How to choose a mold inspector?

This is one of the most asked questions I get from people when I'm on Zoom doing a ERMI review with them. So as ermies come in problematic and we're seeing these toxigenic molds add up and to get to levels that aren't safe, well, there's no safe level for toxigenic molds. But the obvious question becomes, how do I get an inspector? How do I pick an inspector? How do I know I get a mold inspector that's going to do a proper job? Okay, so that's what this video is about. I've wanted to do it for some time. So what I just did before I started this was made some notes here. So I'm going to be reading some of my notes here because I didn't want to miss some important points and yes, I could very well miss them, but these are some of the big ones. When you know you have a mold problem, maybe you have or haven't done the ERMI yet, I always recommend people do their own ermi. That way you can make sure it's collected properly. Because I have that video, which I'll post with this video on how to collect an ERMI properly. Because if you don't collect your ERMI properly, then your results are not as accurate as they could and should be. So when you're looking for a mold inspector, people normally, you know, jump on Google and look for their local mold inspector. And there are a lot of inspectors. Some are just inspectors, some identify as mold inspectors. Some are indoor environmental professionals, other are hygienists. There are all kinds of different names, but it's really, it's not easy, it gets confusing. But you need someone that can find the mold in your home. That's the bottom line. So what I tell people, these are some of the points that I tell people. This is what you need to consider. These are the questions you need to ask. And that first question is, can you explain your process? So when you call your mold inspector, you're going to get very different answers of what their inspection looks like. So before you hire someone to come out and then you go, my goodness, that's not what I thought it was going to be. Ask what the process is, because here's a couple of different things. One, you'll get some. A mold inspector that comes out and. And simply runs air through the spore trap. So does air quality testing. It's a little cartridge this big, sits on a machine this big, usually goes on a tripod. They stick it up about head high in the Middle of your living room, middle of your house. And for five minutes they suck about 75 liters of air through there. And then the particulate in the air will get caught in the middle of that spore trap. And that's what goes under the microscope so that they can look and see what's there. And then they just look with their eye to try to identify what's in there. Okay. And that's the extent that some mold inspectors do. That's it. There's no inspection. It's just, hey, I'm here, here's the machine. I'll visit with you while this runs. And then maybe we'll, you know, if you got multiple floors, we'll do one upstairs. And I had done this myself before I knew anything about the ermi. So at a previous house, we had, I had inspect mold inspector out and we tested the ba. I had him test the basement, we tested the main floor, we tested upstairs, and we tested my son's room. Because if you know our story, it was our son. It started with a moldy window. So I had his door closed and I had him test in there on the room that had kept the door closed for a few days or a couple days before the test. It came back higher and of course everything came back, you know, well within range. But his room was the highest because that had the moldy window. And I ended up swapping, putting in new windows all around. I cut up his carpet, took it all out. I cut the wall open under the window even to make. Nothing had gone down. It was all clear. That's a story for another video. But so we did main floor, basement, upstairs and room, and that was it. And he was a super nice guy and we visited, you know, the whole time he was there. He warned me about inspectors that do both testing and remediation. And all the times that he had seen people being taken advantage of them, finding mold that wasn't there, and. Or having, you know, expansive remediation recommendations that weren't required because they're the ones testing and they're the ones going to be doing the fixing. So he warned me about that super nice guy. But this is the worst kind of mold inspector that just comes in, does an air quality test in the middle of a room and then sends you a report a week or two later and tells you everything's well within range. That's almost always what comes out of those reports. Almost everything's in range. Another mold inspector is someone that will come in and do a visual inspection and you need A visual inspection, it's either. But it can either be part of, along with testing, like an ERMI or air quality testing, or it can be someone that comes in and just does a visual inspection. And visual inspections are always required if you suspect mold or if you run your own ERMI and there is mold. You need someone to come in, you know, with a flashlight and knows how to hold it sideways under the cabinets to look for any rippling in your melamine. And someone with a thermal imaging, someone that will turn the shower on and run water and see if any water is leaking out. Someone with fine particulate meter, someone with a good moisture meter. Like when we were. Before we bought this house, we were looking at another house. We put an offer in, is accepted, but it's based on inspection in ermi, which it failed very badly. But this, this inspector wasn't a mold inspector, but he was very thorough. He went around with a moisture meter all around the basement, all around, everywhere. He found an issue under one of the basement windows and followed it from the window all the way down about six and a half, seven feet down to the baseboard. We couldn't see anything wrong. There was no crackling or cracking of paint, bubbling, rippling, smell, nothing. But he had found that. So visual inspection is always important. And then you have different levels of visual inspection. Some inspectors will do everything from get in the crawl space and check everything out all the way up to the attic, move the insulation, some don't. So you want them to explain their process and how long that process takes. Like, I had one lady that told me her inspector would look around, mold inspector would look around, but he would not touch or move anything. You know, and so many times when there's moisture against an exterior wall and a dresser is there, people move the dresser, right. And then there's all mold behind there. But this man would not touch anything, which just blows my mind. So again, you're asking for people what their process is, and then that question includes how long it takes. A good inspection can take the better part of a day. Okay, and is it just one guy? Is it two guys coming? Are they looking? Are they saying they're going to, you know, move insulation? They're going to check the