How To Choose A Good Mold Inspector
Mold inspectors are easy to find as he/she may be found anywhere. However, finding a certified mold inspector, especially certified mold inspector is a real task. First you need to determine whether you need a mold inspector at all. There is a cheat sheet for that. But if you are very concerned about your health and feel that your house contains molds, you can hire the services of a mold inspector. The inspector should be a certified one, whatsoever.
Prior Experience
You should consider the experience even if the mold inspector is certified mold inspector. You should check the number of mold inspections the inspector has performed as you must have heard of, ‘practice makes a man perfect.’ All you need for your house molds is a perfect mold inspector. Furthermore, your good mold inspector would have performed over hundred inspections a year. In this way, you would be sure that the inspector has seen a wide range of scenarios. Also, ask your mold inspector how many verifiable mold inspections have been conducted.
Certifications
It is pertinent to mention here that some
states allowed a person to obtain the license of mold inspector without
requiring him/her to pass any exam or any proof that he is competent to be a
professional mold inspector. Also, there are many certifications and as many
certificates. Your mold inspector should have membership with any nationally
recognized trade association for mold professionals. The organization
certifying his/her credentials should also be nationally recognized. Also,
ensure that the inspector’s certification has been given on verifiable work
experience and has been issued by a reputed educational institution.
Equipment
Every professional is well equipped and same goes for a good mold inspector. A certified mold inspector will have the basic equipment like an air sampling pump, a respirator and a moisture meter. He/she should also have the sampling media, gloves, flash light, a mirror, and knee pads. Also, an adept mold inspector shall have the latest technology as being low tech does not go well with the profile of a mold inspector. Look out for the thermal imaging camera in his/her equipment which detects the moisture-linked temperature fluctuations.
Inspection Report
A certified mold inspector will be able to
give you a detailed inspection report mentioning environmental monitoring
results, visual findings, his/her conclusions, interpretation of lab results,
and his/her recommendations as to how to get rid of the mold problem. A mere
lab report will only make you go to another mold inspector to interpret the
results. Beware of the inspectors who charge low price per sample because many
of those do not deem it necessary to provide you these details
Things To Look For (And Look Out For) When
Choosing A Mold Remediation Specialist.
So They Can Suck More Money Out Of Your
Wallet. A lot of remediators take advantage of their customers’ lack of
knowledge about mold remediation.They claim there is mold where there is none.
They sell extra services that aren’t needed. They quotetheir prices twice as
high as it should be, and their innocent customers (more like victims) don’t
knowthe difference.
Be Wary Of Mold Remediators That Also Offer
Testing Services.
After a mold remediator does his job, you
want to get your home tested to make sure it’s at proper mold levels.
No Matter What Most Remediators Say, We
Rarely Need To Treat Mold With Chemicals.
Most mold remediators will tell you that you need to treat the problem area
with antimicrobial chemicals, special mold paint and a host of other chemicals
during remediation.
Certain Mold Remediators Use Cheap,
Imitation Materials That They Pass Off As
The Real Thing. I know a guy in the mold remediation business that passes off
regular primer as mold encapsulant. If you aren’t familiar with the difference,
it’s pretty simple. Mold encapsulant delays mold growth; primer does not.
Some Mold Remediators Don’t Think The
Problem Through, And Can Cost You Thousands Of Dollars You Didn’t Need To
Spend.
This one relates to problem 4. Most
remediators are more in interested in lining their own pockets than providing
you with the best solution to your mold problem. They have a “cookie cutter”
approach to every situation. As a result, you may spend thousands of dollars
you didn’t have to in mold-remediation services, chemical treatments, and home
repair costs.
Reasons For Using a Professional Mold Remediation
Service
It’s no secret that mold damage inside one’s home can cause serious health issues for those who inhabit the space. Anyone that has mold growth inside their home or business—but also uses air conditioning—is at risk of those mold spores shifting around the air ducts and spreading throughout the home’s entire circulation of air. This is how your system will typically get infected with mold.
