Advantages of Mold Air Sampling

Mold air sampling gives us a snapshot of the air we breathe everyday. Our strategy in our sampling includes taking 2 outdoor control samples, this is congruent with IAC2 Sampling Protocols and helps form an accurate baseline for indoor comparisons. Our indoor sample locations are strategically placed in areas of concern, areas where water damage is more common and in areas where occupants spend the majority of their time.

We use spore trap analysis, our machine is calibrated to take metered samples of your air that traps viable/non-viable mold spores, pollen, and other contaminates. We send these samples to an AIHI laboratory who identifies and counts the spores and provides us with the results.

Once we receive the results from the lab, we compare the inside samples to the outside control samples to provide a comprehensive report including what mold type, quantity, where in your home is the mold localized, why and how the mold was able to grow, how hazardous of a problem the test indicates and what steps we would recommend moving forward.

As you may have gathered, we want to provide the most accurate “pictures” of your air possible and air sampling is sensitive to a variety of factors. To limit this variance we adhere to strict guidelines. Prior to air testing with Silver Valley Mold, we ask people to follow our pre-testing instructions. The goal of our instructions is to form a baseline for the air in the home and reduce outside factors. When it comes to factors we cannot control, such as the weather, we will not test during or after rains due to the high likelihood of skewing control samples and therefor throwing off indoor sampling interpretations.

Now that you hopefully have a better understanding of the service we offer, let’s talk about a couple other popular mold testing routes available to you.

1) Off the shelf, DIY mold test kits: These can be a semi-cheap option that allows you to do your own testing. An issue we find with these is that they can make it difficult to control outside factors, especially regarding the gravity traps and the lab results can be difficult to interpret on your own.

2) ERMI Testing: A DNA based method of mold testing, that identifies and quantifies mold based off of dust sampling. The results are standardized and averaged against other homes and shows you where your home ranks. ERMI tests are not customized to your home (which is huge), do not consider additional factors and really only show you results localized to the sample source.