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Hey, I'm Andrew with Melrose Mold Solutions, and I want to make mold very simple for you to understand so it doesn't stress you out, you don't get confused with a bunch of conflicting information. How it's dealt with might be conflicting at times by a lot of different sources, but mold itself can be made simple. That's what I'm going to do right here. I'm going to talk about what it is, the two ways it can grow, and how to remove it and handle it.

So that's the point of this video. I have many, many more videos. Go and watch all those for more details on a lot of different things, but let's get into what mold is. So mold is essential.

It's nature's decomposing agent where the spores from all over nature, it's essential. It's fungi, it's in the fungi kingdom. It's a mix between a plant and an animal at a species level once fungi gets growing. But the spore is like a microscopic little seed, and they are prevalent in nature everywhere.

The plants have pollen and spores and bacteria and all these chemicals and things that they are constantly living with in our ecology. So spores are everywhere, they're unavoidable. But when those spores land on materials that are able for it to grow into, mostly a plant or a tree, so when it starts to kind of colonize on a surface, it's because it got moisture into the material and mixed with a spore. Okay, so that's how I want to conceptualize it.

Okay, so we have the ground, we have a spore landing in, and then we have moisture, okay, dripping here, and then we have it starting to root. It's called mycelium, but it's really called hyphae. Okay? And now it's here and it's starting to grow.

It's like a plant or a tree. So now we have a colonized source, okay? The spore, the material itself, the moisture, mold can exist at the right temperature. It's not going to grow in the freezing temperatures or in crazy hot conditions, but the temperatures that we're all living in, it will live in as well.

So it's a very easy science experiment based on what you know it is, like a plant or tree. That doesn't look like it now, but mold is like a plant or a tree, so be thinking that way on how it grows, okay? So the two ways it can grow is in a localized spot where the spore or spores, a bunch, can land on a surface. The material is ready or primed or conducive for that growth because of the moisture content, whether from outside, you know, leak, humidity, buildup on a surface, whatever it may be.

So the two ways it can grow is a localized spot where a leak happens, there's acute water damage under a sink, it gets trapped, it doesn't dry in time. That's the key. If this all happens, but the drying happens within 24 to 48 hours or in a short period of time, then mold's not going to have a place to plant itself and grow into. A plant doesn't grow right away.

It does take that time to colonize and embed itself into the soil the same way mold would. So if a water damage leak or leak happens, we want to keep it localized and dry it and do what we need to so that mold doesn't have a chance to grow. That is the obvious, right? So floods happen, leaks around in showers, around plumbing, it can happen in any home.

If we don't have any localized places where mold's had a chance to embed itself into that material, now we need to be thinking more atmospherically. That's what I would call the atmospheric or the non-local way that mold can grow. Quick story, first time it hit me maybe three or four weeks into testing and doing inspections professionally five plus years ago, I got to an apartment that they called me in on. They said they had mold everywhere.

So I got in there and they had turned their HVAC system off for like seven to ten days and they were out of town. Humidity spiked and they had white and green spots all over their house. It was behind picture frames, it was on couches. I'm like, what the heck happened?

So it was an atmosphere, chronic humidity, trapped humidity, non-local issue. Non-local meaning it was spotting everywhere it could happen. So that was like a science experiment. If we do a really dark, tight environment, no airflow, no circulation, and we add a bunch of dust and carpets and materials, right?

And the spores are already in there because there's no avoiding some spores everywhere at all times. But when those spores now have a place to colonize and reproduce, which is truly what they do at a micro level, and then we then, this is the key, we spray some humidity or moisture and mist that place and cause that rainforest effect and we walk away from that tight environment, we have created an atmospheric non-local mold issue. So this is more avoidable if we know how the home is functioning, that we have good airflow, less dust content, humidity levels are in range, because the localized area is where enough moisture has condensated or leaked into actual water. Well, the atmospheric issue can happen where you don't even see the water.

It's just humidity. It's a vapor in the air that's high enough in that 60 plus percent chronically, where that humidity is getting trapped or accumulating over time and staying stagnant. And now mold can grow literally in and on dust first and other materials where it can grow on more porous. That's where it comes to the next one.

So what is it? It's like a plant or a tree. How does it grow? Localized spot embedding itself in the material or non-locally just spotting.

