Mold Inspection of Austin
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mold inspection Austin
How To Read Mold Inspection Report
Clients of mold inspectors should be very welcome to call to discuss the investigator's findings and to ask for a reasonable amount of further explanation or guidance without incurring additional cost Austin TX Texas. For a discussion of valid and not very valid mold test lab reports for mold exposure, also see MOLD LAB REPORTS
What inspection methods and testing techniques form the basis of your indoor air/mold investigation report? Mold cultures are unreliable for overall characterization of fungal contamination of indoor air. Home test kits, settlement plates, samplers which collect spores onto petri dishes, and sterile swabs all have a place in the arsenal of tools but not for overall building characterization.
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Because Cladosporium is perhaps the most common mold genera, and because it's a pretty big family with perhaps 40 or more members or sub species, and because perhaps one of those members or species is toxic, a hasty lab might protect itself by an asterisked note indicating * Some members of this genera are toxic.
The idea of trying to come up with a uniform method of reporting mold levels in buildings, in this case with a mold score is to be applauded as an effort towards good science. But a mold score is more meaningless and confusing than meaningful and diagnostic when we lack any control over and reporting of building conditions at the time the sampling was performed.
If you paid a field investigator to examine your building you should be able to ask that person for additional advice concerning the lab results, and you should also be able to ask the lab director questions if the report is not clear.
The fact that a laboratory has some certification does not assure you that the certification is pertinent to the work being performed in your behalf, nor that the individual actually doing the work is properly trained .
If you see a large area of mold in a building a simple lab test can confirm that it is or is not a harmful (versus cosmetic) mold. And a carefully-collected sample of settled dust or other types of mold screening samples have some use in a rough building screen for evidence of hidden problematic mold.
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(June 5, 2014) joel vaughan said: Yes but where the hell can i find any information to tell me how much evidence i need to get a move from my mold ridden flat ! i think a mold kit will be insufficient for my evil landlords to have to do anything ! i reckon a company has to be hired and i have not the money for that as i only have about fifty quid as it has been my birthday - i am very ill can you advise please .
In one class I attended a mold test lab supervisor showed me the cheat sheet she provides to her afternoon high-school aged employees who are trained to look through the microscope for one of the eight common mold species whose photograph appears on a colored card. An under-trained lab technician may be tempted to stop examining a sample as soon as s/he finds one of the important eight on the card .
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Software often gives inspectors the choice of including photographs in the main body of the report, near the narrative that describes them, or photographs may be grouped together toward the beginning or end of the report.
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The leak’s been fixed. So why does it still smell like mildew?
Q: Earlier this year, a downspout on my condominium came loose, and water infiltrated my bedroom. It took the property manager 3½ months to repair it, so a lot of water came in. After the repair, I waited five months for the walls to dry out, during which there was a strong mold/mildew smell. When I brought in a plasterer, he removed the damaged plaster. A worker applied a white sealant, Zinsser Odorless Oil-Based Stain Blocker, and returned to spray mold/mildew killer. That was five weeks ago. After a few days, the smell was still as strong as before, so I bought the same product — it smells like Clorox — and sprayed the walls every third day. The mildew smell lessened only a small amount. I found a recommendation online to apply vinegar to kill the odor. I have done that three times over the past week. The smell has lessened a bit, but I worry that if I proceed to get new plaster and paint, the mold/mildew will come through. How should I eliminate the odor?
Washington
A: Hire a licensed mold assessor to test your walls and the air to make sure the underlying issue — excessive moisture — has been addressed. A persistent smell hints that mold or mildew (the term for specific kinds of mold) may still be growing because moisture levels are high.
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If you were to hire a company that does assessments as well as remediation and were told more remediation work needs to be done, you may wonder whether the advice was just a way to drum up more business. So hire a company that does mold assessments but not remediation work, suggested Joe Mulieri, owner of MoldGone in Silver Spring (240-970-6533; moldgone.net), which does both types of work throughout the Washington area. He said an assessment might cost a few hundred dollars. The D.C. government website lists licensed mold professionals in two categories: assessors and remediators. To view the list, type “mold professionals†into the search box at DC.gov .
