Dust mites are 8-legged arthropods that live in the house dust of homes where they are prevalent. They have been recognized as a major source of allergens regarding house dust since 1967 and feed on organic materials such as fungi, skin cells, yeast and bacteria. Increased dust mite populations are directly related to older, lower income single-family homes as well as the presence of carpeting and the lack of air conditioning. Moisture, which is an indicator of mold viability, is also an increased risk for dust mites in your home. Although they lack eyes, dust mites are light sensitive and photophobic and thus cause them to live deep within soft substrates such as you mattress, box-spring, pillows, blankets, clothes, and carpet; these are places where moisture is retained and fluctuations of humidity are minimized. It is not uncommon to find thousands of dust mites inside a single gram of house dust. (Click link below for full story)

Dust mite allergy

1. You see mold growing inside your house or building.
Mold is everywhere in our environment, but it shouldn’t be growing inside our buildings. We can help you find out if what you think is mold really is mold, what type it is, and how to remove it safely. Some types of molds are known to have more of a health concern than others. Our reports can be taken to your health care professional if you have health concerns for the quality of your indoor air. If repairs are indicated our detailed reports include repair recommendations for a mold remediation contractor to follow.

2. You are buying or moving into a different house or building.
Buying a property is a huge investment and you don’t want to find out there is a mold and moisture problem after you have signed those escrow papers. If you are moving to a rental property you may have to sign a lease. ET&T can help you by doing a mold and moisture inspection before you commit yourself to the property.

3. You smell a musty or moldy odor that is stronger when the windows and doors have been closed.
Often you can smell the odor from mold before you can see it. The mold you see with your eye is made up of thousands of mold spores you can’t see without a microscope. Having a mold inspection done when you smell the odor and not waiting until you can see the mold is important. It may help to prevent some damage to your building and save you a lot of repair work.

4. You have had a water leak or the neighboring unit has had a water leak.
Mold needs a source of water or moisture in order to grow. If you have had a water leak for a few days that may be all the time it takes for mold to start growing. It is extremely important to get the water leak repaired as soon as possible and the building materials dried out rapidly and appropriately. ET&T can help you to assess the extent by moisture mapping to identify the wet areas and prescribe the necessary drying action. We can also document and verify your drying company has done the job right.

5. Your allergies or asthma are worse when you are inside.
This may be an indication that allergens are present. Mold is a common indoor allergen. You may have mold growing indoors that you can’t see or smell. In addition to ruling out mold, we can perform allergen testing for dust mites, cat and dog dander, mouse, rat and cockroach.

6. The building feels damp to you.
We can help you by identifying your moisture problems and recommend strategies to prevent mold growth from occurring.

7. You see condensation on the inside of your windows.
There is more than enough water in condensation to allow mold to grow indoors. Let us find out why you have condensation indoors and advise you in how to reduce the moisture levels inside your property.

8. Your pets have been sick.
Animals can be a good indicator of the indoor air quality for your property. Some animals health can be affected by mold, often sooner and as much or more than people.

9. Water from rain or sprinklers doesn’t drain away and puddles up against your walls.
Even though we think of the outer walls of our buildings as barriers this is not the case. When walls are continually dampened by sprinkler over spray or puddles, water can soak through the outer wall, into the wall cavity and eventually cause damage to the inside walls of our buildings.

10. You see mold growing on your furniture or on items in your closet.

Frequently, we find mold growing on the back of furniture that is pushed up against a wall. Closets are notorious for having mold problems because they often have a colder temperature and little ventilation. Closets are often against an outside wall, near plumbing or stuffed to the brim with possessions we rarely use or move around during cleaning.

If you have noticed any of the situations from this list, you may need to have moisture testing, a mold inspection or mold testing done. We are happy to discuss your concerns and circumstances to help you decide if you need our services or not. If you do need an inspection, we custom design an inspection plan to meet your specific testing needs. Contact Environmental Testing & Technology, Inc (ET&T) at (760) 804-9400 or send us an email at info@etandt.com for a free phone consultation.

1. You see mold growing inside your house or building.

Mold is everywhere in our environment, but it shouldn’t be growing inside our buildings. We can help you find out if what you think is mold really is mold, what type it is, and how to remove it safely. Some types of molds are known to have more of a health concern than others. Our reports can be taken to your health care professional if you have health concerns for the quality of your indoor air. If repairs are indicated our detailed reports include repair recommendations for mold remediation contractors to follow.

2. You are buying or moving into a different house or building.

Buying a property is a huge investment and you don’t want to find out there is a mold and moisture problem after you have signed the escrow papers. If you are moving to a rental property you may have to sign a lease. ET&T can help by conducting a mold and moisture inspection before you commit yourself to the property.

