How to Test for Mold in Your Home

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For mold inspection in Stamford, Boston, New York City and the surrounding areas, RTK Environmental Group does unbiased assessments you can count on. Owner Robert Weitz talks here about the major components of mold testing, and why it can make a real difference in the way you live.

 

When it comes to getting rid of mold and other environmental hazards in your home, it is crucial to understand and correct your mold problem from start to finish. We estimate that four out of every five homes have at least one environmental hazard that could pose a problem to your health. That's why we have many clients whose homes we test for mold on a regular basis. We go in to their homes every six months to determine if there is any issue that has cropped up which we cannot easily see.

Look For Water Intrusion and Leaks

We often start out looking for water intrusion when we want to look for mold, particularly in a basement. We have a lot of water around here in the northeast region, and certainly in Connecticut, as we have a very high water table here. Many people have sump pumps and the sump pumps fail, and then you get water into the basement level. That can create mold on walls, wall surfaces, and floor surfaces – something which would be fairly particular to this area. That's why mold inspection in Stamford and the surrounding areas can be so important.

In addition, we also test for mold when our clients have leaks in their houses. It makes no difference if it is the roof that leaks, siding, or a window – any place that water might enter from outside can be a sign that there is mold in the home and warrant a home mold inspection. As well as internal leaks, we also look for plumbing leaks. Those would be the most common reasons to test for mold.

Carry Out Significant Components

Where there is moisture, there often is mold. That is why we particularly look for what we call "red flags of moisture" when doing a mold inspection. Taking air samples, carrying out a visual inspection, doing thermal imaging and moisture readings are all important components of our investigation, as these can determine the moisture in your home as well as potential areas of mold.
  1. Taking Air samples. This is very important. Air samples determine the level of mold spores in the air, and that helps us to assess what cleaning may need to be done in the building or house that we are testing.
  1. Carrying Out a Visual inspection. A big part of our inspection process is a thorough visual inspection, checking to see if there are any obvious signs of moisture or mold.
  2. Doing Moisture readings. We do moisture readings in conjunction with our visual inspections. We take them in order to identify whether there is moisture in particular areas.
  3. Doing thermal imaging. This is done through the use of a specialized camera that allows us to see temperature variations. When there is moisture, the temperature of a wet area versus a dry areas will be different, and those images will appear different on a thermal image or infra-red camera.

After thoroughly carrying out these four components, we generate a report based upon our individualized findings and recommendations of what should be done to solve both the water problem and the mold problem. If you solve the mold problem and not the water problem, you will just grow mold again. This is what really makes our company stand out amongst the competition. I don't know of any other company that will give recommendations at all. Most don't give any; they just identify the problems.

Since our practice is strictly limited to environmental testing and consulting - and never remediation - you're assured of an accurate and unbiased assessment. The only thing that we do is environmental testing. It really makes it easy when we make recommendations to clients, as they know we are not just trying to sell them our services.
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