black mold inspection

Do you need a black mold inspection of your home? You need to know if this potentially hazardous form of fungus is lurking in your home. Black mold, technically known as stachybotrys chartarum, has many known health risks and can also cause serious damage to your house. You can read about the many black mold health risks and you can learn more about how mold can damage your home by following the links. It’s bad stuff and if you have it in your home, you need to get rid of it.

We’ll tell you when and how to inspect your home for black mold and how to find qualified black mold inspectors.

Do You Need a Black Mold Inspection of Your Home?

We suggest thoroughly inspecting your entire home for black mold if:

You find black mold in one area. Since black mold spreads easily from one area to another, it is not at all unusual to find it growing in several different places in a home.
Your home smells musty but you don’t know why. A musty smell usually means there is mold of some kind in your home, even if you can’t see any mold. Mold often grows in hidden places.
You are experiencing symptoms of mold-related health problems but aren’t sure what’s causing those symptoms. Symptoms may include things like asthma attacks, coughing, sneezing, runny nose, headaches or migraines, and rashes or hives. Mold is not the only thing that causes these kinds of symptoms, but if you develop such symptoms suddenly and don’t know why, mold could be the cause.
Your home has recently been flooded or had significant water damage.

Inspecting Your Home for Black Mold

Black mold found under sink

To perform a thorough black mold inspection of your home, you need to look everywhere. And by everywhere, well, we mean everywhere.

Places to look include:

Under sinks
Behind toilets
Under, behind and around appliances that use water, like washing machines, dish washers and hot water heaters
In attics
In basements and crawlspaces
Under carpet, linoleum and other floor coverings
Behind wallpaper
In heating, ventilation and air conditioning ducts

It may also be necessary to look inside walls and under floorboards. To do this, a small section of drywall or floorboard is cut out and removed. Then a flashlight and a small mirror on a long handle are used to inspect the inside of the wall or the underside of the floorboards. It’s often necessary to cut out multiple sections, every few feet or so, in order to inspect an entire wall or floor.

If this all sounds time-consuming and somewhat complicated, it is. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggests having professional black mold inspectors assist with home mold inspections, especially if it is necessary to do things like cut holes in drywall that might be moldy, because that process can stir up hundreds of thousands of mold spores that are easily inhaled and can make you ill.

Is It Black Mold?

You may already know you have mold in your home. Maybe you see the mold.

But is it stachybotrys chartarum or one of several hundred other strains of mold sometimes found in homes in the United States? You can’t tell by looking at it. If you need to know what kind of mold is in your home, you can arrange to have the mold tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website says that in most cases, it’s not important to test mold to determine what kind of mold it is, since all types of mold can be harmful and need to be removed from your home. You can opt to have the mold in your home tested, however, if you want to know if it is stachybotrys chartarum. You can read more about black mold testing here.

Scheduling a Black Mold Inspection of Your Home

The Environmental Protection Agency recommends hiring a mold inspector that follows the protocols established by professional agencies like the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. Mold remediation professionals often offer free home inspections for black mold. After inspecting your home, they will provide a written estimate for the cost of any mold removal that needs to be done. There’s no obligation on your part, though, so you can decide whether or not you need professional assistance with mold removal. You can read more about the mold removal process here.

To find experienced mold removal professionals offering free home inspections in your area, just follow the link.

Return From Black Mold Inspection To Our Main Black Mold Health Page

Ref:

EPA: Hidden Mold

CDC: Testing