What Your Report Looks Like

Your report is a written document, usually twelve to twenty pages, delivered as a PDF within a day of the lab results. It contains the conditions we measured, the photographs we took, the raw laboratory data, the comparison against the outdoor control, our findings, and what we recommend you do.

It contains no remediation bid. No proposal at the back, no price for cleanup, no company we steer you toward, because we do not sell remediation and take no referral fees from anyone who does.

Section 1: Summary of findings

The first page answers the question you actually asked, in plain language, before any data. Whether we found evidence of abnormal fungal growth, where, what is driving it, and what needs to happen. Three to six sentences.

That page exists because reports get forwarded. Your agent, adjuster, attorney or contractor opens the file and reads the first page. If they have to hunt through eleven pages of tables to learn whether there is a problem, the report failed at its job.

Section 2: Scope and site conditions

What we were asked to evaluate, what we accessed, and what we could not access and why. If the crawlspace hatch was blocked or the attic was unreachable without cutting drywall, that is written down. A report that quietly omits what was never examined is misleading by construction.

Then the conditions on the day: date, times, outdoor temperature, weather, wind, and whether the ground was wet, frozen or snow covered, since those govern how the outdoor control reads. Plus the building's basics: age, square footage, foundation type and HVAC.

Section 3: Moisture and psychrometric readings

Every reading is paired with a reference from known dry material of the same type. A number like 24.8% means nothing alone, because species, density and depth all move it. It means something when the same subfloor eight feet away reads 11.2%. A psychrometric table sits alongside it with temperature, relative humidity and dew point for each zone plus outdoors. Dew point explains condensation, and why a crawlspace can soak a subfloor while the living room feels dry.

Section 4: Photo documentation

Fifteen to forty captioned photographs, each with a location and a short statement of what it shows: wide shots that establish where you are looking, close shots of specific conditions, moisture readings photographed in place with the display legible, thermal images paired with the visible light photo of the same wall, and borescope stills.

Thermal images are always paired and captioned, because an infrared image alone is not evidence of anything. It reads temperature, not moisture, and a cold spot can be missing insulation, an air leak, a plumbing chase or a wet cavity. The caption says which one we concluded and what confirmed it.

Section 5: Sampling plan

Where each sample was taken, at what height and time, with what pump flow rate and volume drawn, and why that location was chosen. A-1 in the master bedroom because that is the complaint area. A-2 in the living room as an in-building comparison. A-3 outdoors, upwind, as the control. Surface sample S-1 on the window frame staining because visible material needs identification rather than air data. Anyone reading the report later can tell whether the plan was designed to answer the question or to produce a number.

Section 6: Laboratory results

The lab's own report is included in full and unedited as an appendix, with our summary table.

All counts are in spores per cubic meter of air. The lab also reports debris load on each cassette, which tells you whether the sample was overloaded with dust to the point that the count deserves less confidence. That note stays in, because leaving it out makes a shaky sample look authoritative.

Section 7: Interpretation against the outdoor control

This is the section that matters most, and the one most cheap reports do not have, because they have no outdoor sample to compare anything against. Outdoor air always contains mold spores, everywhere, all year, so an indoor number cannot be interpreted alone. Elevated means elevated relative to outside your own building on that day.

Look at the table above. The master bedroom total is 6,708 and the outdoor total is 6,180. A report that stopped at the totals could tell you the air is fine. It is not, and the reason is in the profile rather than the sum. Outdoors is dominated by Cladosporium, basidiospores and ascospores, which is what outdoor air here looks like. The bedroom is dominated by Penicillium and Aspergillus at 4,800 against 180 outdoors, roughly twenty seven times the outdoor concentration, while the living room reads 260. And the bedroom carries Stachybotrys and Chaetomium, both absent outdoors and absent from the living room.

Those two genera do not blow in on the wind in any meaningful quantity. They grow on cellulose that has been wet for a while: drywall paper, wood, cardboard, insulation facing. Finding them indoors and not outdoors points at an active water source inside the building. That reasoning is written out so you can follow it, and so can anyone you hand it to.

Sections 8 and 9: Findings and recommendations

Findings are numbered, specific and tied to evidence. One reads like this: elevated moisture in the northeast crawlspace subfloor at 24.8% against an 11.2% reference, coincident with a torn vapor barrier and condensation on the ductwork, with Penicillium/Aspergillus, Stachybotrys and Chaetomium elevated in the bedroom above. Probable active growth on the underside of the subfloor in that quadrant. Where we are not sure, the report says so, because uncertainty stated plainly holds up better than false confidence.

Recommendations run in the order the work needs to happen, and they start with water, because mold is a symptom. Repair the supply line. Replace the vapor barrier. Extend the downspouts. Cleaning a building that is still wet only buys a few months. Then the remediation scope in terms any qualified contractor can price: affected materials, approximate area, appropriate containment, and what IICRC S520, the industry standard for professional mold remediation, expects for that class of work. Enough for three contractors to bid the same job against a fixed description.

What the report does not contain

No remediation bid. We do not sell remediation, so there is nothing to attach. If the last page of a mold report is a proposal, ask who wrote the findings.

No recommended contractor. We take no referral fees in either direction. Ask on the phone who does careful work here and we will tell you what we have seen, and we make nothing either way.

No health diagnosis. There is no diagnostic test connecting a mold in a building to a person's symptoms. The report describes the building. Health questions belong with a physician.

No safe or unsafe verdict. Those words have no technical meaning here. The report says what was measured, on what date, against what baseline.

Book an inspection

These reports get used by buyers and sellers in negotiation, landlords and tenants in disputes under RCW 59.18.060, adjusters, attorneys, property managers and contractors scoping work. It is built to be handed to any of them without translation, and we will walk any of them through it on the phone at no charge.

An inspection is $425 and includes one indoor air sample plus the outdoor control, with the report described above.

Questions about the report

How long is a typical report? Most residential reports run 12 to 20 pages including photographs, moisture and psychrometric readings, the laboratory results table and the written interpretation.

Will an insurance adjuster accept it? It is formatted for adjuster review, with chain of custody, method, dated photographs and laboratory results from an accredited lab. Whether a specific carrier accepts a specific claim is their decision, but the documentation is built to withstand that review.

Can I share it with a contractor? Yes, and you should. The recommended scope is written so any qualified remediator can bid against it, which is how you get comparable quotes rather than three proposals describing three different jobs.

Does the report include a price for the cleanup? No. We do not sell remediation and we do not quote it. The report describes conditions and scope, and you take that to whoever you choose.

What if the results are normal? The report says so, plainly, with the data attached. A documented normal result is a useful thing to own in a negotiation or a dispute.