3. You smell a musty or moldy odor that is stronger when the windows and doors have been closed.

Often you can smell the odor from mold before you can see it.  The mold you see with your eye is made up of thousands of mold spores you can’t see without a microscope. Having a mold inspection done when you smell the odor and not waiting until you can see the mold is important. It may help to prevent some damage to your building and save you a lot of repair work.

4. You have had a water leak or the neighboring unit has had a water leak.

Mold needs a source of water or moisture in order to grow. If you have had a water leak for a few days that may be all the time it takes for mold to start growing.  It is extremely important to get the water leak repaired as soon as possible and the building materials dried out rapidly and appropriately. ET&T can help you to assess the extent using moisture mapping to identify the wet areas and prescribe the necessary drying action.  We can also document and verify your drying company has done the job right.

5. Your allergies or asthma are worse when you are inside.

This may be an indication that allergens are present. Mold is a common indoor allergen, You may have mold growing indoors you can’t see or smell. In addition to ruling out mold, we can perform allergen testing for dust mites, cat and dog dander, mouse, rat and cockroach.

6. The building feels damp to you.

We can help you by identifying your moisture problems and recommend strategies to prevent mold growth from occurring.

7. You see condensation on the inside of your windows.

There is more than enough water in condensation to allow mold to grow indoors. Let us find out why you have condensation indoor and advise you in how to reduce the moisture levels inside your property.

8. Your pets have been sick.

Animals can be a good indicator of the indoor air quality for your property. Some animals health can be affected by mold, often sooner and as much or more than people.

9. Water from rain or sprinklers doesn’t drain away and puddles up against your walls.

Even though we think of the outer walls of our buildings as barriers this is not the case. When walls are continually dampened by sprinkler overspray or puddles, water can soak through the outer wall, into the wall cavity and eventually cause damage to the inside walls of a buildings.

10. You see mold growing on your furniture or on items in your closet.

Frequently, we find mold growing on the back of furniture that is pushed up against a wall.  Closets are notorious for having mold problems because they often have a colder temperature and little ventilation. Closets are often against an outside wall, near plumbing or stuffed to the brim with possessions we rarely use or move around during cleaning.

If you are experiencing any of the situations listed above, you may need to have moisture testing a mold inspection or mold testing done. We have helped 100’s of companies and residential home owners, we are happy to discuss your concerns and circumstances to help you decide if you need professional services.  If you do need an inspection, we are able to custom design an inspection plan to meet your specific testing needs. Contact Environmental Testing & Technology, Inc. (ET&T) at 760-424-2259 or send us an email at info@etandt.com for a free phone consultation.

ET&T also recommended a follow up inspection called a post remediation verification inspection (clearance testing) to make sure the work had been done correctly. This inspection is to verify that all the moldy and water damaged materials were removed properly.

This post remediation inspection includes several criteria:

• A visual inspection is done to make sure all the water damaged and moldy materials have been removed
• Moisture measurements are made to ensure the remaining materials are dry
• Spore trap air samples are collected to make sure the amount of mold (fungal) spores are low in number and of normal types

If everything looks good, we write a clearance report saying they are ready to remove the containment and rebuilding can start.

A few months later, the ET&T team was at a different job for a mold remediation company and they asked about the moldy bathroom job because they remembered we had done the initial inspection. They had set up the containment and had been put on hold by the condominium association to do any further work.

A few more months went by and the condominium association called us to inspect the unit below the first unit. They thought it now showed signs of mold.  We performed another inspection and found mold growing and wet ceiling materials in the downstairs unit.  We determined the problem came from the upstairs unit.

We learned the upstairs unit had not been repaired yet because they were waiting for matching shower tiles to arrive!

The unit owner wanted both of their bathrooms to have the same tile type and the condominium association didn’t want to replace the tile in the bathroom that didn’t need repairs. The repairs were put on hold while they were waiting for the correct tiles to arrive.

Tiled Bath From Upstairs Unit

Now the condominium association had 2 units with mold and water damage to repair!  They had 2 unit owners inconvenienced, the upper unit’s owner for months without one of their bathrooms! All this for matching tile?

Well, after more than 7 months from our original inspection, both units have had the mold remediation work finished and passed the post remediation verification inspection and can now rebuild the bathrooms. We don’t know about the status of the matching tile.