And then now how do we remove it? Well, like a plant or a tree, we need to uproot it. Okay? If you just take bleach, don't do that.

If you just take bleach and wipe the top layer off of a localized mold issue where you're really just taking the top layer off, we still have the mold here and it can regrow. Okay? So that's like plucking the top of a leaf off and it still has its roots, right? So if it's in a porous item where the mold has embedded itself into, we got to take it out entirely.

So number one step to remove mold, obviously, if it's in drywall, which is a porous material, it's got paper on top and gypsum behind it, or if it is, yeah, other paper, cardboard products, if it's in carpet, if it's in insulation, okay? These are the porous items that mold can grow on. You know, if it's visible on clothing, just throw it away. Not really cleanable.

The porous material makes it so it's going deeper embedded in those fibers. No real cleaning it, not worth saving. Next up, if you've gotten the drywall, let's say, taken out, we had a leak, it affected the framing back there and the insulation and the drywall. Now we take the drywall out, we take the insulation out completely, and then we manually clean the framing behind there.

If the framing is fully saturated and like really, really not salvageable, then yes, we throw that away too. But wood is a little bit less porous, okay? So it's got a harder surface where the moisture and mold didn't grow maybe as deep into it. It depends on the type of wood and several other factors on how much water and how long term and all those different factors.

Hire a professional or myself for that. But if it's just light surface growth on the outside of wood, we can manually clean it. So we clean by cleaning the top of it, yes, but then we want to scrub down and sand down into the material enough to get those roots out. Maybe we're using peroxide solution.

I have a whole video on how to remove mold and I can link it here as well. I really go by the IICRC S520 mold remediation protocol standards. That's the best way to do it. After the heavy lifting is done of the removal, then we want to do a detail clean.

And this is really key because that is, think of all the leaves or pine needles that if you were to drag an old Christmas tree out of the house, maybe the pine needles are left behind. So that's why we do, we take it out, we manually clean kind of abrasively, aggressively to get into the material and clean it out. Maybe that's concrete material, we're scrubbing it, or wood material, we're scrubbing it out. Peroxide, again, I have all the details in other videos.

And then we do a detail clean. This is really just a really tedious, very detailed dusting. It's got HEPA vacuuming. It's a type of vacuum that's going to collect all the smaller micron spores and things and everything that's got disturbed in the process and not recycle it.

So a good sealed HEPA vacuum is key. And then we want to do a microfiber towel cleanup off the surfaces, okay? So remove the materials that can't be saved, deep clean the materials that can be saved and will be saved there, make sure they're dry, and then a final deep cleaning to get those areas completely dust-free. I'm not saying you necessarily should do this, but this is what the IICRC protocols would say based on a mold situation.

So I have a 16-page mold removal mode I have a 16-page mold removal guide that has all these steps in vivid, vivid detail. And this video is very helpful to kind of visualize it as well. All depends on how you learn. I like watching and listening as well as having a written document.

So get the mold removal guide, how to avoid remediation mistakes and save a lot of money. So that is going to be also linked here. It's free. Get it downloaded, have something to reference.

You're now armed with the right knowledge and the right language that if you have a professional remediation team, any of this were to happen in your home, you're now armed with the right language and hopefully should navigate properly. If you need my help one-on-one, I am available for that, but I want everyone to just know how this is so it doesn't feel like it's just not rocket science and it doesn't feel overly confusing. Now, this is what it is and how it grows. The two ways to grow is oversimplifying it because this atmospheric issue can be so many different things in the home, HVAC system issues, building errors, how the home is designed and how airflow is coming in in different places.

There are several factors in the building science and building biology world that can cause mold to happen in different places, but these are the basic things that we as homeowners and renters can do within our control to be aware of the localized spots so there's not a leak happening that we're unaware of and different kind of monitoring tools for that and inspections that you can do yourself. And then also atmospheric situations, which is what can we do to maintain the health of the home and those basic mold-safe home habits is what I call them. And that's also a free resource you can download. Finally, how to remove it.

There's that in-depth video that I've linked as well on how to remove it. It is fixable. We just need to identify it, know what materials we're working with, and get those things back to a mold-free level so that we're in a mold-safe home. Hope that was helpful.

See you for the next video.