Assuming you aren’t seeing any mold now, the smell could be coming from inside the wall cavities, perhaps within insulation stuffed into the walls, with the smells then wafting into the room through gaps around trim and between the walls and flooring. These air gaps could also be allowing warm, moisture-laden air to settle on a cold surface, where it condenses and raises the moisture level enough to support mildew growth. If the room didn’t have a moldy smell before the gutter problem, it’s possible that 3½ months of leaks soaked the insulation enough to compress it, allowing condensation to occur where it wasn’t an issue before. Or mildew could be in the ceiling or the floor, perhaps in carpet padding.
If the walls in your condo were covered in drywall, the best solution probably would be to remove the damaged materials, see what’s going on inside the wall and start fresh. Replacing drywall makes sense because mildew can feed on the paper that covers both sides of drywall’s gypsum core and because drywall is relatively inexpensive to replace.
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Plaster, however, is less prone to harboring mildew because it doesn’t provide food for mildew, and it is more expensive to replace. “Plaster is more dense and less absorbent than drywall,†Mulieri said. Although it’s sometimes necessary to remove plaster to address hidden issues, it’s often sufficient — once a leak is plugged — to go with the procedure your plasterer used: scraping off the outer layer, then applying an encapsulant. Mulieri said he uses AfterShock, a sealant produced by Fiberlock Technologies that was designed to disinfect surfaces and prevent mold from re-growing.
Many contractors, like yours, encapsulate by using a less-expensive oil-based sealer, such as Zinsser Odorless Oil-Based Stain Blocker or Kilz Orignal. But if you read the technical documents for these products, they don’t mention using them to encapsulate mildew. The Zinsser product sheet says only that it blocks stains from water, fire and smoke damage, while the Kilz sheet says it blocks stains from a longer list of sources and “seals pet, food and smoke odors.†There is no mention of mildew with either product.
There is a lot of confusion about how mildew grows and the risks it poses. People often focus on “killing†mildew by spraying it with bleach or similar products. But that kills only mildew hit by the spray.
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And if you inhale dead spores, the health risks are the same as if they were alive. That’s why the Environmental Protection Agency’s advice for do-it-yourself mildew cleanup focuses on wiping away mildew, using just water and detergent, on hard surfaces. The EPA says consumers can generally clean up moldy areas of less than 10 square feet by following its safety advice, which you can read by typing “mold cleanup in your home†into the search box at EPA.gov. For larger areas, it recommends getting a pro — one that is licensed.
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In a city awash with scooters and e-bikes, Revel will put 1,000 mopeds on Austin streets at a Friday ceremony outside City Hall.
1,000 Mopeds To Hit Austin Streets
By now, Austin residents are accustomed to having to negotiate around the abundant electric scooters left along sidewalks after use. Now, another company is poised to unleash a fleet of mopeds on the crowded landscape.
Revel, a shared electric vehicle company, on Tuesday announced it will launch a fleet of 1,000 mopeds in Austin on Friday, Nov. 1. The Revels, which are currently being placed on city streets, will be turned on Friday following a kick-off event outside City Hall, officials said in a press advisory.
These electric mopeds are not e-scooters, a company official told Patch in an email. Rather, insured riders drive and park the vehicles in the street, and the mopes are registered as motor vehicles with license plates.
Revels will be available to rent for Austinites over the age of 21 with valid drivers' licenses who pass an initial safe driving record background check, according to company officials. The moped onslaught is scheduled on Friday but a time has yet to be determined. Revel officials will be at Austin City Hall Plaza, 301 W. 2nd St., for the unveiling, according to an email.
https://patch.com/texas/downtownaustin/company-poised-unleash-fleet-mopeds-austin
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