4 Reasons You Shouldn't Trust a Home Testing Kit

6/13/2019 (Permalink)

If you suspect mold growth in your home, you may want to have mold testing done.

There's been a musty smell lingering in your Huntsville, AL home, so you decide to do some investigation. After a preliminary search of the house, you can't find any mold. You decide to get a DIY mold test kit to get to the bottom of your dilemma. You follow all of the steps and your results are in. There's mold in your house! While this may be true, a home mold testing kit actually isn't that accurate. Here are four reasons you should work with a mold remediation team instead.

1. Mold spores exist everywhere. They float around indoors and outdoors. When a mold kit comes back positive, it could mean there's growth in your house, but the kit could also be picking up the naturally occurring spores from the air.
2. You don't know how old the tests are. Most mold testing kits don't use a dating system. This means your kit could have been sitting on warehouse and store shelves for years. The longer a product like this lies around unused the greater chance it has been contaminated. The positive results could be from mold spores that found their way into the box years ago.
3. The findings aren't explained. When you work with a professional team, you can get all your questions answered. The experts can go over the meaning of the results and help you understand what your next move should be. A mold kit, however, simply comes back as positive or negative without much explanation.
4. It won't tell you where the mold is. Even if the test results are accurate, you still don't know where to look to find the growth. Sure, it might help you find out there's mold growth, but it doesn't help you get any closer to a solution.

If you suspect there's mold growth in your home, you may want to have mold testing done. Here at SERVPRO of North Huntsville we offer mold testing and will be glad to go over the test results with you. The following are samples that may be taken: Air samples will reveal mold spore counts that are in the air and what types of mold are present in various areas of your home or business. Surface samples identify if dust particles contain mold spores and what kinds of molds are present. Swab tests or tape lifts (surface samples) can be done to identify mold (or potential mold) that is visible on the surface.

Contact our office today at 256-534-1177 with any questions or to schedule an appointment for an inspection.