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Radon & Mold Professionals
Naples: (239) 498-4619
Ft. Myers: (239) 948-9717
Orlando: (407) 265-6653
Toll free: (800) 881-3837
Fax: (239) 949-5948

Our Florida mold inspections are designed to provide a thorough assessment of the home or business for the presence of mold, conditions conducive to mold growth and for determining the indoor air quality. We accomplish this by providing a thorough visual inspection of the indoor environment and the collection of air and or surface samples.  Samples are collected following Indoor Environmental Standards Orginization (IESO) protocols and shipped overnight to a third party, AIHA (American Industrial Hygiene Association)  EMLAP (Environmental Microbiology Laboratory Accreditation Program ) accredited laboratory for environmental microbiology analyses.

Indoors mold can only grow if two conditions are present:  first is an organic food source and the second is sufficient moisture. Food sources for mold indoors are abundant.  They include building materials like drywall, pressboard materials, cabinetry and settled out airborne particulate like dust.  Because these food sources are inherent in most every building, controlling the food sources is not realsitic.  The other necessity for mold, sufficient moisture, is the controlable factor.  The truth is, if you control moisture indoors, you will never have a mold problem. 

Utilizing infrared thermal imaging cameras on every inspection helps us identify areas that are wet and actively evaporating moisture.  A roof leak, for instance, that is impacting the living room ceiling may not be obvious to the naked eye, however when that area is viewed with the infrared camera, the wet (cooler) area of the ceiling will show clear as day.  In addition, we also use an instrument called a protimeter.  This device is placed directly on a given surface like a wall or the interior of a sink base cabinet which then provides a readout of the relative moisture content of that material.  For instance an area of drywall under a window that is getting wet as a result of water migrating in through cracks in the exterior stucco and or under the exterior window frame, will show a much higher moisture content than the the dry, or normal moisture content, of the drywall to the left or right of the window. 

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FLIR Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera

Another moisture source that negatively impacts many of the homes, from a mold perspective in Florida, is the indoor humidity levels.  This moisture source is less understood in respect to its impact on the indoor environment.  Too often as well, it is poorly understood the critical role the HVAC system (Heating, Ventillation and Air Conditioning) has on the indoor relative humidity and indoor air quality as a whole.  When a properly maintained and operating residential A/C is running, it obviously is providing cooler air to the indoor space.  However, and far less understood is, it is also removing moisture from the air.  Residential HVAC design cools/heats the same indoor air over and over.  For air conditioning, the HVAC system pulls air into the system, cools it down and then supplys it to most, if not all, rooms in the home.  In the process of cooling the air down, it drops the air temperature to below the dew point temperature.  When this happens, water vapor in that air is condensed  into liquid water.  Those white PVC pipes we all see sticking out of the exterior base of a home that are dripping water, that's the water that was just in your home's air in the form of water vapor, commonly known as humidity.  When the HVAC system is not operating properly, oversized, turned off completely or has the thermostat set too high, it loses the ability to remove that water vapor from the indoor air.  As a result, indoor humidity levels increase.  Generally speaking, humidity levels consistently above 55% indoors provides sufficient moisture for many molds to grow.  This fact leads to the importance of the visual inspection part of our asseements.   All too often, a home can look just fine as you walk around.  However, upon a closer look, humidity driven mold growth can be growing on numerous surfaces throughout.  Undersides of shelving, cabinets, tables and chairs are typical locations.  In this all too common scenario, the mold is utilizing the available moisture in the air and settled out organic airborne particulate and/or organic building materials for food.  

As Board Certified Indoor Environmentalists (CIE) by the American Council for Accredited Certification and having performed well over 8,000 mold inspections in Florida since 2002, our hands-on field experience and technologically advanced tools, helps each of our clients receive a professional, comprehensive and well documented assessment of mold and moisture inside their home or business.  It is also critically important to realize that we, as a company, do not provide any remedial services.  Put simply, we don't fix anything.  As a result, we do not have any vested interest in the outcome of our assessment.  No financial gain interests or concerns, no financial losses interest or concerns.  Our # 1 job when in your home or business is to document our findings and provide you a comprehensive report.

Radon & Mold Professionals
Naples: (239) 498-4619
Ft. Myers: (239) 948-9717
Orlando: (407) 265-6653
Toll free: (800) 881-3837
Fax: (239) 949-5948