attic all the way down to the crawl space and everything in between. And they have all those tools. Okay. Then you have someone that can come in and include an ermi. And that's what I'm looking for as part of their process. Are they just doing air testing? Are they doing no air testing? Are they Doing an ermi. Are they doing a visual inspection? You want that breakdown? Because obviously you know by now if you've watched any of my videos, the ERMI is the most accurate way of getting a good read on the total mold load of your home. It is not just a collection of a small area. Okay? 75 liters of air going into the spore trap, and someone looks at it under the magnifying glass. You're testing so many spots in every single room, up high and down low throughout the whole house. You're not testing one area. You're getting dust from the whole house. Okay? And then it goes to the lab, and they use DNA analysis to see which molds are there, how many of them are toxigenic molds, and what their concentration is. It's the best data you can get. So if you can find someone that does that, bonus. If you don't find someone that does that, you do that part yourself, and then you get someone in to start doing the visual inspection and cavity testing and keep progressing down the line. Okay? So I'm just looking at my notes, and I already covered a bunch of this. I was jumping ahead. My note was, do they look elsewhere with inspection tools? Moisture meter, thermal imaging, Fine particulate meter. We covered that. My number four was, do they collect house history to determine problematic areas? When I talk to people about the ERMI and we start diving into, you know, what next steps or where mold could be. You always talk about the history of a home. You need an inspector that in their process says they'll collect the home history from you. They need to be asking you questions like, did your dishwasher. Did you ever have a dishwasher leak? Did the water line on your fridge ever leak? Did you ever have a roof leak? Did your basement ever flood? Did your sump pump ever overflow? Did your hot water tank ever break and leak? Like, there are all of these questions that need to be asked because it can direct them to where there could be a problem. Okay? Because even though you don't see the problem at first glance, if they knew you had a dishwasher leak, they can pull that dishwasher out. Go look behind. Because, I mean, dishwashers suck. Because they're not easy to move. You gotta unhook the plumbing, you gotta unhook the electrical. But if it leaked, it could be total mold back there, and that mold could have went under the cabinets, and maybe they need to do a cavity test. Okay, Drill a little hole under the sink in the cabinet and put the wand down. There and suck that air through. That's what air testing is for. Okay, cavity testing. Maybe there, maybe it leaked and went under the vinyl or the tile and then need to swab back there. If it's vinyl or linoleum or something, they can pull that up and check, do a visual inspection, do a tape test or a swab and see what's growing there. If anything, you know, there could be stachy or ketomium growing right there, fusarium, you know, there's the history matters. And when you get inspectors that just walk in and do an air test and not look and not ask any questions, that's useless. That's a waste of time and money. Okay, so that's what you want them to collect. You want them to collect a history. And then they're going to pay special attention to all those areas because those are the most likely since they had water damage. Those are the mice likely to have fed a mold problem. You know, it's common sense now, but it's not when you call and it's not some of these people that come out. And my last point was, do they offer a remediation report based on findings for what needs addressed and how? And that's why I don't have a lot of people to refer. But I do have some companies I recommend to people because they are, they check most of these boxes and when you can get a remediation report from someone from an inspector that did a fully thorough job and it says, hey, I found a mold problem here and this drywall needs removed, I found mold around the toilet, this needs taken up, this needs out. And if there's mold on the subfloor and that needs cut out at least so many feet in width and length, it makes it so much easier for you because you're not guessing on what to do, you actually have a plan. And now you can take that remediation report, which is a plan, and now you can price out mold remediation companies or contractors and start getting pricing on getting this work done. Now those people need to be have mold certifications and follow proper protocols to make sure they don't create a problem. But that's another video. But this is my overview on how to find a mold inspector, how to choose a mold inspector. Some of these qualifying questions, what you're looking for. I know this is long. Go back, watch it again, make some points. This is not my normal three minute video. I see I'm over 11 minutes now. You want them to explain their process. You want to Know, are they doing air quality testing or an ERMI or both? Are they doing a visual inspection? Are they collecting the history of the home and do they provide a remediation report for you to now take for the next step? Anyway, that was a lot. Take some notes and when you call, ask those questions. And simply put, another point I didn't cover, which I can add, tack onto the end. Now, if I didn't overwhelm you enough is say you already have your ERMI hand and you see you have stacking catalmium and wollemia and trichoderma, penicillium, breva compactum, and a bunch of aspergillus. You can call and say, hey, I just had. I just did an ERMI on my home and I see I have a lot of problematic molds. I need someone to come to my house and find them. Simply put, that's the easiest way you can call and qualify someone. Because if they say, what's an ermie or an ermie's dumb? Then you can just say, thanks for your time and hang up. Okay. Because if they say, we don't care about what's in your home, we don't care about the DNA evidence, we don't care to use that to find your sources, that's a big red flag. So that's if you have your ermi, you can ask all these questions. But one simple way of putting it is, hey, I have my ermi. I've got problematic molds. I need someone to come out and find them. And they could say, oh, yeah, we'll come out, we'll send, you know, whoever, and he's going to X, Y and Z. So. So that's kind of a good intro way to get into the call and to get into these questions and hopefully you find someone that's good. If you need help, reach out. I've got a couple recommendations, but hopefully you can find someone local because it's nice to support your local inspectors and hopefully there's someone in your area that is doing it properly so you can get your house fixed up. All right, till next time, guys. Bye bye. Do you have questions about mold in your home or body? 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