Methodology

     To determine whether the property has a serious mold problem, our inspectors use a variety of mold testing techniques to take samples of possible mold growth.

     If the air is sampled, it is sampled via a bioaerosol sampler. This type of sampler imparts viable spores on potato dextrose agar petri dishes placed in a apparatus. After the sampling period, the impacted fungi petri dishes are incubated in a special incubator that is high in humidity and void of all ambient light. The impacted fungi petri dishes are incubated at a temperature suitable for fungal growth. The most accurate mold identification is only possible after seven days of live culturing for the mold cultures to reach their maximum identification growth. After seven days of incubation, the fungi samples are removed and recorded results can be found on the following pages.

     Topical samples, if any, are taken through the use of swabs. At the laboratory, the swabs samples are transferred to potato dextrose agar petri dishes, incubated and identified as described above.