DIY Mold Testing Versus Professional Mold Inspection: What’s The Difference?

Are you one of the many individuals in the world today who think they may have a mold problem within their home? You might have seen mold testing kits that you use yourself. Can you rely on them? Will the health of your family be insured by such a testing kit? To put it bluntly – and not to slam any particular product – no. You cannot be assured of adequate protection for your family’s health by using a DIY mold testing kit.

From the Internet to local hardware stores, DIY mold test kits can be found almost anywhere. But nothing gives you the kind of guaranteed results that a professional mold inspection can. Let’s look at DIY mold inspection kits and professional inspections in more detail.

You Can’t Avoid Mold

In our ecological system, mold actually plays a vital role… and it’s everywhere! Leaves that fall from trees would not break down if it weren’t for mold. Before you knew it, there would be foot upon foot of leaves everywhere you looked.

If you count on a DIY mold test kit to alert you to the presence of mold in your home, you’re basically relying on a science experiment. Let’s face it, there’s a level of mold in every home. But here’s what’s truly important:

• How you get rid of a mold problem.
• From where, in your home, the mold is coming.
• The location of mold within your home.
• What kind of mold is present.

None of that important information is revealed by a DIY mold test kit. To accurately report these crucial facts, you need a mold test done professionally. One that is conducted by a CMI (certified microbial investigator).

DIY Mold Testing Kits

Here’s how these kits work, in a nutshell: You take the “settle plate” provided in your home mold testing kit and place it out in the open. You let it sit out for 48 hours. Theoretically, finding their way to the dish will be any mold spores floating around your house. Both false positives and false negatives are common with these kinds of tests. Even if it tells you that you do have mold, and you do, it doesn’t tell you if it’s toxic or not, and it doesn’t identify the type of mold. To find that kind of information, at an additional cost, you would send the plate to the distributing company for analysis.

Mold Testing by a Professional

We are not talking about mold removal or remediation here. We are talking about testing only. Therefore, you want an environmental testing company at a professional level to do your mold inspection. It’s the only way you’re going to be assured of an unbiased, accurate assessment.

Professional mold inspections tell you the following:

• If your home requires mold remediation or removal.
• If your family’s health is at risk.
• Affected areas are identified, amounts of mold measured, and mold type determined.
• Samples will be evaluated by an American Industrial Hygiene Association accredited laboratory.
• Comparisons between normal background mold levels and bulk sampling, air sampling, and air monitoring will be done.
• Find out why and where excess moisture is getting into your home.

Let a DIY mold test kit make any one of those claims. They can’t.

Iris Environmental Laboratories For Your Professional Mold Inspection

To be absolutely sure whether or not mold is a problem in your home, and to know exactly what to do about it, you want to be able to rely on professionals. At Iris Environmental Laboratories, we have highly trained specialists and technicians on staff. They will perform a thorough inspection and give you a full report.

In addition to mold, particularly in the case of older homes, asbestos can also be a problem that threatens the health of family members. If you feel that your home may contain asbestos, and you would like an in-depth asbestos inspection, we’ve got you covered there to.

Contact us today if you’d like to schedule an inspection or if you have any questions.