One family asked us to give them a quote to remove all the walls and flooring in their large and beautiful basement.
They’d been told by a mold inspector that it was necessary. This happens a lot.
In conversation, it turned out that their first inspector also owned a remediation company, and this
was his recommended scope of work. And this happens a lot, too.
The Problem with Dual Services: Testing and Remediation
We duly suggested a local vendor we’ve worked with who tests, but does no remediation, and therefore has no dog in the fight. After testing, inspector #2 essentially recommended a deep clean.
Because there is no state licensing for mold remediation technicians or testing in most states, some remediation companies offer in-house testing before and after their work, and some home inspectors offer testing… and even mold remediation services as well.
This means that anybody can sell their mold removal services to you in our part of the country.
Our Stance at Yeti’s: Integrity Over Profit
Perhaps, by contrast, we Yeti’s don’t own a single mold testing contraption of any kind.
Not because we don’t care to know, but we don’t care to cheat 🙂
We want to avoid a conflict of interest when it comes to mold remediation.
It’s waaaaay too easy to find mold, and it’s pretty easy NOT to find it once we think we’re done. But a disinterested third-party… wow – they might find mold spores when we’re done. And that keeps everybody honest.
When to Consider Testing
Sometimes air quality testing is the right move.
We suggest indoor environmental testing whenever you’re experiencing sickness, and believe it may be related to the mold in your indoor space. We suggest mold testing when there is a LOT of mold, or when we can’t find an obvious source. We also recommend mold testing by a third party when the complexities are such that it would be difficult to guarantee we’d landed the plane without hard data. Lastly, we recommend mold testing when a customer is a higher risk occupant (mold in a nursing home, mold identified in a school facility, hospital, etc).
And in many other mold remediation scenarios, it may be appropriate to press on.
If we can see the source, and the affected space, and no one has a health concern, and the scope of remediation hasn’t gotten away from us, there’s a lot of work we can do for the price of testing. And so we try to apply the common sense principle… what would we tell our Mom to do in this situation? Generally, that steers us well – we like Mom 🙂
Adapted from the book: Yeti’s Eat Mold For Breakfast, first published 2022
