Where Can I Find Mold Testing Kits?

If you would like to test the mold in your home you can find a mold testing kit in your local hardware store. But, "Unfortunately, they are not going to give you a very accurate picture" of the mold in your home states Kevin Bristol President of Advance Mold Remediation. Bristol is certified by the National Association of Mold professionals, International Association for Mold professionals, and the EPA. Bristol explains why home mold test do not work; "you need a high impact machine that holds air from the environment to be able to see what mold is there. With the mold test kits, you are directly taking the sample from a surface and you've got pet dander and skin fragments mixed in." Of course using this method the sample will be contaminated and will not give you an accurate picture of what you are testing.

According to a test done by Consumer Reports magazine, "all of the mold test kits we tested had major flaws, serious enough to earn a Not Recommended rating." Furthermore, according to Consumer Reports Magazine, "If you see or smell mold, you don't need a test kit to tell you it's there. Generally, it's not necessary to identify the species of mold growing in your home, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention". Consumer Reports recommends calling a mold remediation specialist if the area that is moldy is larger than 10 x 10 feet. In the study done by Consumer Reports most of the mold testing kits cost at least 50.00. Some of them leaked on the way back to the lab. Some of them had mold in them once they got back to the lab that the test site did not have, indicating that they had been contaminated elsewhere. Several of the test kits advertisements said that the kit will tell you if you have toxic black mold in your home, but when sent into the lab there was a disclaimer saying that they could not tell if the mold was toxic with this type of kit.

If you think the mold in your home is out of control and you can not take care of it yourself the best thing to do is call a professional. They may or may not test the mold in your home to find out exactly what kind it is. They will however, clean up the mold and protect themselves and your home from further contamination. If you need to have the mold tested for insurance reasons or for health reasons the test that a mold remediation specialist conducts will be accurate. They will take a sample and send it in to a non-related testing lab. If they do the test themselves be wary. The testing lab should be independent from the mold remediation company. A professional will probably charge about $ 300.00 for a mold test, however it will be accurate.