ABOUT PETRI DISH MOLD TESTING KITS

Of course, if you feel that you have a mold problem, you may believe that you can save money by not hiring a mold testing company.

 

 

 

It seems that every Home Depot offers these kits. If you are in West Palm Beach FL or Palm Springs CA or online you can likely find these kits.

The home mold testing kit will typically consist of a standard, plastic Petri dish containing a mold growth media, most likely MEA (Malt Extract Agar.) Simply open the kit and let mold spores fall in it from the room air above it. Within a few days, mold colonies will start to grow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typically, you will see black, white, gray, brown, and green mold colonies. Colonies with both green and white are also very common. Most colonies will be fuzzy, and the mold types in the mold testing kit will usually be mostly Penicillium/Aspergillus-type molds, Cladosporium, Mucor, and a few others.

It’s very cheap, easy, fast, and quite interesting to see what is floating around in your air. You will mail the dish to a lab and the lab will tell you in a lab report the names of the molds that grew in the dish.

You might want to try it if you are curious and want basic information about some of the spores in your air. But before you buy keep reading and learn the limitations.

 

 

 

 Petri dish mold test kits cannot accurately tell you the number of spores in your air. They are popular and interesting but the helpful information you get from them is very limited. 

 

 

Test kits like the My Mold Detective home test kit and the My Allergy Detective home test kit do a much better job of telling the levels of mold or allergens in the home than petri dish tests. These home mold test kits and allergen test kits are more advanced and very similar in function to what professional inspectors use. These are two separate kits, one for mold testing, and one for allergen testing. Kits are sold separately. Lab fees for all home test kit brands are charged separately as well.  

 

 

Home test kits like this are able to detect levels of dust like particles and various chemicals in the air. But they do not test and identify mold spores. They are similar in function to what professional indoor air quality consultants use but not as accurate. 

 

 Petri Dish Test Kits V.S. Mold Inspectors.

1) Home mold test kits do not draw in a given amount of air for a given amount of time. Because of this there is no way of calculating the number of spores that settle in the plate. With these kits you will not know for sure if the spores that settled and grew into mold are just the normal expected levels of spores found in every house, or if your levels are elevated.

Most clean houses without a serious mold problem should be expected to contain very roughly a few to 500 mold spores per cubic meter of air. Anything over 500 to 1,000 or higher is considered suspect by some mold inspectors. However, these numbers are just very general and not set in stone.

The best and most popular method used by certified mold testing companies when interpreting mold spore levels is to compare indoor spore levels per cubic meter of air to outdoor spore levels per cubic meter of air. With petri dishes we cannot count indoor or outdoor spores per given unit of air, so we cannot draw conclusions as to indoor spore levels or outdoor spore levels are highest.

2) Another drawback of mold testing kits when compared to home mold testing specialists is the fact that most are not designed to sample and grow Stachybotrys, AKA toxic black mold.  This mold grows very slowly, so by the time it is starting to germinate in the petri dish, the dish has likely already been disposed of by the lab analysts and is now in the city dump.

3) Since sampling was not conducted by any qualified mold testing company you will most likely have no idea about possible hidden mold. Though mold inspections cannot guarantee that all hidden mold will be found, a trained and experienced consultant with years of experience will likely be much more likely to find concealed problems than the typical homeowner.

4) Also because a professional home mold testing company was not consulted, you may not know why the mold grew, how to properly remove the mold, or how to correct the problem that resulted in mold growth.

5) Your mold testing companies professional should give you a comprehensive inspection report which documents visual findings, environmental monitoring results, and interpretation of lab results, inspector’s conclusions, and recommendations on how to control the mold problem. If you obtain a report from the lab alone, you will need an inspector for interpretation of the results.

 

 

If you feel that you have a serious mold problem in your home or place of employment, you may want to purchase a test kit online as the are extremely affordable. However, this is only a starting point. You will benefit much more by obtaining the services of an experienced, trained, and properly certified mold testing company, certified indoor environmental consultant, or certified industrial hygienist.

Clues and red flags may exist that sometimes signal that a mold problem or moisture condition exists, and such clues may go unnoticed by the homeowner with a home test kit. Thus, while test kits can provide a small amount of information to the homeowner, a mold inspection by a properly certified, and where applicable state licensed mold assessor may be worth the investment.

Such services cost hundreds of dollars more than a home mold test kit, and generally take 2 to 4 hours in a typical home depending on the complexity of the issue at hand. Is the condition of your home and your health worth the extra investment? Our mold testing service in West Palm Beach can provide such services.