The Reason for Mold Inspection

While mold is often called "black mold," it comes in a wide variety of colors and is often not even easy to see. It creeps up the inside of walls, collects in water-damaged basements and crawl spaces, and grows inside poorly cleaned humidifiers, dehumidifiers, and air conditioning units.

Mold and Your Health
The health concerns of mold are wide ranging and cause respiratory and many other problems. While infants, young children, the elderly, and the immune-compromised are at the greatest risk, but mold can affect anyone, causing everything from a mild allergic reaction to mycotoxicosis and invasive and more serious diseases. According to the Mayo Clinic, nearly all of the 37 million chronic sinus infections are a result of mold. Mold has been linked to both causing asthma and advancing asthma. Fortunately, mold can be eradicated if you know what it is and where it is, which is why regular mold inspection is an important part of general home maintenance.

Mold Inspection
Small amounts of mold are common in everyone's home but these fungi spread quickly, and if left unchecked and uncleaned, they can cause severe damage to both your health and home. Mold inspection is a simple and important task that should be performed with both regularity and when the situation demands. For instance, if you find water damage, or find that people in your home are having respiratory problems, or if you realize that you have never had a mold inspection, it is a good idea to begin. The most basic mold inspection will cost approximately $300 for a mid-sized home, but more extensive inspections will naturally cost more. These larger inspections should be done on occasion to make sure nothing is left unchecked.

Mold Test Results from a Certified Mold Inspector
If mold damage is not due to the every day wear and tear on an older home, you might need mold inspection test results to reclaim costs from homeowners insurance, your real estate seller, landlord, plumber or new home builder. A certified mold inspector will search every inch of your home and can offer mold laboratory analysis of collected samples and do a professional toxic mold inspection with full documentation. This inspector will test the air, the wall spaces and floors, as well as those appliances that might have caused the problem. These more extensive measures are a great idea if you live in an older home, if you suspect a problem, or if you have not tested in a few years.

Do-It-Yourself Mold Test Kits
A mold inspection test kit is easily available at any home supply store. These kits are useful for regular tests to see if there are mold spores in your air. While these kits are certainly not a stand-in for professional inspection, they offer homeowners the ability to do regular testing between professional mold inspections. They can act as a warning system of sorts that convince you to bring in a professional for a more thorough investigation. The kits, though, are not infallible, and should not stand in for professional inspection, which will seek mold out in places the kit cannot.

Basic Precautions against Mold
The most obvious way to avoid problems is to keep a clean home. Allowing your appliances to degrade or get dirty is the easiest way to end up with a mold problem. Clean your air conditioning units with regularity. Standing water causes many problems, and only one of which is mold. Similarly, dehumidifiers and humidifiers should be scrubbed down at least once a month with antibiotic soap. Leaking or dripping showers, faucets and pipes should be fixed as soon as you see there is a problem, and shower curtains and floor mats should be used regularly as needed.

Mold sneaks up on you. It grows where you don't see it and the problems don't present until it is a huge problem. It causes health concerns that present themselves as colds, asthma, and other problems that might seem unavoidable or common, but are actually completely preventable. For this reason, for peace of mind, for your health, regular inspections are important. Even recognizing and cleaning up the smallest of problems will change the way you live in your home.