Mold Testing FAQ

Straight answers to the questions people actually ask on the phone. If yours is not here, call and ask it.

Short version up front: an inspection is $425 with one indoor air sample and an outdoor control, lab results take one to three business days, we test only and never remediate, and neither Washington nor Idaho licenses this work.

Cost and scheduling

How much does mold testing cost? $425 for the base inspection: site visit, moisture mapping, thermal imaging, one indoor air sample, an outdoor control, all lab fees and the written report. Each additional sample is $100, a typical three sample job lands around $525, homes over 3,000 square feet run $550 to $650, and post remediation clearance is $375 flat for up to three samples.

Why do I see $149 mold inspections advertised? Because they are a different product. A $149 inspection is almost always a visual walkthrough with no laboratory work. That opinion can be useful, but it produces no data, says nothing about what is airborne or inside a wall, and generates no document a buyer, adjuster or attorney will treat as evidence. The other version of a cheap or free inspection is a remediation company's sales call, where the inspection is a loss leader and the money is in the cleanup that follows.

Are lab fees extra? No. Every price we publish includes the lab. No separate analysis fee, no report fee, no fuel surcharge.

How long does it take, and how fast can you get out? Most residential inspections schedule within a few business days, clearances within one to two. A typical residential visit is one to two hours on site, three to four for larger or more complicated buildings, and clearance testing is 45 to 60 minutes.

When do I get results? Verbal preliminary findings before we leave the property, covering moisture, thermal and anything visible. Lab results in one to three business days, and the written report within one business day of that. Rush 24 hour lab turnaround is $100.

Do you charge a trip fee, and will insurance pay? No trip fee anywhere. Spokane County, Kootenai County, and west through Lincoln County to the Lake Roosevelt corridor, all at the same published price. Insurance sometimes covers testing, usually as part of an open water damage claim rather than as a standalone service. We provide an itemized invoice and a report formatted for adjuster review, but we do not bill carriers directly.

What testing does and does not tell you

What does an air sample actually measure? The concentration of mold spores in the air at that spot, at that moment, reported by genus in spores per cubic meter. A calibrated pump draws a measured volume of air through a spore trap cassette, and a lab analyst counts and identifies what got trapped under a microscope.

Why does every job need an outdoor sample? Because outdoor air always contains mold spores, everywhere, all year, so an indoor number by itself cannot be interpreted. Elevated means elevated relative to outside your own building on that day. Three hundred spores per cubic meter of Cladosporium indoors is unremarkable on a September afternoon when outdoor counts are in the thousands, and a real finding in February when snow cover has flattened outdoor counts to almost nothing. A report with indoor numbers and no same day outdoor control is not something you can act on.

Can testing tell me exactly where the mold is? Air sampling tells you whether something abnormal is airborne and roughly which part of the building it is coming from. Finding the source is the job of the moisture survey, thermal imaging and borescope, not the lab. Mold is a symptom. Water is the disease.

Can a lab tell me what species it is? Spore trap analysis identifies genus, not species, and groups some genera that are not distinguishable by shape, which is why Penicillium and Aspergillus are reported together. Species level identification requires culturing, which takes longer, misses non viable spores, and rarely changes what you do.

Is there a legal limit for indoor mold? No. There is no federal or state standard for acceptable indoor spore concentrations, in Washington, Idaho, or anywhere in the US. Interpretation is done against the outdoor control and the genus profile, which is why the reasoning has to be written out rather than reduced to a pass or fail number.

What if the report finds nothing? That is a common and legitimate outcome. You get a document stating that conditions were normal on that date, with the method and the data attached, which is worth having in a purchase negotiation, a rental dispute, or an insurance file.

Health

Will mold in my house make me seriously sick? Probably not, and we are not going to tell you otherwise to close a sale. CDC has never established a causal link between Stachybotrys and serious illness, and says no test proves an association between a specific mold and particular health symptoms. What the evidence does support is allergic reaction, asthma triggering, and upper respiratory irritation in sensitive people, plus serious fungal infection in the severely immunocompromised. Those are real and worth solving.

