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MOLD TEST KIT INSTRUCTIONS BASIC ADVICE for SAMPLE COLLECTION SUPPLIES YOU NEED SIX EASY STEPS LAB FEE SCHEDULE PAYMENT MAILING INSTRUCTIONS WHAT THE LAB DOES More Information When to Hire a Professional Test Methods Critiqued Mold Information Center InspectAPedia TM Home & Site Map Air Conditioning InspectAPedia Bookstore Electrical Environment Exteriors Heating Home Inspection Insulate Ventilate Interiors Mold Inspect/Test Plumbing Water Septic Roofing Structure Accuracy & Bias Pledge Contact Us |
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MOLD SAMPLE PROCESSING SCHEDULE NOTICE: Lab Closure: samples received between May 15 - May 26 will be processed on May 27th. Apologies for the inconvenience. Sample processing turnaround time at our lab is normally 24-hours or less. |
Warning for people at extra risk: if there is a significant amount of mold present, or if you have allergies, suffer from asthma, have a compromised immune system, are elderly, or if infants or if others with those conditions or any other medical risk are in the building, do not attempt to collect or disturb mold. Consult your physician in any case before proceeding.
Do you need an expert? This document describes a fast, low-cost, highly-effective procedure to collect and send a "bulk" or tape mold sample to our mold testing laboratory. Sending a do-it-yourself mold test sample to a laboratory is not a substitute for consulting with or using the services of a qualified professional to inspect your building. An expert is likely to find conditions most people would not recognize. But if you simply want to know about mold which you see yourself, the procedure below is inexpensive, scientifically sound, and easily within the ability of a typical home owner or tenant. See "When to hire a professional" (link at left) for help in deciding if you need to bring in an expert to inspect or test your building for mold. See "Testing Methods Critiqued" for a discussion of the validity of various "home test kits" and "toxic mold test kits" on the market.
What about hiring someone to just do an "air test" or "swab" or "culture" for mold: You can NOT rely on air testing, settlement plates, swab testing, or culture plates to accurately and fully characterize the presence of mold in a building. Such mold test kits are unreliable and are discussed at "Test Methods Critiqued" (link at left). While air testing and culture tests for mold can be useful tools, they are fundamentally inaccurate in characterizing mold risk in a building. Thorough visual building inspection by an experienced building scientist who is also has expertise on mold, aerobiology, and mycology, accompanied appropriate types testing of visible mold are key in any such investigation.
In addition to tape samples (procedure described in this document) our mold testing lab also accepts Zefon(R) air sample cassettes and provides the same rapid turnaround as for tape samples. Our field inspection and testing service also makes use of Burkard Personal Air Sampler slides, spore traps, Allergenco air sampling equipment, vacuum samples, and bulk material samples as well as smoke testing, air flow examination and measurement, and certain gas measurements such as Carbon dioxide, Carbon monoxide, and Formaldehyde. Mail-in samples prepared by this or similar equipment are accepted as well but you should call for special mailing and handling instructions if you're using one of these methods. Instructions for sending a simple tape sample continue on this page.
Please do not send to our toxic mold test lab raw material samples such as pieces of wood, drywall, carpeting, etc. without calling to make the
necessary arrangements. Unless we make prior arrangement, such samples will simply be discarded as there is risk of lab contamination.
Assuming you are testing mold growing on surfaces in your living area please consider using the protective gear described above. Instructions are for right-handed people; reverse hands if you're a Leftie. Follow these steps to collect a mold test sample to send to our 24-hour "toxic mold test kit" laboratory
CHOOSE a representative spot of mold growth on a surface such as a wall, cabinet, ceiling or floor. Collect one tape sample per location; do not use the same tape to sample from multiple locations.
There are always multiple mold species present in any environment. We sample mold which looks different (color, texture), which is growing on different surfaces (drywall, paneling, wood trim, ceiling tiles), or which is growing in widely different areas of the building (basement, living area, inside a wall cavity) as often these will be different species. Don't collect and send 50 samples. You're looking for 1. the dominant species present and 2. particularly allergenic or toxic species present in your environment.
How to find mold and where to stick the tape: check out the "More Information" links at left. Photographs and text there explain the importance of choosing carefully just where to collect a tape sample. Samples are more accurate when they collect particles which represent the large areas of mold that may be present. Our advice on how to look for mold reduces that chance that you'll miss important but hard to see toxic or allergenic mold on building surfaces.
