Environmental / air testing at home

We are beginning to suspect that something is going on at home that is making us sick. My wife has been battling a mold infection in her lungs and both my kids are battling reoccurring bronchitis.

The straw that broke the camel's back is when we came home from a short vacation today. Quite literally, within walking into the house, my son had a sneezing attack for the first time in days.

So...we want to have the house tested for air quality. We looked into it briefly once before, only to be put off by the price quoted ($1k). That seemed (and still seems) ridiculous.

Given that, as usual, I turn to this group, that seems to include someone who knows something about everything. What's involved in testing? What should it cost? Who do I call?

TIA

$1K sounds like pretty cheap health insurance.

I don't have much else.

The cost is in the test labs. I wouldn't put much faith in any form of DIY system.

Check with home inspectors. They usually do some kind of mold tests in the house for around $200 or so.

You are going to want a real live industrial hygienist do some testing. $1000 is not out of line. It takes a few hours, there area several samples to be lab analyzed and a report to be generated.

Is he allergic to your dog?

spitfirebill wrote: You are going to want a real live industrial hygienist do some testing. $1000 is not out of line. It takes a few hours, there area several samples to be lab analyzed and a report to be generated.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Any thoughts on how to go about identifying one of these providers?

MrJoshua wrote: Is he allergic to your dog?

No telling at this point. We know he has seasonal allergies as well, but something more seems to be going on with several of us.

dyintorace wrote:

spitfirebill wrote: You are going to want a real live industrial hygienist do some testing. $1000 is not out of line. It takes a few hours, there area several samples to be lab analyzed and a report to be generated.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Any thoughts on how to go about identifying one of these providers?

Check local yellow pages for industrial hygiene consultants or environmental consulting.

If you are located in Gainesville, Fla, I would call the U of F and see if they have an IH dept or microbiology dept. Those guys may be able to refer you to somebody.

I work for an engineering consulting company that has an IH dept. I must wwarn you, we generally hate doing residential work. Our costs give homeowners sticker shock. But our IH guys do a fair amount of homeowner work.

Be careful, there are a lot of flim flam artists out there that call themselves mold experts.

spitfirebill wrote:

dyintorace wrote:

spitfirebill wrote: You are going to want a real live industrial hygienist do some testing. $1000 is not out of line. It takes a few hours, there area several samples to be lab analyzed and a report to be generated.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Any thoughts on how to go about identifying one of these providers?

Check local yellow pages for industrial hygiene consultants or environmental consulting. If you are located in Gainesville, Fla, I would call the U of F and see if they have an IH dept or microbiology dept. Those guys may be able to refer you to somebody. I work for an engineering consulting company that has an IH dept. I must wwarn you, we generally hate doing residential work. Our costs give homeowners sticker shock. But our IH guys do a fair amount of homeowner work. Be careful, there are a lot of flim flam artists out there that call themselves mold experts.

Thanks for the insight! I'm not opposed to paying a relatively steep fee, especially if it helps us get healthy (even the peace of mind would be a step in the right direction). I didn't think about UF. I'll definitely start there!

spitfirebill wrote:

dyintorace wrote:

spitfirebill wrote: You are going to want a real live industrial hygienist do some testing. $1000 is not out of line. It takes a few hours, there area several samples to be lab analyzed and a report to be generated.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Any thoughts on how to go about identifying one of these providers?

Check local yellow pages for industrial hygiene consultants or environmental consulting. If you are located in Gainesville, Fla, I would call the U of F and see if they have an IH dept or microbiology dept. Those guys may be able to refer you to somebody. I work for an engineering consulting company that has an IH dept. I must wwarn you, we generally hate doing residential work. Our costs give homeowners sticker shock. But our IH guys do a fair amount of homeowner work. Be careful, there are a lot of flim flam artists out there that call themselves mold experts.

BINGO! I found this group and just asked them for advice. Thanks for the tip!

http://www.ehs.ufl.edu/programs/ih/

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Check with home inspectors. They usually do some kind of mold tests in the house for around $200 or so.

Don't do this.

It's a $200 DIY solution.

Home inspectors are in the business of limiting their exposure and liability. What you'll get are lot's of non-committal statements that don't really tell you anything, except that you should have hired a real industrial hygienist.

UofF is a good start.

I work for a Government outfit that handles the environment. Many people don't like us, so I've cleverly talked around the name of my employer.

I work in the Division of Air Quality - Air Monitoring Section. I monitor ambient air, which is generally non-point source. That's a little different than residential air quality. I can tell you that proper, scientific monitoring isn't cheap. What you're after is called speciation, which samples the air, analyzes it, and then tells you what kind of dirt is in the air. We contract this out to a company called RTI. Again, it's not cheap and there is some disagreement on the accuracy of sampling methods. So much so, that we changed the way we analyze the Carbon component. I digress. Because you, or whomever you hire to check your house, are not held to any regulatory standards, your results may or may not be accurate. The best advice was above to contact the U of F. Government is doesn't have the capacity for your type of issue. Private "specialists" are in business to make money. A University would have enough expertise and flexibility to collect some worthwhile data.

http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-inspection-camera-67979.html Now is your excuse.

The home inspection for mold and environmental dangers is an interesting racket, filled with snake oil salesman and people that completed a weekend course of certification. Overall, the experts are right up there beside the expert help available at Home Depot.

Not that there aren't some very good people and companies in the field. By and large, the cost is a pretty good indicator of the quality you're going to get. And, by and large, anything under about $10k is low quality.

Since your wife is battling chronic mold in her lungs, that's a darn good thing to suspect. It's not hard to inspect for it. You can drill small holes and use the above scope to look in the walls. Or, just take a hammer and smack out sections to look.

Start with the bathroom walls. They should be your #1 suspect. Expand to include any that could have water to them. That would be kitchen walls, walls under the bathroom, etc.

A few other things to check or consider are the formaldehyde that was in many of the drywalls a few years ago, the formaldehyde that is in many of the fiberglass insulations, general dust, poop (mouse and roach are big time allergens), mites, soot (wood stoves, oil furnaces), duct filth, etc.

I am having similar problems in my basement but I have found the location of most of the mold and I am having issues getting rid of it. I think I might purchase that digital inspection to see if I can find some more of it because I do have some drywall up.