There are at least 2 “better” options the condominium association could have taken instead of delaying the repair:

1. They could have chosen to have the mold removed and plumbing repaired while waiting for the matching tile to arrive. If they had at least removed the mold and water damaged materials from the upper unit and repaired the water leak they would have prevented most if not all of the damage to the lower unit.
2. Another option would have been to simply replace the tile in the bathroom that didn’t need repairs and saved over 7 months of frustration and inconvenience for the upstairs unit owner.  It would have been much cheaper and taken less time to change to different tile than to hold off on repairs while waiting for matching tiles to be found!

The lesson here is that you should never delay the remediation of wet and moldy building materials after you’ve found out that there is in fact a problem. You’re not only costing yourself in terms of more money due to additional damage, but you’re also neglecting the indoor environmental hazard that mold brings into your home, condo or office building. You always want to take care of mold problems as soon as possible. If you have areas in your home that you’re unsure about, or have questions about mold testing for your San Diego home call the experts at ET&T 760-424-2259. Our friendly staff is waiting for your call.

This is where the trouble started.

The homeowner hired the drywaller to remove the mold damaged building materials and thought things were taken care of. The homeowner later became ill and went to the doctor who suggested they have mold testing done at her Carlsbad, CA home. When we were called to do the mold inspection, our consultant found the ceiling void space was still open to the rest of the house and that the drywaller had left some of the removed moldy ceiling drywall inside the ceiling void space.

We also found additional moldy ceiling drywall.  Our mold consultant collected a surface sample from inside the ceiling void space and the sample showed Stachybotrys, Penicillium and Aspergillus mold growing in the ceiling void space. Our inspector also collected spore trap air samples throughout the home and the analysis showed that Stachybotrys and Penicillium/Aspergillus mold spores had been spread from the ceiling void space throughout the rest of the house!

mold growing in ceiling void space

Our recommendations in the written report for the homeowner were to hire a professional mold remediation contractor to contain (isolate) the mold from the rest of the house and to remove the moldy and water damaged building materials.  We also recommended a thorough deep cleaning of the rest of the house and the use of HEPA filtered air scrubbers to capture and lower the levels of Stachybotrys and Penicillium/Aspergillus spores in the air. Thankfully, the homeowner followed our recommendations and hired a professional mold remediation company.

A containment, plastic room with HEPA air filtration equipment, was set up to isolate the moldy ceiling area from the other areas of the house. They removed the moldy and water damaged building materials and air scrubbers were set up throughout the rest of the home to capture and lower the levels of Stachybotrys and Penicillium/Aspergillus spores.

A professional deep cleaning (HEPA vacuuming  and damp wiping) of the rest of the house was done. We returned for a follow up inspection called a post remediation verification or clearance inspection.  Inside the containment, we verified the mold had been removed properly, the work area was clean and dry and the air sample spore levels were acceptable. We also repeated the spore trap air sampling in the rest of the home to verify the deep cleaning had returned the spore levels to be similar to the outside air. Our results showed the mold remediation company had removed the rest of the moldy ceiling materials correctly and had cleaned up the contamination in the rest of house.

If only the roofer had referred the homeowner to a professional mold testing company and mold remediation contractor in San Diego, the job could have been done correctly from the start!  Not only was the health of the homeowner affected, but there was the additional cost for medical care, the additional work done by the mold remediation contractor to clean up the mold contamination to the rest of the home and extra mold testing by our company.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, please consult with mold inspection and mold remediation professionals.  This is definitely a case where using the right professional for the job would have made all the difference!

For a free phone consultation call Environmental Testing & Technology (ET&T) at 760-424-2259 or leave us a message on our Contact Form and one of our mold experts will get back to you shortly.

Thanks for reading! I hope you found this blog post helpful.

Mold and Water Stains on the Ceiling

What in the world would rain gutters have to do with mold inside my home!  Mold needs water to grow. When the rain gutters and downspouts get blocked, the water can’t flow away from the roof line and your building. Water flows along the path of least resistance and you don’t want that path to be under your roofing materials or inside your walls.

Bubbled Paint and Water Stains on Ceiling

If your rain gutters are clogged or draining slowly the water can overflow the gutters leading to water running down the sides of your building. This can lead to puddles forming up against the outside walls of your property.  If the rain gutters are clogged, water can pool up at the roof line. Areas of your roof that are not sealed well enough may allow the water to seep through the roofing material and into your attic and walls. Once the attic and interior walls get wet, the opportunity for mold to grow is present. Even though we think of our walls as being a barrier to the outside environment, water can soak through and get into the wall cavity space and then to the inside of the building. If this is already your situation, we can help!

Maintenance is key in helping to prevent mold growth inside our buildings and homes!

