got my mold report today--Help!

[Guest guest]

LunaGirl,

I had professional air testing done also. I had done quite alot of cleaning

up that took about three years BEFORE I had air testing done since I could

SEE it. Now I wanted to know if I got it all. He said he was very impressed

with how clean of mold house was, very low levels. Then I got results and

they didn't look low to me also.

I guess thing I'm learning is that moldy homes have very high levels of mold

and I guess air quality people are used to being called in on very bad

situations. He explained results to me then I understood. Call testing

company and ask for explanation. They count spores and then multiple what

that would mean for whole room. In other words if they caught ONE spore in

a certain size sample, then they multiply assuming that whole room has one

spore in each sample that size and estimate an amount of mold for the whole

room. Anyway, no of spores I thought was high, turned out to be calculated

from only catching one spore and not even knowing if that one spore was

alive or dead.

Do an experiment to show you what 'normal' air looks like in terms of mold

count. Buy a mold culture plate from Home Depot. Go to someplace outside

that you believe looks like you could get a good deep breath of good clean

air, hill top (not near standing water and not under the shade of a tree),

now take a one hour sample of that air in culture plate and wait to see what

grows from one to three days as instructions say. You will get a VERY full

plates of probably a dozen different types of mold so to get zero mold

inside is VERY difficult. It can be done but you need to work very hard and

keep windows shut and have filters and be very clean and have no leaks, be

careful about what you buy, etc.

I ALSO had an air test done by an company that sells a whole house hepa.

Purpose of test is to show you how dirty the air and how much you need the

Hepa. After installation of Hepa filter, they say they will rerun test and

show you what a big difference it makes. However air tests backed up

professional results as air tests practically picked up no sign of air

quality problem. I was even impressed. So this backed up other air test

results. One caviat, it was in wintertime and humidity in home was

extremely low all winter since I didn't humidify, about 25%. I would love

to have this company rerun tests now in July while I am having trouble

keeping humidity below 50% just to be sure I'm in good shape here.

So ask them to 'explain' why they say air tests were good before you panick.

----- Original Message -----

From: " lunagirl32002 " <j_genser@...>

> The mold tester who tested my apartment a few weeks ago told me over the

> phone last

> week that my results showed " excellent " indoor air quality with very low

> levels of mold. I