If mold is growing on your carpet, you have two powerful tools for discovering it: your own eyes and your nose. Apart from visually distinguishing the mold and detecting its musty odor, Abdul government, such as the Centers for Disease Control, do not recommend testing for it for at least seven reasons. If you decide to test anyhow, the test should be run by professionals with specialized gear and in controlled lab conditions.
Mold Is Harmful
There is absolutely not any doubt that mold can be harmful. Studies conducted with 1,600 patients at 2003 ascribed many adverse health conditions to mold inhalation, including headaches, joint and muscle pains, immune system disturbances, fatigue and respiratory issues. Particular kinds of mold can lead to serious illness and even death in sensitive individuals. The issue is that thousands of mold species exist, and an infestation rarely involves a single one. A diagnostic evaluation of this mold on your rug to ascertain if or not a toxic species exists is likely to be inconclusive.
Tests Are Seldom Conclusive
Apart from isolating a certain mold species, the Minnesota Department of Health lists six additional inferior rationales for conducting a mold test. One is to ascertain the correct approach to treat the mold problem, but you handle all mold in the exact same manner — from rather harmless Alternaria to Stachybotrys, which produces mycotoxins that can lead to significant illness. Another poor reason for studying is to determine if your house is protected; there is now no standard to ascertain that. Mold exists everywhere, and no house is totally free of it. Even in the event that you can’t see or smell it, a sensitive evaluation will probably detect it at nearly every case.
Get a Pro
If you are experiencing health issues that you imagine are mold-related, you may be tempted to phone a remediation professional. The very first job a pro will do is to ascertain if a test is warranted and can create any significant results. If the pro decides to conduct a test, he’ll gather samples at an extremely controlled and specialized manner, then take the samples to a lab for analysis. This test is not something you can perform yourself. The procedure is expensive and won’t result in a more effective therapy. If you suspect mold, then it is more cost-effective to just go ahead and clean the rug.
Obvious Signs of Mold
You can be certain that mold is growing in your rug in the event that you truly see it growing; if so, the carpet is going to have blackish or brownish discoloration at the neighborhood of the mold growth. Mold is also likely if the carpet, under-padding or subfloor are wet for a protracted period or the rug is installed in a high-humidity location, like a basement. If you do not see any signs of mold growth, you may smell them; the musty, occasionally sour odor of mold will be unmistakable. In most cases, these apparent signs are all the signs you need to determine the carpet needs cleaning.
