| Welcome to my blog for home buyers and homeowners. Here I will share stories about; how to select a home inspector, issues discovered during home inspections that affected the home’s safety and habitability, energy efficiency issues, sustainability issues, and occasionally on information that is totally unrelated to homes and home inspections. I hope that you enjoy this blog and return often.
Blog Post Both the Center of Disease Control (CDC), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have stated repeatedly that sampling for mold in the course of a home purchase transaction is pointless. Why? Because mold is in the air we breathe every moment, and taking air samples will only tell what we already know – “that there is mold in the air”. As there are no established standards for the analysis of testing results, and therefore no value in completing testing, I believe that providing mold testing services, and charging for these services is not ethical. Home inspectors that are providing this service are generally taking advantage of a home buyer that has been frightened by the inaccurate and sensationalized stories that the media has released about “toxic mold”. There is no such thing! “Mold Is Gold” to these inspectors – a nice revenue stream for little work, and totally meaningless information. If I see or smell what appears to be mold during a home inspection, I will point this out as a potential health risk to some individuals, and recommend that the conditions that supported its growth (moisture) be corrected. I don’t charge for this – this is all most home buyers need to know, and this information is free and valid. If you have a medical predisposition with regards to mold, it should be removed. Meaningful mold sampling is generally way beyond a home inspector’s competency level, and if you are susceptible to mold, I would recommend that you consult with an Industrial Hygienist for actual meaningful scientific analysis of the mold, and how it might affect your health. As one call-it-like-it-is home inspector recently posted on a home inspector’s forum: “Mold is bullshit. Mold Inspectors are bullshitters. Not liars, but bullshitters.” “It’s a more insidious threat to truth than lying is. Because the liar, after all, recognizes the difference between true and false. And, he’s concerned about that difference. The bullshitter is just not interested in that. That’s not his program. He’s interested in selling his product . . .” Harry G. Frankfurt, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Princeton University in his book “On Bullshit“. |
Please visit my Advanced Home Awareness Home Inspections website to learn more about what the experts say about the mold myth, and how to select an ethical home inspector.
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