Who should test for mold?

Many people call mold removal companies asking if they test for mold. they want to know what kind of mold and if they have too much mold.

Mold removal companies who test for mold run the possibility of being sued or get into other legal trouble due to conflict of interest and lack of a scientific background . If you are a mold removal company who tests for mold, you may not see any issues in this unless you are faced with a law suit questioning your findings. Court cases on mold remediation and testing have been thrown out of court due to mold testers either being the mold removal company or lacking scientific backgrounds. Both situations create a mistrust to the judge and therefore are not taken seriously. Even mold removal companies who use accredited mold testing labs, find themselves in situations that are in question. The question that arises is whether the mold testers used correct procedures to test and have the scientific backgrounds to back up their ability to gather samples for testing.

The next choice in mold testers would be home inspectors. As with mold removal companies, home inspectors do not have the scientific background to gather samples correctly. The big difference between mold removal companies and home inspectors is conflict of interest.

Mold removal companies have to defend the idea that while they are gathering the samples for testing, that maybe their actions may be in favor of their interests. In other words they may collect in a way that makes the testing show that the home or business has large amounts of mold when actually it’s not. I’m not saying that mold removal companies would do that, it’s just a possibility. The home inspectors on the other hand have no interests except delivering the results as they see them.

Home inspectors testing for mold are fine unless there is legal issues involved. Again home inspectors as knowledgeable as they are about home and building construction are not scientists who have degrees securing their ability to correctly gather samples.

This leads us to the last possibility for mold testing companies and they are Industrial Hygienists ( IH ). IH’s are scientists with biology degrees that are trained and certified to correctly gather and analyze mold issues in homes and businesses.

There reporting is highly regarded and trusted, so that judges and court systems trust their testing and inspection reports. IH’s are more expensive, but not only will they pass legal questioning, but they have ( or should have ) insurance to cover if a mistake is made.

This is not true with mold removal companies and home inspectors. Although many have insurance, it usually does not cover these issues.

Although the homeowner or the property manager may use any of the three to test for mold, they must understand the chances they take with using either of the three for mold testing.