Mold Testing - What You Must Know FirstMold and mildew are two of the most common problems that all of us face in our homes. All of us make efforts to keep our own homes free from all types of infestation, be it of pests like mice or be it of insects like moths and others. Mold, on the other hand, presents a different problem all together. The black mold is especially dangerous as it can release toxic chemicals like radon into the environment. Mold are actually fungi of microscopic size. So a single mold can never be visible. Neither are spores from which mold develop, visible to our naked eyes. As a result, if our homes are infested by mold we can only get to know only after mold have spread all over and have formed big clusters which are visible to naked eyes of humans. Mold grows anywhere there is water and in places like Florida, this is a very potent problem. This has made way for various home mold inspection and mold detection techniques in present times. The question that arises now is whether the infestation of mold is an inevitable part of our lives which we cannot avoid or are there any methods by which growth and infestation of mold can be controlled, if not stopped. As has been mentioned before, individually mold, which are actually fungi and grow from spores, are not visible to us through our naked eyes. And we can not afford to wait for them to make them visible, as it would be too late by then. To counter these very problems, certain methods have been evolved by means of which commercial and residential mold testing can be done easily and successfully done. Testing for mold is a specialized job, and not every one of us can handle this particular job. While do-it-yourself or DIY books and kits might be available, it is advisable that you take help from a professional. But there are certain aspects you should keep in mind and ponder before calling for help from professionals. To begin with you should always look for a company that does only mold testing. Otherwise there might be a conflict between their own job of testing and mold remediation. Professionals from the company should be certified by accredited societies. Besides, you should also make sure that they use state of the art technology such as moisture meters, infrared thermal cameras, particle counters and other such home mold testing equipment. Also you have to confirm whether they have an accredited and qualified micro biologist as a part of their team. Whenever you appoint inspectors for mold testing, you have to make sure of what tests they are going to conduct to find out whether your home is infested by mold or not. To begin with tools like moisture meters, mold meters etc. In fact the mold meters are quite significant as almost all of them conduct an air sampling test. But this test, even if it gives a result in the negative regarding presence of mold, should not be trusted completely. Reason behind this is that sometimes spores, from which mold are generated, are fewer in number and hence can not be detected. Also, sometimes they settle down on or near the floor, which prevents air sampling tests from detecting them. Professional services will use mold removal kits to properly detect the area, conduct lab tests, do a thorough cleaning and removal and then go for quality methods of remediation. Each corner of your house, especially which have a chance of having higher moisture content, must be given a thorough run down with developed tools to detect presence of mold. Besides, several reasons make testing of mold not so successful. For instance, home mold detection does not give guarantee of remediation methods, which might not be available. Due to such reasons testing mold remains an issue which confuses and confounds a lot of people. Now that you know how to test for mold, go and do it! |