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Hi there,
I have recently moved to the area and have been diagnosed as having ingested toxic mold from my old basement apartment in Chicago.
I need to have the home I now live in (in Carrboro) tested.
Does anyone on the list have a recommendation from direct experience with a professional mold testing company in the area?
If so, how much did it cost? And what was your result?
I have heard horror stories about people's homes needing to be destroyed from toxic mold. Luckily, right now I am just renting. But my health symptoms have come back pretty strongly since I have been here, so I really suspect there is mold and I will have to move again. Sigh . . .
I will preface this by stating that I am a building inspector, and also own a company that deals with moisture/mold issues. My recommendation is to hire an Industrial Hygeneist with an actual degree. We do not staff an industrial hygeneist and I am in no way soliciting your business, just giving you advice based on my experiences. There are many so called "mold experts" that will test and try to sell you expensive solutions. You can become a "mold expert" by taking a couple weekend classes, so basically their opinions are less than valid in my opinion. An Industrial Hygeneist that does not sell treatments would be the most factual knowledge you can receive. Some things you can do yourself would be to take a look in the crawlspace. Are there signs of moisture? Stains on the walls from water passing through, discolored insulation, fungi growth on the joists? Humidity wreaks havoc on crawlspaces in the southeast. For decades, the advice was to have open foundation vents to disperse moist air from the crawlspace. Simple physics demonstrates that you cannot remove air without replacing it with an equal amount of air. Since the replacement air comes from the outside, which during the summer is laden with humidity, all that ends up happening is a compounding of the issue. If you do see any signs, or wish to post some pictures, I would be happy to give you all the free advice you like.
They seem like what you are recommending, being that they do not sell remediation services.
My next concern is that, if I do have to move out the place where I am because it contans toxic mold, I'm not sure how to find an apartment that doesn't have mold! Any advice?
I used Mirmold recently. I was not overly impressed. I felt Laura was a little to dramatic at times. I has testing done as there was mold in the crawlspace of the house i bought and some around the floor registers in the bathroom that were hidden under the register cover(noticed after i moved in). The mold i had was not the black mold kind(Stachybotrys). It was classified as Cladosporium. I simply sprayed with Concrobium from Home Depot and cleaned it up. I had all the air ducts sealed with an HVAC guy and put a dehumidifier in the crawlspace. All the air testing they did came back fine. Laura did pass on names of places that could clean up the mold if i wanted. Another place i called was Mold Id and he seemed very knowledgeable and does not do remediation either. For the cost mine came out to around $550-600 for all of it. If i recall this included one swab sample and 3 air samples along with here checking for moisture in several areas.
I would say if you have a concern look for a good mold tester that just does that and doesn't do remediation work. Then go over the report and look up the things on it to be best informed. I think the chance of you having toxic black mold is pretty low. My recommendation is to know the types of mold and what they can or cannot do. It is amazing when you say mold most people freak. I was one until i got a little more informed about it.
I used Mirmold recently. I was not overly impressed. I felt Laura was a little to dramatic at times. I has testing done as there was mold in the crawlspace of the house i bought and some around the floor registers in the bathroom that were hidden under the register cover(noticed after i moved in). The mold i had was not the black mold kind(Stachybotrys). It was classified as Cladosporium. I simply sprayed with Concrobium from Home Depot and cleaned it up. I had all the air ducts sealed with an HVAC guy and put a dehumidifier in the crawlspace. All the air testing they did came back fine. Laura did pass on names of places that could clean up the mold if i wanted. Another place i called was Mold Id and he seemed very knowledgeable and does not do remediation either. For the cost mine came out to around $550-600 for all of it. If i recall this included one swab sample and 3 air samples along with here checking for moisture in several areas.
I would say if you have a concern look for a good mold tester that just does that and doesn't do remediation work. Then go over the report and look up the things on it to be best informed. I think the chance of you having toxic black mold is pretty low. My recommendation is to know the types of mold and what they can or cannot do. It is amazing when you say mold most people freak. I was one until i got a little more informed about it.
We had black mold inside a wall in our apartment. The landlord had the wall and insulation replaced and sprayed bleach on the studs. The bottoms of 3 insulation batts were black with mold. An external wall leak from a damaged brick was recently fixed but the internal issue only became known when black mold appeared inside a closet wall.
After this, our cat's allergies dramatically decreased.
Since we don't own the place, is there cheap air sampling that can be done to see if more issues exist?
One HVAC company on TV advertises this as a tool to sell air purifiers.
Is there a cheap kit that can be used to test for airborne issues?
I believe Lowes and Home Depot send self test kits that you can send into a lab. That would at least save you the charge from the tech that comes out for testing.
.....And for the record, bleach is not to be used on mold. It only kills the surface and will not properly penetrate the wood to kill the roots of the spore. In your case Saturn, not a big deal as the moisture source was repaired so the fungi cannot survive now anyway. Concrobium and MoldStat, both available at the big box hardware stores are very good products for killing fungi growth.
.....And for the record, bleach is not to be used on mold. It only kills the surface and will not properly penetrate the wood to kill the roots of the spore. In your case Saturn, not a big deal as the moisture source was repaired so the fungi cannot survive now anyway. Concrobium and MoldStat, both available at the big box hardware stores are very good products for killing fungi growth.
Right. Bleach is mostly water, and mold just loves a good drink.
My sister recently rented a small studio apartment. When we were moving her in, we noticed that there was black mold on the vents in the ceiling of the place. The landlord had a company come in and stated that this is not the bad kind of black mold. It is the kind you find in your bathroom. He said he had the HVAC fogged and replaced the vent covers. My sister asked him about cleaning the place (vents are in the ceilings directly above the carpeting) and replacing the carpet. He said that there are not spores with this type of mold. Is that true? I thought all mold had spores. Should he have a certificate stating it is ok to live there? Please help!
Thanks!
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