Our Palm Beach Gardens mold inspector has provided some helpful mold inspection and testing tips below.
If you are in need of our services please give us a call, we can help.
Disclaimers For Homeowners
Of course you do not want to be looking for or sniffing for mold. Do not touch it if there is even a slight chance that you may have a compromised immune system, allergy, asthma, or any other conditions that would put you at risk of a negative reaction resulting from any form of mold exposure. In addition this article in no way will equip you to conduct your own mold inspection; it is just intended to give you a few simple tips. If you suspect a problem contact our certified Palm Beach Gardens mold inspector
for professional testing of your home.
Odor
During a 2013 mold inspection in Palm Beach Gardens our inspector found mold in a wall where the only sign was mold odor, the inspector tracked the odor to the source in a kids bedroom wall. The odor was escaping from behind an electrical outlet. The cause of the condition was leaks at the window caulking on the exterior side of this same exact wall. In conclusion odor detection is a great tool for tracking down moldy conditions.
Check for odors near your AC ducts
Another trick to check for mold in your house is to turn your AC off for a while, the longer the better but just several minutes will due if you have a serious problem. Next turn your AC back on and immediately stand directly under the path of air flowing from a duct. If your AC unit or your homes duct work is contaminated with mold you will smell the musty mold odors blowing in your face. Remember do not do this if you are asthmatic, allergic to mold, or have a compromised immune system, do not do this if their exist any chance that you may have any of the above mentioned conditions or any health conditions that could become a problem as the result of exposure to mold. In ducts the odors build up when the AC is off and may dissipate after the AC has been on for a while. Please note minor moldy odors and minor mold contamination are not unusual in AC units and may not cause a problem for most people. Having a mold inspector sample the air from your ducts may not do you much good because mold in AC units is often vegetative, in other words in may be growing without producing many spores. Further investigation by having an experienced certified mold inspector inspect inside your AC may be of more benefit.
Look for mold on AC registers and coils
Metal AC register grills become cold as air exiting your duct passes through them. If you have high humidity condensation may form on these registers. AC coils are designed to form condensation when you simply use your AC unit in the cooling mode, this feature helps the system to remove humidity from your air. AC registers in humid buildings and coils in any building have a good chance of forming a mold problem. The bottom sides of AC coils sometimes grow large amounts of velvety Grey Cladosporium mold or clear jelly like bacteria masses, and AC register form black Cladosporium mold. So check your AC registers & coils for mold. Look for spots in basements and closets. Sometimes mold does not start as the result of a leak in your home but may occur as the result of humidity problems, in such cases the mold typically starts in areas with poor circulation such as in basements, closets, and bathrooms and may spread if your homes humidity is above 60%RH to 65%RH. While conducting mold testing in Tequesta near Jupiter Fl we found a ocean front property full of mold. The cause was humid air blowing in through a hole in the sliding glass door. Mold growing on drywall in bathrooms is typically black Cladosporium or it may be pen asp. In closets powdery mildew like white or even powdery light green spots of mold are common. To find these molds look for light spots on black clothes, luggage, and shoes, it does not show well on light colored clothes.
Look for spots on water damaged building materials
Small spots, smug marks, or a powdery residue in the area that became wet is good indication of mold. Most mold spots are black, brown, green, or white. These initial growths of mold are typically very small at just a few millimeters across in the start. One way to tell a smudge mark, a bad paint job, or other marks and stains from mold is testing the suspected mold by rubbing it with a dry cloth. Most mold will at least partially rub off or smear and leave a streak mark on the surface. This is because mold is intentionally designed to be friable (easily broken) in addition mold spores are intentionally designed to detach easily for dispersal. Discoloration from scuff marks and paint etc will often not smear easily. This smear method is sometimes helpful to a degree in providing some preliminary info on what you may be dealing with. Remember all these methods should be used by a certified mold inspector. Of course this method does not work all the time and is not full proof. For example a golden tan humidity induced type of Aspergillius mold will not smear no matter how hard you try and rub it. During mold testing in a Palm Beach Gardens home this stuff was all over the walls, it grows very slowly and is even hard to sample because it sticks so hard to surfaces. If you are in doubt as to if a substance is mold call our Palm Beach Gardens mold inspector.
Check window caulking
Hidden mold inside walls is common and one of the primary reasons for hidden mold inside walls is window leaks. If you have even minor hairline defects in your window caulking it may let small amounts of rain water or sprinkler system water into your walls. Moderately or seriously defective caulking causes many mold problems in this mold inspector’s experience. Inspect baseboards When water enters the walls of your house if flows down and soaks into your baseboards and causes them to swell, when they dry they shrink. Swelling and shrinking causes baseboards to separate from the wall slightly, you will see a small crack between the top of the baseboard and the wall. Water in your walls that causes baseboards to separate from your walls means water and water in your walls that may have caused mold. After the Hurricanes of 2005 roof leaks and window caulking defects caused many mold problems, or mold inspector in Jupiter who also covers Juno Beach was very busy discovering growth inside walls. The two main points or water infiltration into these walls were defective window caulking and storm damaged roofs.
Check tack strips
Tack strips under your carpet will become stained and rapidly rot if you have water entering your walls. Water in your walls means possible mold in your walls. Peeling your carpet back to see the tack strip located under the perimeters of your carpets may loosen or even damage your carpet, so if your carpet is important to you don’t pull it up to check your tack strips.
Don’t forget your wallpaper
If heavy wall paper is installed any moisture that enters these walls will become trapped behind the wall paper, moisture trapped behind wall paper mixed with wall paper glue is a perfect recipe for a serious mold problem. During mold inspections wall paper is not typically peeled thus hidden mold may not always be discovered but it is common to find mold hidden behind wall paper. The vast majority of moldy wall paper is on perimeter walls, as opposed to on interior partition walls. Perimeter walls are the walls of a building that abut the exterior of a building; these walls receive moisture from cracks and defective caulking on the exterior side of the walls. Inspecting behind sections of wall paper may reveal large amounts of hidden mold.
If your home has mold problems you need professional mold testing in Palm Beach Gardens Fl. Do not rely only on the tips from this article, it requires years of experience and in many cases a state license is required to perform a proper mold inspection.