Are you thinking about buying a home or under contract to purchase one
? In a typical home purchase agreement there is a contingency for the home buyer to perform any and all inspections of their choosing. In addition to a standard home inspection you should have your new home tested for mold.
There are thousands of different mold types. Some of them are toxic and can make you very sick while others are either harmless of even helpful. Some of the more common types of molds include: penicillium, cladosporium, alternaria, memnoniella, mucor and stachybotrys.
Your general home inspector can usually do a mold test for you. Depending on the size of the property most houses run around $250. The inspector will take air samples inside and outside of the home and then compare them. Technically, there should be more mold outside of the home than inside. If there are higher levels inside then there usually is a problem.
I just sold a home where mold was found. You would not have guessed that mold was present. The home is clean, well maintained and has lots of light. Sometimes you enter a home and can just smell a musty odor that is usually a sign of mold.
My buyer was smart enough to get a mold inspection. Surprisingly, the mold test came back with high levels of penicillium. This mold is not harmful but you don't really want it growing throughout your home. Again, you would have never guessed the presence of mold. Only a mold test would have picked it up.
There was a previous water leak in the office. The water came in through the french doors and sat under the carpet. The mold was found on the tack strips. Despite small amount of mold it still needed to be addressed.
Since the amount of mold was very small it did not cost much to clean up. The total cost of the mold remediation was only about $500. While this was not that much money I have seen some remediations costs well into the thousands. If the buyers had not paid for the mold inspection they would have had the pay for the clean up later if they ever found it. This is why buyers should do mold tests when buying a home. Many buyers don't do these tests but they can save you thousands of dollars. That is a small price to pay.