Response from Midwest Mold Remediation LLC
Dear Ms. [Member Name Removed], I apologize for your experience. However it appears the information you have received from that other company is inaccurate. #1 You were taking advantage of by the other company by spending money on testing when it is was unnecessary. As you stated, Moldman "was to send person to take air samples and test to determine what kind of mold we had. However, this was never done." The reason testing was never done was because we were following EPA guidelines which states explicitly: "In most cases, if visible mold growth is present, sampling is unnecessary." [Hyperlink Removed] In your case, visible mold growth was present and obvious in your [basement or whatever the area was] so we followed EPA guidelines and saved you $300-$400 on completely unnecessary testing. Unfortunately the majority of mold companies take advantage of customers who have an obvious mold problem by charging them for an unnecessary test because 99% of customers assume a test is needed even when its certain there is visible mold. #2 You might have assumed, like most customers, that testing is needed even when visible mold is present because you want to know what type it is, whether its toxic, etc. However, it makes absolutely no difference what kind of mold you have - all mold should be removed following the exact same Industry Wide IICRC standards. This means whether the mold is black, green, yellow, etc or Species A, B or C, it makes no difference. It should be removed the same way. So instead of spending money on testing, you could have saved your money and spent it to remediate it yourself or by a professional. The lab results told you what you already knew - you have a mold problem. The question is now what? It needs to be removed following IICRC industry standard guidelines. The lab results do not change how the mold should be removed or what should be done. This is why testing was a waste of money in your case and in most cases where visible mold is present. #3 You also noted "Lab determined the mold we had was the same as the mold in outside air. It was not toxic ...". First, just because the mold was the same as the outside air does not mean it should be ignored. As an example: imagine a flooded basement that produces mold all over the walls throughout. If you were to test for mold (which is unnecessary as we noted but this is a hypothetical example), I assure you there will be very high levels of elevated mold indoors that are the same types of molds found outdoors. Does this mean its wise to just leave it on walls since its the same mold? Definitely not. What matters here is that indoor mold is elevated, even if its the same type of mold found outdoors. Regarding the notion it was not toxic, just as with testing, conventional wisdom on so called "toxic mold" is wrong. Just because mold is black, for example, does not mean its toxic. Just because its white, does not mean its harmless. In fact, the conditions which make mold harmful are still not fully understood and are a being examined ongoing by the scientific community. I should also note that testing simply tells you the conditions of your environment at one single point in time. However, your indoor air environment is changing constantly and if a test were say to be performed on a different day at different time, its almost a certainty that the results would be different. But regardless of the type of mold or whether its "toxic"- as we noted above, it makes no difference. All mold should be removed the same industry wide accepted IICRC standards. I would like to finally note that the whole notion of "toxic mold" is based mostly on hype and misinformation. Everyone responds to mold differently. Some people are very sensitive to it, others not so much. In addition, health effects associated with mold are also a subject of ongoing research. The notion that mold is "toxic" is usually sensationalized in the media or used by unscrupulous companies to take advantage of customers. Here is what we do know: those who are effected by mold, usually experience allergy symptoms - coughing, sneezing, watery eyes, etc. The other things you hear about - that mold causes life threatening diseases is not currently proven and thus most peoples conception of "toxic mold" is simply not true. But regardless whether conditions are right for the mold to effect certain people, it again makes no difference to what needs to be done. It should be removed following the same industry wide IICRC accepted standards. This is why we did what we did and gave you a free estimate for professional mold removal that followed these standards. Also, as far as our C rating for punctuality goes that you gave us, we were scheduled to arrive at [ 9am] and we arrived at [9am]. We were ontime so not sure what this C rating refers to.