Mold Inspection Request

[Matt Lindsey]

This is what my tenant just sent me:

BTW - I kept meaning to ask you…based on the water issues we’ve had since last year’s move in and more recently with the ceiling leak, was the inside of the house tested for mold? I ask because pretty soon after we moved in, (the other 2 tenants) have had recurring, if not regular sinus problems and generally, off and on, not feeling particularly healthy. Both of them have asthma issues and they are both experiencing far more intense symptoms with it. Do you think it might be wise to have the house tested - either for the first time or again if it had already been done. I would really like to see the two of them feeling better and ruling out mold is a good first step.

The water issues they're referring to are:

1. Busted sprinkler pipe that caused water to come inside and ruin the floor. I ran it through my insurance and they verified no mold was present.

2. Bathroom upstairs sprung a small water leak and caused us to remove a significant portion of the ceiling and wall. When everything was opened up, there was no mold seen by my friend (retired contractor) who did the work. He also said that he sprayed hydrogen peroxide on the remaining portions of the drywall and rented a blower for several days, letting it dry all the way out. 

With all of the information, how would you proceed with a request like this? I'm pretty confident there's no mold but I'm not sure from a legal standpoint what I should do, especially if they continue to get "sick" and we eventually find mold. If I offer to pay for the entire inspection or half, the mold inspection industry seems a little shady- how would I find a reliable one?

[Marcus Auerbach]

Mold is everywhere and there are countless different types (like there are different mushrooms). So a mold test will always be "positive". Why you really want to do is look for humidity. Mold is a plant, it needs water to grow. You can measure the relative humidity in the air and also on surfaces like drywall. If you don't want to DIY a home inspector can look, also use thermal images to find damp areas. 

Bottom line: If you keep it under 60% its just not enough for mold to grow.

You are in Sad Diego, that's a lot dryer than Milwaukee (we run a dehumidifier in most basements) so if you find more than 60% you definitely need to look where the moisture comes from! Sometimes it's just tenant behaviors. We had a house with a mold problem and it even felt damp inside, but we could not find the source. I asked the tenant to keep the bathroom fan on when taking a hot shower or kitchen fan when boiling water. She moved out and the house was dry within 2 days. This was years ago, no problem ever since.. I still don't know what she did!