just the technical but the complete environmental and engineering science principles and the risk management skills to make the entire experience meaningful. A professional does things complete, not half-way.