Just a couple of weekends ago, I was doing some yard work and decided I should check out the rain gutters since rain was in the forecast. I live in southern California and we haven’t had much rain so I hadn’t given the rain gutters any thought since last winter. Our neighbors pine tree had been shedding pine needles like crazy and our liquid amber trees leaves were turning the beautiful colors of fall. Well, my rain gutters near the pine tree were so stuffed with pine needles the gutters were over flowing with needles and the downspouts were completely covered up.  If that wasn’t bad enough, when I went to the other side of the house, the downspout had come off of the gutter completely and was just hanging there.  Even though I am on that side of the house frequently, I guess I never looked up!

Once again, I need to follow my own advice. My rain gutters are not very accessible to clean out so I will need to hire someone to take care of that.  It looks like a tree trimming is in order as well, sounds like 2 jobs to be hired out to prevent a mold problem inside.  The cost of this maintenance will be much less than a costly mold remediation project.

For a free phone consultation concerning a mold or water damage issue in your home or commercial building, call Environmental Testing & Technology (ET&T) at 760-424-2259 or email us at info@etandt.com to see if you need a mold inspection.

Do your drains look like these?  

If you had to answer yes, they need some serious maintenance! You may already have a mold problem brewing!

If this is already your situation, we can help! Give Environmental Testing & Technology (ET&T) a call at 760-424-2259 or email us at info@etandt.com for a free phone consultation.

A key part of our mold and moisture inspection is the visual inspection outdoors to check on the exterior walls.  In addition to plugged and damaged drains like the ones in the photos above we also look for:

• Planters or planter boxes right up against the side of the building.
• Puddles from watering for too long or too quickly. The ground or drainage system just can’t handle that much water at one time.
• The ground slopes towards the building instead away from the building and creates puddles of standing water.
• Moss or algae growth near the exterior walls.
• Worst of all, No drainage system at all!

These photos show a wet patio can lead to a wet wall inside the home.

Even though we think of the walls as being a barrier from the outside, they can still absorb water. Once the outside walls get wet and stay wet for some time, the indoor walls get wet also. Sometimes there is a damp musty smell inside but you can’t figure out why it would smell damp in that area. We usually expect the dampness to be from plumbing, but the dampness might be from outside!  This may lead to mold growing inside the walls affecting your indoor air quality.

One of the many services ET&T offers is a mold prevention plan specific to your property’s needs where we address preventing water damage from sprinkler and drainage issues.

For a free phone consultation call Environmental Testing & Technology (ET&T) at 760-424-2259 or email us at info@etandt.com to see if you need a mold inspection or a mold prevention plan prepared.

Please let us know what you thought about this blog post at:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Thanks for reading and I hope you found this information useful!

Today many of us rely on automatic systems to do the watering for us. If we still stood outside and watered with a hose we wouldn’t spray the wall for 5 to 10 minutes at a time in the same place. Why do we let our sprinkler systems do that? I know in my case, and many of my neighbors, the sprinklers run at night and we don’t realize there is a problem until it is too late. Sprinkler systems are a wonderful convenien

ce in our busy lives, but we need to maintain them!

As mold and moisture inspectors, we at Environmental Testing & Technology (ET&T) frequently find sprinklers to be a major cause of mold problems inside buildings.

Here are some sprinkler system problems we at ET&T run into all the time:

• Sprinkler spraying on the walls of the building (sprinkler overspray).
• Plants and grass growing right up against the wall.
• Sprinklers installed too close to the building.
• Broken or leaking sprinkler pipes.

If your sprinklers look like the ones above, you may have a mold problem brewing and you may need a professional mold inspection!

Give Environmental Testing & Technology (ET&T) a call at 760-424-2259 or email us at info@etandt.com for a free phone consultation.

Don’t let this sad mold story happen to you!

Our walls are like a sandwich. There is the outside wall, the insulating space and then the inside wall. The outside wall keeps getting wet from the sprinkler system, then the insulation material gets wet, then the inside wall gets wet.  Before you know it, you have a funny smell, then you have a water stain inside, then you see a small spot on the wall, baseboard, or flooring.  You clean off the spot, but the spot keeps coming back.  That spot is probably mold!

This photo is of an inside wall that had a sprinkler that sprayed the on the outside wall.

A small spot on the wall can mean a big problem inside your property.

If this is already your situation we can help! For a free phone consultation call Environmental Testing & Technology (ET&T) at 760-424-2259 or email us at info@etandt.com to see if you need a mold inspection.

Thanks for reading! I hope you found this helpful.

Be sure to “Like” www.ETandT.com and follow us at your favorite social media site (Facebook & LinkedIn). We frequently post new indoor air quality information which may be of interest to you.