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How to Perform Your Own Mold Inspection & Mold Cleanup InspectAPedia®  -     How to conduct your own mold inspection & cleanup Health risks for mold investigators When to hire a mold professional

This document on looking for and dealing with indoor mold gives advice for an owner or occupant of a building who wants to start by doing their own mold investigation. This is a chapter of our Mold Action Guide which provides an easy to understand step-by-step guide for dealing with toxic or allergenic indoor mold and other indoor contaminants: what to do about mold.

The steps in this document will be sufficient for many building owners who want to do their own mold investigation, mold testing, mold cleanup, and mold prevention in their home or office. Extensive, technically detailed in-depth articles are also organized at our Mold Information Center

© Copyright 2009 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

DO IT YOURSELF: How to Perform Your Own Mold Inspection, and Check for Mold-Causing Conditions

Reduce your exposure to mold: Examine living/working conditions for opportunities to reduce exposure to mold or other allergens.

This means don't move your sick mother into a damp moldy basement while you're painting her bedroom. More generally it means you don't need to prove that a specific mold in a building is making you sick to recognize that a problem mold is present and needs to be cleaned-up.

But if you are sick, finding out what you've been exposed to might be helpful to your doctor. I've had clients with severe mold-related illness which went unrecognized and mis-treated. If you're ill, ask your doctor if there is any reason to suspect an environmental factor or if there is reason to be extra careful to avoid exposure to mold or indoor allergens.

The basic steps in dealing with any mold problem include these measures:

Find the Mold: Examine living/working conditions to find evidence of any mold or to determine the actual extent of mold problem in the building.

Clean-up the Mold: remove or clean up problem mold reservoirs. But don't be fooled into spending an outlandish sum on removing a "cosmetic" mold. Later below you'll read about stuff that is not mold or is only a cosmetic mold.

Find and Correct The Causes of the Mold: In addition to looking for reservoirs of existing mold, examine the building for evidence of leaks (current or old) or moisture problems as those often define the most-likely mold reservoirs. If there is mold in your attic, has there been a history of basement flooding? Even if you don't see mold on exposed building surfaces, finding mold-producing conditions or events, like traces of leaks into a wall or ceiling, can tell you where a mold problem may be hidden.

The steps in this document - THE MOLD ACTION GUIDE - will be sufficient for many building owners who want to do their own mold investigation, mold testing, mold cleanup, and mold prevention in their home or office. However do-it-yourselfers should pay close attention to what can go wrong. If you haven't already read HIRE A PROFESSIONAL? you should do so now (See links at page left).

We encourage healthy, not-at-risk people to handle small mold problems themselves. You don't need to hire an expert to clean up moldy bath tiles or a square foot of moldy drywall. But if you are proceeding on your own, be alert for the discovery that the extent of the problem is large enough that you should stop and bring in a professional.

With these warnings made clear, continue by reviewing the next steps below - by scrolling down or by using the links at the left on any of our web pages.

If you're unsure whether to tackle mold yourself and want to know when to bring in a professional, see HIRE A PROFESSIONAL?

Mold HEALTH RISKS for Building and Home Inspectors

• Don't disturb mold. Bystanders and occupants have sued careless inspectors who cut openings or otherwise produced a burst of mold activity in a building.
  
  Risks include contributing to illness of building occupants and contamination of building areas if substantial amounts of toxic mold are present and proper containment methods are not used.
  
  This does not mean that invasive inspection techniques are prohibited--but methods of inspection need to be chosen based on the situation.
• If you are in a seriously moldy area, wear a HEPA respirator. Repeated exposure to allergens can cause you to become sensitized even if you have not had problems in the past.
• If appropriate, keep spectators calm by explaining that you wear the mask because you're entering buildings every day. But keep their noses out of the mold too. People who are at particular risk can get sick from a single exposure. (Examples: elderly, babies, people with compromised immune system.)
• Other risks may be present, related to the same conditions which caused mold growth: Sewer backups - bacterial hazards; wet areas, damaged electrical or other mechanical components, even shock hazards.

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The Mold Information Center: What to Do About Mold in Buildings, When and How to Inspect for Mold, Clean Up Mold, or Avoid Mold Problems

Use this simple, economical mold test kit by following our instructions on how to collect and mail mold samples to our lab

Environmental Inspection, Testing, & Diagnosis On-Site IAQ, Gas, Air Testing, Mold Investigation, Sick Building Diagnosis, Lab Services, & Remediation Plan Preparation - indoor air quality testing, problem source determination, supporting lab work, written remediation plan addressing removal of environmental and other hazards and prevention of their recurrence.

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