Collecting settled dust for a mold or allergen particle screen: if you are preparing a screening sample (as opposed to sampling actual visible mold) the sample area can be just about any horizontal surface that will have settled dust on it. We prefer to screen areas where people spend the most time, such as bedrooms or a family room, or areas of suspected but not visible problems such as basements. Sample a surface that has at not been cleaned recently so that it represents particle settlement over a longer time interval. Do not sample surfaces that are so dirty that the tape will be thick and opaque with debris.
Have ready tape, scissors, and new clean plastic ZipLok(R) bags. (Heavy-weight quart size freezer-type is best but any will do).
PULL OUT 1 to 2" of tape. Use CLEAR TAPE *NOT* the FROSTED, *NOT* the
INVISIBLE type.
DO NOT TEAR it off yet!
FOLD the tape under against itself, sticky-side to sticky-side to form a
"non-stick tab" that you can hold. We need this tab later in the lab to pull
the tape back off of the plastic bag.
HOLDing the "TAB" that you've made, now
PULL OUT and TEAR off 2-3" of tape.
Including the "non-stick tab" the total tape length will be 2 1/2 to 3". If the tape flops over and sticks to itself throw it away and start over with a shorter piece or use tweezers to keep the free end out of trouble.
HOLD the tape by the "tab" in your right hand, ONLY by one end -
don't put your fingers all over it. Using a finger from your left hand and
touching only the non-sticky side of the tape,
PRESS the sticky side of the tape gently ONTO THE MOLD to be sampled, using a
finger (or a Q-tip) to press gently to imbed the mold sample onto it.
Press the tape into the mold hard enough to get a good visible amount of mold on the tape, but do not press so hard that everything is squashed into a solid gooey mass as that will obscure important identifying characteristics of the mold structure in the sample. If you're not sure, prepare two or more samples of increasing amounts of mold on each tape.
Still holding the end of the tape in your right hand, gently
PEEL away the tape from the moldy surface WITHOUT TOUCHING the sticky side of
the tape containing the mold. (If you accidentally touch the tape just at the
free end you can snip that end off before storing the tape on the ZipLok bag.)
You can use tweezers if necessary to help control the tape.
ONE TAPE SAMPLE PER SAMPLE LOCATION please.
Still holding the end of the tape in your right hand, using a finger of your
left hand,
PRESS the tape, sticky-moldy-side down, onto the OUTSIDE of the CENTER of a
NEW, UNOPENED, SMALL clear ZipLok bag. Freezer bags work best as they are a bit
thicker and will keep the tape flat.
As you press the tape onto the bag, stick down first the free end that you didn't touch (or snip off that part if you touched it), then press down the rest of the tape onto the bag by pressing on the non-sticky side of the tape. Don't cut off the "tab" as we need it later.
Do NOT turn the bag inside out;
Do NOT put the tape sample inside the bag.
Do NOT stick the sample onto the white-inked write-on label that might be
present on one side of the bag - the ink may ruin the sample.
Do NOT stick the moldy (sticky) side of the tape to itself as we won't be able
to get it back apart to prepare the lab slide.
I repeat because people do weird things with tape and ZipLok bags: please just stick the TAPE sample onto the CENTER of the OUTSIDE OF THE BAG.
You now have 1-2" of moldy tape stuck mold-side-down onto the center of the outside of a ZipLok bag.
FOLD the small ZipLok BAG in half or depending on where you put the tape, fold the bag sides over to cover the tape sample and
PUT that folded BAG containing the sample INSIDE a second (larger is ok) NEW
ZipLok BAG. Press gently to expel air and close and seal the outer bag.
WASH YOUR HANDS if you got unknown mold or debris on your self and if you were not wearing disposable gloves.
Our Mold Test Lab Fees, to Whom you Make Check Payable, and the Lab Mailing Instructions are given below.
Unique in this field, our lab services and report include (when appropriate) emergency response with email or telephone notification, and always include explanatory text summarizing known health or other concerns which have been reported for the species identified. Photo-documentation of the sample contents is also normally provided with the printed report.
MOLD SAMPLE PROCESSING TIME: sample processing turnaround time: is normally 24-hours or less from time of receipt of the sample at our lab.
