Is a Mold Inspection Necessary?

I  have received a lot of calls lately requesting mold inspections. Many requests are generated as a result of an appraiser noting the presence of mold during his appraisal. Other mold inspection requests are from buyers of bank owned properties that have undergone a mold remediation by the "bank's mold guys". Then there's the tenant who has mold in their rental property as a result of a water leak from an adjacent unit. When I ask for further details I always learn that the tenant is having issues with the landlord and they think that a mold inspection report showing a mold problem will somehow get them out of their lease or get the landlord to fix the problem. I usually let the tenant know that I do not want to get in the middle of their problems and recommend that they resolve their issues with their landlord or find another mold inspector who doesn't have anything better to do with his time.
If there is visible mold on surfaces, I will recommend that the water leak/moisture intrusion problem be addressed first then mold remediation by a reputable mold remediation contractor follow the leak repairs.Mold will not grow without a water source so you have to starve it of its water source.
Many inspections of bank owned properties, where the mold remediation was done by the "bank's mold guys", are found to be shoddily done. A contractor will usually come in a remove the visibly mold contaminated drywall and sometimes apply a mold blocking paint or maybe just a primer such as Kilz.If steps are not taken to do the job right, the mold gets disturbed and disbursed throughout the entire home. The job may look good but mold air sampling will reveal elevated mold spore counts throughout the home or in the area that was remediated.


In order to eliminate to mold from the home, you need to remove the water source so the mold cannot thrive then you can properly remove the mold using a reputable mold remediation contractor.