Testing Surface for Mold

People often ask me what can you do in my house to test if I have mold?

There are two different types of mold testing - strip testing and air testing. In this post we’ll be talking about using a strip test to detect mold. Our video about Mold Testing shows our tech Brian going down in the crawl space of a homeowner that suspects they may have some possible growth. We test the area so we can answer the questions: Is it mold? Is it just discoloration of the wood over time? Maybe a little bit of water damage?

We conduct mold testing to determine is A. - Is it Mold? And B - if it is mold, what type of mold is it? When there is a specific area to test we use the strip testing method where the strip has a sticky side that we place that sticky side directly on the area we suspect to have mold so that we have a chance to pick up any mold spores. We document the testing location with a picture to make so we can match up the area tested to the final test result. We then ship the strip test off to a mold testing facility in Illinois, which isn't too far from here in Valparaiso. We ship the test off using overnight shipping. The lab will send us back our results in a report that tells us what type of mold it is as well as how much there is. It can be a debris level from 1 to 5. 

A debris level of 1 tells us there is a little bit of mold present while a debris level of 5 indicates there's a lot of mold spores present. 

Knowing the type of mold and the amount of spores present allows us to develop the most effective protocol for mold mitigation.

Our goal at SCCS NWI is to provide our residential and commercial clients with the best in mold testing, removal and mitigation services. Since 2012, we have helped many business owners and families throughout Northwest Indiana. No job is too big or too small! Call our locally owned business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at (219) 779-8198.