Our team at Coastal Air Assessments specializes in helping our clients improve their indoor air quality, and one of the most common contaminants we deal with is mold. The common term “mold” actually refers to a wide variety of different fungi, each with its own effects. To help you determine if you have a mold problem, and to figure out what kind of mold you are dealing with, our team offers comprehensive mold assessments. In this article, we’ll provide an overview of how our assessments work so you know what to expect.
- Visual Inspection – The first step in our comprehensive mold assessments is a visual inspection. Our team will inspect every part of your building, checking for visible signs of mold—if we find any, we’ll perform a more thorough investigation to identify where the mold is and how much is present.
- Sample Collection – The next step in the comprehensive mold inspection process is to collect samples for further testing. Our team will take swabs of mold colonies present on your surfaces, and we will take a bulk dust sample to test for airborne mold as well. Taking a bulk dust sample involves vacuuming your surfaces and then passing the dust through a fine filter to remove any particles larger than 300 microns—this gets rid of things like pet hair and everyday dust, but leaves mold spores, which average less than 20 microns in size, behind.
- Testing – The final step in our comprehensive mold assessments is to test the mold samples to determine what kind of mold is present. To do this, we use several different techniques, including examining the samples under a microscope, as well as creating mold cultures to give us a better idea of how each mold behaves. From there, we will help you create a plan to effectively deal with your mold infestation.