Hey, a shout out to Dr. Michelle Young for the inspiration for this video. So just last week she shared on her Instagram page about her current home and what she's moving into and how they found the different issues and how it was a process of elimination to actually get to the source of mold that was in the basement and how they handled it. So thank you, Dr.

Michelle. By the way, she does help people with mold illness, especially kids. She has a really good holistic approach, so go and check her out. I'll link it, all of her information on this video.

So the mold checklist started to really come up in my mind a lot recently because what I'm seeing is a lot of people are only using one data point to try to diagnose a mold issue in the house. And I think about it like if you're going to diagnose a body or someone's health with only one data point, you're going to miss a ton, right? If someone's getting headaches and you just get locked in on it must be this one thing and you throw a med at it or you're sleeping wrong so it must be this and you're not getting a holistic approach of genetics and lifestyle and stress levels and nutrition and air and attitude and all these different things, then we're going to miss a ton. So I have a similar philosophy in the home and her video really, really inspired me on this because the quick story for her house is she was moving into a new home, got all the inspections done, but wanted me to help from a distance assess some photos, the home inspection report, several different things and walk through the process like I do with many people nationwide.

In her home, they only had one sign, and it was a thermal imaging infrared scan in the corner of the basement where it looked like a funky dark shape, and I'll explain about that exact equipment in this video later. But that was the only data point they had that they had a significant issue, potentially. So they assigned to or they wanted to get cut out. They asked me to kind of walk them through the process of who they were hiring in there just to get that investigative removal to see if it was a bigger issue or if it was just a cold spot, you know, with the thermal imaging camera.

Well, sure enough, they opened it up and it had been a long-term leak from the outside that had just been moving into the foundation walls in the basement. They needed to get that handled. A lot of visible mold was down there. They were going to get a lot of things cleaned up anyway, and it was safe because they could do all this on the way in.

That was the only really significant mold issue in that house. So it got me thinking. You do not only rely on one data point. The big issue I'm seeing with a lot of people is if they don't know what they're looking for, they might just throw money at a random inspector who's in and out of their house in 20 minutes.

They get an air test and they get a false negative. And so in this video alone, you're going to get way more value than that $500 or $600 wasted inspection that I just described there. If you do get a good inspector who's really going to be thorough, they'll likely use a pretty similar philosophy to what I'm going to talk about here. So this is a forensic kind of investigation here, okay?

We are detectors and we're trying to look at things 360 and multi-layer with the equipment we have. We also have a lot of limitations, okay? So I think new technologies are going to come in, new monitoring devices, mold dogs have a technology and their senses that humans don't. So there are limitations, but this is my philosophy on inspections that I do in person.

And by the way, a big key component is you don't rush through this in under an hour. I mean, this is a multi-hour long scope type of job to really assess a home. But for you homeowners, you can run through this pretty quickly and get a really good lay of the land before even hiring an inspector. So that's really a big passion of mine is before you spend a dollar with me or with anybody, go learn the stuff you can for free and then understand how to qualify someone based on things like this.

I'm giving you those cheat codes. So the mold checklist, okay? How do I look for issues in a home? Well, we'll call this the client interview, like you would at a doctor's office, hopefully with a good doctor, is what's the history of the home?

Any renovations? Is there water damage? I have all this in my questionnaires that I send to people where we have a really good idea of what are the symptoms like? Do you feel different in the home versus out of the home?

All these historical pieces of information are so important to start to get an idea of different things. If I hear about the three leaks you had in the one, you know, master bedroom or bathroom area, well then I'm already kind of, you know, getting warmer on a potential issue. So you collect as much data here, right? We check that box of a really thorough interview and there's several, several things to be asking in this process about the history of the home, about renovations, were things covered up, current or previous water damage, how the owners had previously kept the home, how have the maintenance steps have been, is this a new HVAC system?

You're gathering, gathering data. This is part of my mold timeline as well. So look into the mold timeline video. Next up is visible evidence.

So now the inspection starts and I'm using my eyes. What can I see? What are the signs of water damage? Swelling, building materials, warping, different materials, you can see staining, right?

Different things that show water damage. And using a bright flashlight will make your eyes see a lot more. You start to skim a wall or skim a surface here, you're going to see texture, you're going to see a lot of different things that the naked eye wouldn't see. So a bright flashlight is going to be your cheat code there.

