When buying a new home, you should consider getting a mold inspection. Mold inspection is a different process from typical housing inspections.There are a few different situations in which you might want a mold inspection. Visually seeing mold or reoccurring illnesses should warrant a mold inspection/testing.
What is mold?
Mold is a fungus, and like all fungi, it thrives in moist places. Mold spreads by emitting spores, microscopic particles often as small as a single cell. Spores float around in the air until they land on a surface. Mold spores are everywhere, outdoors as well as inside your house. It would be practically impossible to remove all mold spores from a house without installing some kind of massive industrial clean room filtration system.
One good thing about mold- if you can see it, you have mold in your house. Seeing mold in the cracks and corners of your walls definitely means it is growing and spreading more spores. Keep in mind that mold may also grow in places you cannot see, such as in your ducts or between your walls. It may also form colonies so tiny they escape the eye.
A typical mold inspection involves the inspector talking to the property owner about any areas where they have seen mold, or where there have been moisture problems or water damage in the past. The inspector will go over the house thoroughly, looking in places known to be prone to mold growth. If mold is detected, the inspector will try to find the source of the moisture that is causing the mold and talk to the homeowner to develop a remediation plan.
The inspector will conduct a air spore test or take a physical sample in the event the inspector detects or sees mold. The samples will be sent to our laboratory for testing and will have results and a full written detailed report in 2-5 days.H