Someone in my house has symptoms that improve when they leave. Should I test? Yes, that pattern is one of the better reasons to test, because it points at the building. Testing will tell you what is in the air and where the water is. It will not diagnose anyone, and the medical side belongs with a physician. Nor can anyone test your blood and tell you a specific mold caused a specific symptom. We test buildings.

Is black mold different? Black mold is not a scientific category. Several genera are dark, and the one people usually mean is Stachybotrys chartarum. It is worth attention because it grows on cellulose that has been wet for a sustained period, so finding it indicates a real and ongoing water problem. That is a building diagnosis, not a health emergency.

Licensing, law and rentals

Is mold testing licensed in Washington or Idaho? No. Neither state licenses mold inspection, assessment or remediation. The Washington State Department of Health states plainly that there are no certification requirements for mold work and that anyone can call themselves a mold specialist without training or credentials. Idaho is the same, and does not license home inspection either. Any certification you see is voluntary.

So how do I tell a good tester from a bad one? Ask three questions. Does every job include an outdoor control sample. Does the report include the raw lab data and the chain of custody form. And what do you make if my results come back clean. The third one sorts the market.

Should I hire a mold company that also does the remediation? You can, and many are competent. Understand what you are buying: an opinion from someone whose revenue depends on that opinion. New York decided that conflict was structural rather than personal and made it illegal there under Labor Law Article 32 for one company to both assess and remediate the same property. Washington and Idaho have no such rule, so here the independence is a choice rather than a requirement.

Why did my home inspector refuse to evaluate the mold? Because the standards of practice exclude it. WAC 308-408C-030 excludes environmental hazards including mold, and WAC 308-408C-050 requires the pre-inspection contract to state that the inspection does not investigate mold unless separately agreed in writing. That is why you got "possible microbial growth, recommend further evaluation."

I am a tenant. Does my landlord have to test? No. RCW 59.18.060 requires Washington landlords to maintain the premises and give tenants written information about the health hazards of indoor mold, but there is no testing mandate anywhere in the statute. Testing in rental disputes is driven by one side wanting evidence, not by law.

Who pays for the test in a landlord tenant dispute? Whoever orders it. Tenants often pay for their own test precisely so the result cannot be called the landlord's document, and landlords order tests to document condition before a claim escalates. The report reads the same regardless of who wrote the check, and both parties can request a copy.

Can I use the report in court or in a claim? That is what it is built for. It includes raw laboratory data, the chain of custody form documenting every transfer of the samples, photographs with locations, and reasoning written out rather than summarized. Admissibility in a particular proceeding is a question for your attorney, but the document is prepared to survive scrutiny.

The visit itself

Do I have to leave during the inspection? No, and neither do pets. We do ask that windows and exterior doors stay closed for at least four hours beforehand, and that nobody vacuums or sweeps that morning, because both distort the air samples.

Do you have to cut holes in my walls? Only with your permission, and only when the readings and the thermal images disagree about what is inside a cavity. A quarter inch borescope hole in an inconspicuous location beats guessing, and beats opening a wall to find nothing.

Can you inspect a crawlspace or an attic? Yes, and in this region those are frequently where the problem is. Unconditioned crawlspaces with missing or failed vapor barriers are extremely common in pre-1970 housing, and attics take on water from ice dams every winter. We need clear access to the hatch.

Afterward

Will you tell me who to hire for the cleanup? We describe the scope in terms any qualified remediator can bid, and reference what IICRC S520 expects for that class of work. We will not steer you toward a specific company, because we take no referral fees in either direction.

Do I need clearance testing after remediation? If anyone besides you will ever question whether the work was done, yes. A remediator's own sign off is a receipt, not evidence. Independent clearance is $375 flat for up to three samples and takes under an hour. If a job fails, the re-test after correction is the same price.

Is there any situation where you tell me not to test? Regularly. If you are looking at a few square feet of obvious growth on a wall you already know is wet, a lab will not tell you anything your eyes have not. Fix the water, clean the surface, keep your money.

Still have a question

Call and ask it. If testing is not the right tool for your situation, we will say so before you spend anything.