A lot of our clients have had mold testing done and received reports that they found confusing. Many of the reports stated that there were elevated concentrations of mold spores indoors. The clients already thought this would be the case, because they were suffering health symptoms or detected a musty smell. What they needed to know was where the mold was growing.

Often mold spores found indoors have come from the exterior. If there is visible mold growth present indoors, the spores from that mold may be in the air and be reported in the mold testing report. But mold growth isn’t always visible. Mold can grow on dust captured in carpeting or exposed basement or crawl space fiberglass insulation, on the unfinished wood surfaces of antique furniture, or even in heating and air conditioning equipment.

So before you hire a mold inspector, make sure that the mold testing report won’t be limited to providing the concentration and types of spores in the air, but will also tell you where the spores are coming from, and what you can do about an indoor mold problem. Mold testing reports full of canned language about the supposed health effects of mold exposure serve more to frighten than to inform.

If you want to understand why and where mold grows, learn how to get rid of it and prevent it from returning, buy a copy of The Mold Survival Guide: For Your Home and for Your Health, Jeffrey C. May and Connie L. May (2004). Jeff May is also author of My House is Killing Me! The Home Guide for Families with Allergies and Asthma (2001) and My Office is Killing Me! The Sick Building Survival Guide (2006). All three books are published by The Johns Hopkins University Press and are available on amazon.com.