You Will Receive a Proper Mold Assessment
One common root cause of mold and its
resulting sickness is from a combination of air conditioning and humidity. When
systems rapidly try to cool down a home or business amidst the humidity, air
condenses inside the vents. If this is the case in your home, you need to
discover the source, find the problem areas you don’t see, and enlist quality
house cleaning that removes mold for good.
The Mold Problem Will Be Properly Treated
When you’ve found a professional house
cleaning company you can place absolute confidence in, the level of experience
will be apparent immediately. Step one involves completely assessing the
moisture problem. Step two is to properly treat and clean all affected areas.
The process for mold remediation involves sealing off the mold, controlling all
humidity, physically removing the mold, and cleaning up afterwards
Proper Mold Remediation Prevents Future
Problems
Proper mold remediation reduces spreading
to prevent future problems. This way you won’t have to pay more for expensive
products, on top of having to call a repairman to come back for additional
work. A seasoned professional will be able to accurately identify the problem
areas and properly educate you as to how you’ll stop the problems from
occurring again.
You’ll Receive Multiple Tips to Prevent
Future Mold Problems
When hiring a mold removal specialist,
you’ll receive multiple tips to prevent future mold problems and secure safe
and proper ventilation. Since mold problems require specialized expertise,
you’ll want a good communicator in the field who is both dependable and honest.
Meet the professionals, who have serviced thousands of satisfied homeowners.
Your own home’s perfect solution will vary, but you’ll likely need leaky pipes,
roofs, and more fixed in order to guarantee mold won’t continue building up
Here’s What You Need to Do After Your Mold
Remediation
No property owner wants to hear that one of
their buildings has a mold problem. Unfortunately, any building can be
susceptible under the right conditions. All a mold outbreak needs is moisture,
warmth, and organic matter to grow on. Moisture can be caused by a natural
disaster, a leaky pipe, or even simply excess humidity that is not vented
adequately from the area. Warmth and organic matter are provided by the
building itself
If you’ve ever dealt with mold in one of
your buildings, you understand both how dangerous it can be and also how
potentially costly remediation can be. What you may not know is that hiring a
remediation contractor may not be the end of the ordeal for you.
Moisture and mold growth are both tricky
problems to solve. Both can go undetected behind walls and in hidden areas,
like ducts, crawl spaces, or behind vinyl wall coverings. Even an experienced
remediation design firm can make mistakes or miss something that is well
hidden. A less experienced remediation contractor may even miss obvious
problems.
Furthermore, if the leak or other cause of
moisture is not properly diagnosed, or if there are multiple causes and only
one of them is corrected, you can continue to have a problem after remediation.
Likewise, if the affected area was quite large, the initial mold assessment may
not have been able to identify all sources of moisture, or the contractor may
not have addressed everything.
For this reason, many commercial property
owners choose to have a post-mold remediation inspection and testing service
conducted after mold remediation. A post-mold remediation inspection report
will tell you definitively whether the problem has been solved and the building
is ready for tenants to occupy safely. It will also identify any areas that
need additional attention, so you can have the remediation firm address it
immediately, before it gets worse again.
HOW TO CHOOSE BETWEEN A PAID OR FREE MOLD
INSPECTION
OUR INSPECTION PROCESS
The primary reason that we charge for our
mold inspections is the time and resources that go into each one. Some of our
competitors offer “free” inspections, which basically means that the inspector
shows up and hands over a price to fix a symptom, without truly knowing the nature
of the problem.
Answers to these types of questions get us
closer to solving the problem at hand, and help us to know where to look.
Next, the real investigation begins. We’ll
then crawl under the house, poke around, and take moisture and relative humidity
readings in affected areas, unaffected areas, and outdoors for the best
possible points of reference.
Sometimes the mold problem can be easily
diagnosed and repaired, like a pipe leaking under the house, but other times we
don’t see mold at all. Because the root of the problem is beyond the obvious,
we need to think outside the box. No company that offers a free mold inspection
will be going to great lengths to determine the true causes of your problem.
We were called to an Athens residence
because the tenants reported a musty/moldy smell in the home. Although we found
some mold, and a slight musty odor after crawling down into the dirt cellar,
the tenants said that was not what they were smelling. We also noticed that the
sun was breaking down an old window lining in the basement, creating an odorous
gas, but that wasn’t the source either