When you notice mold growing in your home, it is paramount that you take action to remove it as soon as possible. Exposure to it will lead to all sorts of problems regarding your health – including colds that have symptoms similar to the flu.
Therefore, it is very important to carry out regular mold inspection activities in your home, which will help to eliminate any issues that can stem from colds and respiratory infections. However, choosing a good and reputable mold inspection company is not the easiest task, as you will need to consider a variety of factors before making a decision. In this article, we will discuss the different factors to keep in mind.
Certification
Just as with settling on any company to offer you a product or service such as AWM Environmental who provides Mold Inspection New York, South Carolina, North Carolina and in other US states. It is very important to do thorough research when choosing a mold inspection team. While many companies will tell you on their web home pages that they promise you great results, a checking of this page will tell you whether they are certified by the industry or not.
The most important certification to note though is whether they have approval from the IICRC (Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration).
The requirements to receive certification from this organization are quite strict, and any mold inspection team that has their approval has extensive knowledge in inspections, chemicals, and cleaning. It is therefore important that your choice needs to be an organization that follows standard practice, and their certification will give you an indicator of how this is.
Customer Experience
The experience of the mold inspection team is important, but testimonials cannot be discounted either. These will allow you to make sure that the team you settle for is good at their job.
You can find testimonials from a variety of places; mostly from the website of the inspection company. You can also ask around, in case you encounter anyone who has used their services. This will also allow you to choose a team that exceeds your expectations.
In addition to this, it is important to know whether the team does this on a full time basis. It is very important to avoid the part time inspectors, as they are likely to lack sufficient levels of training and experience. It will also help in avoiding issues to do with safety and health concerns. Going above and beyond will also ensure that you are hiring professionals to do the job.
Insurance
Aside from the certification and testimonials from clients, it is important to work with inspection teams that have ample insurance cover – for your own sake. This will guard you from any possible losses that may happen during the mold removal process and any other event that comes with it.
Having insurance cover is very essential, particularly when it comes to liabilities. For instance, when an accident occurs during the clean-up process, or when sub-contacting occurs. The contractors also need to have credentials or documents that confirm their status.
Pre-testing and pricing limits
Not all mold inspection teams will have the same prices for their work. It is a free market after all, and you should go for the one that holds the best options in terms of pricing as well as the quality of their work.
Before settling for one mold inspection team or company, make sure you get quotations from different service providers, then compare them and see which one fits the best. Certain companies will also insist that they need to do some pre-testing on the mold, but this is not necessary in all cases – it will only make their total fee more expensive.
On the other hand, you need to be careful not to go for companies that quote their fees too low – that should be a major red flag, because you are not sure if their quality of work is satisfactory. Note that you will find only quacks charging very low prices as they only want to experiment, while too high prices indicate that the company is made up of professionals; but they only want to drain your money.
As we have highlighted in the point above, you need to make sure that the company in question has proper licensing. They should also have overhead expenses that are relatively high, which are then factored in the prices.
Safety and health
Among all the factors we have discussed in this article, safety and health is probably the most important of all. The mold inspection team that you choose needs to assure you that they will conduct their task without the risk of very suspicious or alarming safety and health concerns.
The company needs to tell you how they will conduct the entire job, which helps to assure you of their safety concerns and procedures. They should assure you that they are using the proper gloves, safety gear and masks throughout the inspection and cleaning process.
The basic aspects of mold removal need to include the containment of the area, the removal of all moldy material, using antimicrobial solution to treat the area, disposing the mold and materials, and doing an air scrubbing treatment to remove any remaining spores. The moisture penetration and water damage sources also need extra corrective measures, such as calling a plumber, depending on the source of the problem.
Other than these measures, they need to seal off the working area, in order to prevent the mold from spreading out all over your house. When the mold spreads out, it will raise the health concerns, because it will risk the short and long term health of your loved ones. The mold company that you choose to work with needs to have a variety of safety measures that will ensure high levels of safety even as they conduct their job.
Final thoughts
Whenever you identify that you have a mold problem in your home, you need to solve it as soon as possible. Remediation and inspection is the best way, and it is great to prevent any further damage to the property or risk to your health.
