How Do You Test for Mold?

Often you do not need to. CDC does not recommend mold testing, saying the health effects of mold differ from person to person, so sampling and culturing cannot tell whether someone might become sick, and that mold needs to be removed no matter what type is present. The EPA says that in most cases, if visible mold growth is present, sampling is unnecessary.

There is also no benchmark to test against. The EPA says standards or Threshold Limit Values for airborne concentrations of mold or mold spores have not been set, that there are no EPA regulations or standards for airborne mold contaminants, and that sampling cannot be used to check a building's compliance with federal mold standards. CDC says good sampling for mold can be expensive and there are no set standards for an acceptable quantity of different kinds of mold in a home.

Where sampling helps, the EPA says surface sampling may be useful to determine if an area has been adequately cleaned or remediated, and that it should be done by professionals with specific experience in designing mold sampling protocols, sampling methods and interpreting results. For cleanup, it says that if the moldy area is less than about 10 square feet, roughly a 3 foot by 3 foot patch, in most cases you can handle the job yourself by following its guidelines. CDC says the best thing you can do is to safely remove the mold and prevent future mold growth.