Before you purchase a home, it's always a good idea to have it inspected by a professional home inspector. The majority of homeowners do this, and it helps people avoid purchasing homes with problems that will be expensive to fix. However, few homeowners bother to hire a professional mold testing service to check a home for mold before they buy it, and this can be a mistake.
Mold is often difficult to find, and it can be very expensive to remove. Having a home tested for mold before you buy it can help you avoid expensive mold removal costs in the future. To find out more about it's a good idea, read on to learn three reasons you should test a home for mold before you buy it.
1. Home Inspectors Don't Search Specifically for Mold
Although a home inspector can help you determine many things about a home's condition, they won't search for mold in the same way that a professional mold testing service will. In fact, most home inspectors include a clause in their contract that they're not responsible for the presence of mold that they miss during their inspection. Home inspectors will tell you about mold if they see it, but they generally won't go further and alert you about indicators that can lead to mold growth such as high humidity.
Professional mold testing services, on the other hand, are used to searching through homes to discover hidden mold. While they'll be unable to cut through drywall and search inside wall cavities like they would if they were inspecting a home that you own, they can use clues like water stains or recent drywall patches that can indicate prior water damage and the presence of mold. Due to their experience and the fact that they're looking only for mold, a mold tester will be able to give you a better idea of whether or not mold is lurking inside the home you plan to purchase than a home inspector would.
2. Professional Mold Testers Use Special Equipment to Find Hidden Mold
In addition to experience, professional mold testers also have equipment that can alert them to the existence of mold in the home. A humidity monitor can be used to measure the relative humidity in various rooms, which allows a mold tester to determine which areas can support the presence of mold growth.
In addition, mold testing kits can be used to capture and measure the number of airborne mold spores in different areas of the home. If more mold spores are present in the air inside the home than the air outside, this can be an indicator that the spores are coming from mold that's somewhere within the house. Using a humidity monitor and a mold testing kit helps a mold inspection service pinpoint areas of the home that may harbor hidden mold, which can then be inspected visually for any mold growth.
3. Mold Testers Can Help Determine the Extent of an Infestation
If any mold is found, a mold inspection service can also give you an idea of the severity of the mold infestation. This is usually determined by its location in the home since mold spreads via airborne spores—if mold is located in an area with good airflow, the infestation throughout the home is likely to be worse than if the mold is located in an area with poor airflow such as a crawlspace.
Having information about the potential severity of a mold infestation is important because it can give you an idea of how much the mold will cost to remove. Mold remediation requires blocking the entire area off with plastic tarps to prevent its spores from spreading further and then eliminating it with biocidal cleaners. Fans are sometimes used to create negative pressure in rooms that can't be easily isolated, which will prevent air from escaping the room. It's a complex process, and the cost can increase quickly if multiple rooms need mold removal services.
In short, hiring a mold testing service to inspect a home before you buy it will help you find the presence of mold inside the house along with the extent of the mold growth. In turn, this gives you an idea of how much it will cost to fix the problem, which allows you to make an informed decision about whether or not the home is worth purchasing when considering the mold removal costs. Before you buy a home, it's worth it to have it professionally inspected by a mold testing service to avoid accidentally purchasing a home with an unknown mold problem that's extremely expensive to fix.
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