Thinking you have a mold problem in your home can be very disheartening, to say the least. But what if you didn't want a shady mold remediation guy come into your home and make you believe it's a bigger problem than what it is?
You may want to think about having an independent mold inspection company assess your home to determine if remediation is even necessary. One thing that may stop you from having this accomplished is when finding out how much mold inspection costs.
What You Need To Know
The cost of a mold inspection will vary on the size of the area tested, the number of samples the inspector takes, and if a mold remediation protocol will need to be written. You can expect the cost to be anywhere from $250 to $750 for a standard 2000 Square Foot home.
Let's analyze each aspect even further:
Size Of The Area Inspected
The cost of the inspection will be more costly in an 8000 square foot area will be inspected compared to 1500. But what if only a small area of an 8000 square foot home was affected by water damage?
Will that cost the same amount of money as a 1500 square foot home?
It depends.
You see:
Just because you ASSUME that only a small area was affected, mold spores and off-gassing from mold growth can travel through your air conditioning system and affect other areas of the home.
It may be necessary to have other areas of the home sampled and investigated by a mold assessor.
Bottom line is this: The larger the area investigated and sampled, the more money you can expect to spend.
Amount Of Samples Taken
Many mold inspectors will charge by the sample. A standard amount per sample an assessor may charge is either $100 or $125, but this varies inspector to inspector. Other inspectors may charge a standard trip charge and then less per sample, such as $75.
Different inspectors charge differently depending on what type of sample taken. Multiple mediums are used for samplings such as air cassettes, tape samples, swab samples, dust samples, and bulk samples.
While not all mold inspectors will charge by the sample, virtually all will take the number of examples they can expect to take in a building into the pricing. Why does the number of samples taken the matter to a mold inspector?
Because it costs them money…
Samples are sent to a third-party laboratory to be analyzed under a microscope. The laboratory will provide a report which tells how much mold and what type of mold is present in a sample. The inspector will then interpret the results, and if they are doing their job correctly, incorporate the lab results into their hypothesis.
The Exception
Certain mold inspectors will give you a standard price and take unlimited amounts of samples.
These types of inspectors are also microbiologists. They analyze the samples themselves, so they are not concerned with lab fees.
Extent Of Report
Time is money in just about every aspect of life. It is no different for mold inspectors. If they can expect a lot of time and energy to be put into a mold report, you can expect them to charge more for it.
What would make a report longer?
Well, there are a few things that can cause an inspector to spend more time on a report.
Lots Of Observations
If your home has a ton of areas of mold, it will make the report longer
Mold Remediation Protocol
A mold remediation protocol is detailed instructions written by a mold assessor that is to be followed by a mold remediation professional. It will indicate the exact areas where building material needs to be removed along with detailed instructions on how to ensure the mold does not cross-contaminate other areas of the home. This can be very detailed and time-consuming.
Reports For Insurance Claims
If the reason you have a mold inspection is that your insurance company is requiring it, more information than a regular report may need to be provided by the inspector. Insurance companies may want to see proof, including photo verification, which could be excessive, to say the least.
Reports For Court Cases
Sometimes mold inspections are ordered for potential litigation purposes. Lawyers want to know every single detail so that the reports can be extensively long. A mold inspector may wish to charge more for these.
Shop Around
The cost of mold inspections will almost always vary from inspector to inspector. It's still important to ask what you will get for your money. While one inspector may charge more than another, it may be worth it. The golden rule with just about any service industry is: You get what you pay for!
Meet the author: Brad Fishbein is an ACAC council-certified Microbial Investigator. In the fall of 2012, he became a Licensed Mold Assessor in the State of Florida through the Department of Business & Professional Regulation. Brad has helped homeowners with over 5,000 successfully completed Mold Inspections since 2009.