Everybody can get that, right? Get a good bright flashlight for under 30 bucks. Then we start to, now we check that box, right? So we're making progress here.

We're not just running into a house and collecting a test and thinking that's going to just give us more data than all this, right? Next up would be smells and senses. Okay, I really take into consideration that right brain approach, not just the logical numbers, but also how is someone feeling? I've literally had moms in the home say, "I just know there's an issue right here." And sure enough, I inspect and do all this and more, and they were right.

There was an issue in that area because of their senses. So whether it's a sixth sense or just being environmentally attuned or different sensitivities, whatever it might be, we need to really be aware of what is our body telling us or just what are we sensing and smelling. That's a huge one, is the microbial volatile organic compounds, the MVOCs that get released off of mold can start to move us in the right direction as well. And those smells have potential health issues.

More information will be coming out on that. Is there a musty odor? You know, how do you feel in this room, right? So now we're just getting more and more data points where we're starting to fill in a lot more information to give us that high likelihood of is there a mold issue here or not?

Can we confidently say no, we're good, or yes, there's an issue? And that's why we use all these different factors. Thermal imaging. This is my next step personally when I'm doing an inspection.

You don't need to have this as a homeowner necessarily. If you want to invest $300, $400, $500 to get a good thermal imaging camera, it can save a lot. I've found a lot of active issues that way. But some people think that's kind of the end-all be-all.

It just gives us a temperature differential infrared visibility on different things. It will show if there's an active issue of a funky, you know, shape of a dark spot that could be moisture. That's why my next data point is very important to merge with the thermal imaging scan. So I'll walk the whole house.

I'm looking for hot spots, cold spots, different places where there could be a potential moisture infiltration. And that's another one. So does my thermal imaging camera by itself, does that scan tell me everything that this tells me, this tells No, we need to put them all together. They all hold ground in this.

Next up, moisture reader. So a good moisture reader is a pin or pinless one. You're either going to puncture the material to see if it's wet or just put a surface meter on there and should have a sensor that goes in it. It's very dependent on a good moisture meter, what type of material you're on, what's dry standard.

There's different moisture meter kind of ways to use it that's very, very important. So if the thermal imaging camera is showing a funky dark blue spot, that's likely moisture. Not every time. So what do I do?

Go and confirm it with the moisture meter. I put the surface meter on it, get a photo of that. I maybe put the pins in there to see if it's, you know, really saturated there. Many times it is.

Okay, we have high likelihood. The history of the home had a previous leak, right? So we know where we're going there. The visible evidence is showing us something.

We're smelling something. We found it here. We're having high likelihood of a mold issue, right? If all these things are checking off and there's no issues, does that mean we have no mold?

No, we just continue this process. Maybe the borescope camera goes in next. Borescope camera is only $30 on Amazon and that goes into really hard to reach areas. You can pull the cap off of a shower head, off of a sink underneath, and you can put that borescope small camera back in there.

And now you have a lit up camera that's going into places you could have never reached and it is giving a live feed onto your phone. For $30 on Amazon, every homeowner can have access to places that would not be accessible unless you had to remove the material out. Love using borescopes. This one tool takes me maybe two hours of my inspection, is just using that in different areas that are potential hotspots.

Around plumbing is a big one, and several other places that we can't find. There's a lot of other things, tips and tricks in the inspection process, pulling some carpet back, you know, just knowing where to look throughout the home and really staying curious, pulling some insulation back if we need to in different places. But these are kind of the kind of catch-all at the end, right? So I'm looking at all these data points, then I'm assessing humidity.

Oh wow, this room is much more humid. Why is that? This room stays cold all the time for whatever reason. This area in the basement has so much dust or the attic is full of dust accumulation.

What's the status of the HVAC system? That's a whole video in itself, but whatever's in that is dispersing throughout the home. So that is a key, key, key component, as well as the ductwork. How's the circulation and ventilation in the home and the building science aspects of that?

The exterior of the home, is there moisture just sitting around the foundation, kind of seeping in? Do we have issues with the stucco outside? These are a lot of exterior signs that we can be looking for and really just an overall big 360 top to bottom approach and assessing every aspect of the home where moisture could be coming in. And we're checking that.

