After the amount of rain we've had this summer, some of us may be dealing with water intrusion. Water damage to a building can occur not only from catastrophic flooding and roof leaks but also as a result of condensation and foundation problems.
Knowing the signs of having a water-damaged building and how to test can be important to your health.
There are a few signs that may occur telling you that you're home or workplace may have concerning fungal and bacterial growth. For the majority of people, these types of fungi and bacteria will not cause illness, but approximately a quarter of us, it has the potential.
Where does mold grow?
A better question may be, where does mold not grow? The bad news is that most of our modern building materials, when wet, become mediums for mold and bacteria to grow on. Drywall is especially prone to mold. It may surprise you that concrete can support mold growth, although not as easily as drywall. Painted surfaces are susceptible to mold growth, especially if significant condensation is present.
So, how can you reduce mold formation? Besides avoiding leaks and having good-functioning HVAC systems, keeping the humidity lower than 62-75% is a good idea. Many people prefer flat and eggshell wall paint, but the lack of sheen makes them more susceptible to mold growth. Further, using an encapsulating primer such as BIN by Zissner and KILZ under paint will also help.
When a leak occurs, dry it out a.s.a.p! Bad bacteria starts to grow in 2 hours and mold in 48 hours.
Signs of water damage
Water intrusion may be present, but you must remember that it may be hidden. A pinhole leak of a pipe may not present itself for many months, while significant fungal growth may occur behind the wall. Lose or faulty refrigerator water hoses is another potential are for a leak. Another source of water intrusion may be within an HVAC system. Flexible fiberglass ductwork has a propensity for sagging at the supports resulting in areas where condensation may puddle. The presence of a crawl space is a high-risk location, especially if the home's ductwork is under the house. Basements, although not common in the south, are problematic.
Musty smells may tip you off to potential water damage to your home. The smells are generated by water-loving bacteria. When present and coupled with clear water intrusion, water damage is highly likely.
Visible mold growth coupled with water intrusion is another sign of water damage and the potential for health problems triggered by the particles produced by molds and bacteria.
Finally, water intrusion, coupled with a good mold test, may be the best way to confirm if a building has been water-damaged, resulting in growth that may cause illness.
About Mold Testing
It is best to review what not to do. The first method that is not adequate is air sampling. To have any value, air sampling would require multiple samples from the same room multiple times a day for many days, weeks, or even months. No mold remediation professional will run a machine for this long to produce results. The other problem with this method is that mold spores and many of their particles are heavy and settle into dust. They do not stay airborne and, therefore, tend to be missed.
Avoid spore trapping, as this is also inadequate in the same way that air sampling is. Many of the cheap kits at the home stores are spore trapping kits and involve a plastic petri dish filled with medium.
What you can do is collect dust on a swab and send it to a lab to test either the ERMI or the HERTSMI-2 tests. Both of these tests are DNA tests, which means that species of mold can be picked up even from fragments of spores and hyphae. ERMI stands for Environmental Relative Moldiness Index and was developed in 2006 by the EPA. They found 26 species of mold that were markers of wet homes. Ten species of mold that are not associated with water damage are counted to calculate the overall amount and significance of the water damage mold versus that amount of dust. The HERSTMI-2 stands for Health Effects Roster of Type Specific forms of Mycotoxins and Inflammogens 2nd Version. The HERSTMI-2 is a more sensitve test and is used to monitor remediation efforts in home/workplace of a person who is being treated for biotoxin illness.
Below is a list of good labs for ERMI and HERTSMI-2 testing.
Resources
Mycometrics in New Jersey, Environomics in Texas, and LisBiotech in Texas are excellent. LisBiotech has excellent instructions on how to create your own money-saving test kit. When not expedited, these tests cost $140-200ish. The price goes up with all the labs if you prefer to have the lab mail you a test kit.
This video by my friend, Melanie Pensak, is about illness from water damaged buildings or CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome).
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