Matt Kelly explains why an ERMI test matters for rental properties even after cleaning: it can catch dangerous molds like Stachybotrys and Chaetomium that suggest deeper problems. A visual inspection for stains, mustiness, and peeling is also crucial, and testing again months later gives you the full picture.
All right, here's a great question. I see, because I recommend people run an army in a place they're looking to buy, rent, lease, etc. But I also tell you, on the other hand, to wait 90 days in order to get a more accurate IRMI. So why in the world am I telling you to do an ERMI in a place you're looking to rent or buy that's recently been cleaned? It's a good question and it doesn't seem to make sense, but let me explain it here. So the reason we're doing an ERMI even after a place has been cleaned for showing, like say a rental or a house that's for sale, whatever a condo is, because we're looking for any big red flags right off the bat, okay, you are not going to get a full look of the total mold load on a home. It's if it's been recently cleaned. You know, if they cleaned it last week and you're coming in with an URMI today, there's not time for all the molds that are hidden and hard to place, hard to get to places, you know, in walls, ceilings, floors, H vac, under cabinets, behind the shower for those spores to work their way out to get caught. But the reason we're doing it is because we're trying to find any red flags. Do we see stachybotrys on here? Do we see ketomium on here? Is Aspergillus versicolor spiking when everything else is clean? Okay, we're looking for any red flags that would, that would alert you to say, okay, maybe this isn't a place I should be considering right now. And I've had this. I've had clients send me multiple Hermes from different apartments or condos they're looking at. And some of them come up. They look mostly clean, mostly nd not detected. But all of a sudden there's one with 10 stachy or 15 ketomium or even 3 ketomium. It's like if you have the worst molds showing on a place that's been recently cleaned, that's a sign of very bad things to come. Three months, four months, six months from now, that could look very different in a bad way. Right? As. As you've had more time for these molds to come out and settle. So the reason we do it is to just look for red flags. Are we guaranteed it's going to pick up a problem mold? No. But are you willing to invest all this effort into moving and money and moving your things in here if it's just going to be a moldy place and we could potentially catch it with one of these red flags. I know, it sucks. The money is ridiculous on testing these things. I Wish ERMEs were $37, not what they cost, but at least we have the ability to run a good test if we want to. Okay, you can do just a visual inspection. You should do a visual inspection. You should be looking under every cabinet. You should be smelling every room and closet to see if there's a musty smell there. You should be looking for water staining, bubbling, peeling, cracking, all these things. But if you can get in there with an ERMI and check and make sure there's no stachy or ketomium showing up or some of these other toxigenic molds, that makes you feel a little better about going into that space. Do you not test later? No. You still want to test three, four months later to make sure you have a better understanding of what that mold load is on the space and. But that's why we do that ERMI up front. No, it doesn't collect everything. Doesn't give us a perfect clue, doesn't give us a perfect view of what's happening mold wise. We're just trying to rule out the big bad ones. Hope that helps.
Do you have questions about mold in your home or body? Book a consultation with Matt, AKA the Mold man, to guide your home and body to the next level of heal.
