What Are The Best Home Kits That Test For Mold?
You have reason to suspect mold is in your house if there's been a flood or other moisture source; if there's a musty smell; or if you see something growing. To grow, mold needs moisture, oxygen and an organic surface. Common areas include sheet-rock walls, wallpaper, carpeting and wood.
Having an expert come to your home to test can cost $1,000 or more. But home kits test for fungus for much less, generally around $10 to $60. They're sold in pharmacies, home-improvement stores and on the Internet.
The kits vary widely in how they work and what they promise to do. A common and simple test involves taking a sample from a surface where you see mold or suspect it may be growing. Sometimes a piece of adhesive is used to take the sample, and sometimes a swab is used to transfer it to a petri dish with a nourishing growth medium. The mold grows for several days then you send it to a lab.
The petri dish test tells you the specific type of mold and whether it is "alive" or "dead." So-called dead, or nonviable, mold spores won't spread but still can cause negative health effects, scientists say. The adhesive test tells only whether mold is present and the general type.
Another method is called the "settling plate" test. That test involves leaving a petri dish out on a table or countertop, generally for an hour. In theory, the mold will settle on the petri dish, then after a few days it will grow enough so you can see it. A dish with a lot of mold indicates you may have a problem in that area, and if you like, you can send the dish to a lab to identify the mold.
The simplest tests in which you sample a surface in your home work well and do what they say they do, says David C. Straus, a professor of microbiology who specializes in mold at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas. Both are useful to provide a fast guide to the homeowner on whether there may be a problem and, if so, which type of mold is involved.
Dr. Straus says home tests that involve a petri dish and waiting for mold to settle are "a waste of money." The settle test is likely to miss some common types of mold that are too light to fall onto a petri dish, he says. Moreover, he adds, the tests can unnecessarily alarm homeowners since most homes have a significant amount of mold spores in the air that come from outdoors and don't necessarily mean it's growing in the house.
If mold is found, the first step is to identify the source of moisture and eliminate it. After that, you can try to clean the mold yourself or hire a professional. Experts say a small amount of mold can be eradicated simply by using a bleach solution on it. Avoid tackling large areas yourself, scientists say, because if you don't do it right you could end up spreading it throughout the house and making the problem worse.
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