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MOLD SAMPLE PROCESSING SCHEDULE NOTICE: Lab Closure: samples received between May 15 - May 26 will be processed on May 27th. Apologies for the inconvenience. Sample processing turnaround time at our lab is normally 24-hours or less. |
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LAB FEES |
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| Sample
Type |
Lab
Fee Per Sample |
Comments |
| Tape | $50.00 | We recommend this economical and rapid method described on this web page. |
| Air | $60.00 | Media-coated slide, Air-O-Cell™, Cyclex-d™, Micro-5™ etc. See: Mold Testing Methods, Valid and Invalid |
| Bulk | $100.00 | e.g. 4 sq.in. of drywall, 1 sq.ft. of mold-suspect fiberglass. See: Bulk Sampling For Mold? |
| Culture | $100.00 | Cultured for viable fungal growth (Swab, tape, other). See: Validity of Cultures Turnaround time: culture samples may require up to 14 days. |
| Other | Call or email | Unless we have agreed in advance by telephone or email, please do not send mold samples by any other means; we don't want samples of wallpaper, flooring, purses, shoes, or anything else. In order to control the lab environment and to protect the health of lab employees improperly sealed packages must be discarded. |
| Fax Report | $10.00 | The per-sample fee includes laboratory analysis, written report, photo-documentation, sent by email and U.S. postal mail. |
We accept payment by check, credit card, or PayPal. Just multiply the number of samples of each type by the fee for that type to compute your total bill. We offer reduced-fee and pro-bono services for those who are elderly, limited-income, disabled, or for religious and certain other institutions. If those conditions apply to you just contact us by email to discuss your needs.
MAKE CHECK PAYABLE TO: Dan Friedman (include the check with your samples) OR pay by credit card:
| BULK SAMPLES: For bulk material samples such as building insulation or drywall use the button at left ($100. per lab sample). Contact us for guidance on bulk sample selection, packaging, and mailing for mold tests. |
| MOLD CULTURE SAMPLES: For mold culture samples use the button at left ($75. per lab sample). Before buying a mold culture kit read the articles about mold cultures at Mold Cultures - Validity and Usefulness. |
MAIL SAMPLES, DOCUMENTATION, & PAYMENT TO
Daniel Friedman
American Home Service Co.
ATTN: Bioaerosol Lab
3 Willowbrook Hgts.
Poughkeepsie NY 12603-5707
UPS/FEDEX/US Post Office EXPRESS MAIL Deliveries are accepted but -
PLEASE DO NOT REQUIRE A SIGNATURE on packages sent to the lab -- If using Express Mail sign the box used for Waiver of Signature. Failure to follow this suggestion will delay processing of your sample.
On receipt of your sample the lab will prepare one or more treated slides using your material samples. We will examine them for airborne bioaerosols, mold, etc. and will perform identification using any of several low power stereoscopic and high-power light microscopes in our lab.
Mold culturing for speciation, as well as other specialized particle identification techniques are available in our laboratory and can be special-ordered by telephone or email consultation.
Genera/species identifications are made based on experience, education, reference texts and keys, and by comparison with our very extensive library of known particle samples.
While certain molds are well documented and may be identifiable some are not so we do not guarantee that we will identify all components found on the tape. There are more than 80,000 mold species which have been identified and an estimated 1.4 million remaining to be identified. However it's quite possible to identify a number of species of particular concern and which have received considerable media attention lately (such as Stachybotrys and Penicillium/Aspergillus.)
Clients should also understand that there are multiple potential health hazards in buildings and that a client-selected remote-lab analyzed sample is absolutely not comprehensive. Other hazards may be present.
Ordinarily a written lab report will be provided within 24 hours of sample receipt. In a few cases (lab closed for cleaning, holidays, complicated samples needing more analysis) we need more time to complete the analysis.
If we recognize a dangerous material we will also notify you immediately. Our report will include an identification of particles and a statement about mold or other particle allergenicity or toxicity.
If you have questions about this mold sample collection procedure contact me by email.
The Mold Information Center: What to Do About Mold in Buildings, When and How
to Inspect for Mold, Clean Up Mold, or Avoid Mold Problems
Use this simple, economical mold test kit by following
our instructions on how to collect and mail mold samples to our lab
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