After all that, we probably have a good idea where to test. We found an issue behind the sink with the borescope. We found with the thermal imaging camera a cool zone that did confirm as moisture. Now we can get a proper testing strategy.

Let's take a swab of that, what we saw with the bright flashlight when we looked there. There was a really funky smell under the sink that we couldn't find much, but the smell was really there. Maybe we need to take an air test under there. Now the testing starts to come in.

We're just curious about how filthy this old carpet is that we inherited from the previous owners. Well, we can do a disturbed air sample and move the air sample over the carpet and disturb the air to push that stuff up and out and get an accurate reading of how contaminated that carpet might be because carpets are quite dust reservoirs and hold a lot of history. So I hope you're connecting the dots on the fact that I don't go in a house and do a random thermal scan and think that I found everything or, oh, you're good. That's false negatives.

It's lazy. It's not, it's just not professional and it's not going to give you any thorough type of reading on the home. After we've done all this, we get the testing, then we can start to move down the mold timeline. That's for the next video that I've already done that you can go and check out.

What are those steps in the mold timeline so that we can actually get this thing done in an effective way and do what Dr. Michelle did, which was got all these things done, tested effectively, got a remediation plan, removed, dried, cleaned, and covered every single base so that now her and her husband can move into the house feeling much more confident because they did cover all these and cleaned on their way in, that they'll be in a mold-safe home. Hope that was helpful. If you have more questions, you need help one-on-one, I have in-person options that I'll fly out to you if need be.

If not, and you can do all this stuff yourself and you still need help after that, we can work together one-on-one virtually and talk about all this. Get the photos, get the videos, get the test results if you have any. Look over remediation estimates, make sure that you're going to be spending the right amount in the right places. You're not cutting corners, but you're not going too over the top and whatever questions you might have as a renter or homeowner.

Be sure to subscribe here at Melrose Mold Solutions and I hang out on Instagram often at Melrose Mold Solutions as well, so see me there.

Hey, how's it going? Get a lot of questions about fogging the home. So what is fogging? Do you use it?

Is it useful at all? Is it going to make things worse? Okay, so maybe you've heard something about this, maybe you have no clue what I'm talking about. So fogging is like this fogger, it literally looks like a gun and you spray very, very small, it could be like a dry fog, thermal fog, like very, very small particulates of water droplets into the air.

So some people kind of use it as, it's a very polarizing topic by the way, some people use it as a standalone treatment, okay? So, okay, there's mold in the house, let's fog the whole house. Not recommended. I'll explain why.

First of all, I just want to say, what is your goal when it comes to fogging? If your house has already got a very clean bill of health, you're in great shape, you're already maintaining air purifiers and, you know, humidity levels are low, there's no mold source in the house and you're kind of just in maintenance mode. Maybe fogging the house is one way to kind of apply a safe solution like an EC3 citrus, you know, base spray or just something that you want to kind of clean and then do a damp wipe down, which we'll talk about. If you have a mold source in your house, fogging by itself is not a standalone treatment.

Why? Because what is our goal? Our goal should be removal, right? So if you have mold present in your house, fogging mold is not gonna solve it because it doesn't remove it, right?

It might change it, you know, chemically or structurally or kill it or whatever these words are, but that's not the goal, at least based on my philosophy and many others, that the goal is to remove this. If mold is like a microscopic plant or tree, which I often refer to, if you had a plant or tree in your house, you would not just spray and walk away, right? You would remove it. So if our goal is to remove the mold, then that's the number one step.

So when I say fogging, does it work? For that, no, not at all. What is the function of fogging? Why is it even around?

Well, it's actually very functional in certain situations. What situations would be? When is the best time to fog? Well, if you've seen my mold remediation video, it's going to be talking about removing the building material that needs to be uprooted and actually physically removed.

And you're disturbing a ton of stuff in that contained environment. You have negative air pressure going, you have this contained environment where particles are kind of all over the air or all throughout the air. And I want to use a picture that might be helpful for you. So here's our example.

If these are mold or airborne particles in the air, okay, this is the function of fogging according to the IICRC mold remediation protocols, okay? The function of fogging is to actually knock particles out of the air so that they land on the surface and then we can clean them. So you know when the sunlight comes through the window and you see like little particles just floating in the air? Well, those are represented here, okay?

They're just floating, they're kind of drifting in the air. When you're in a mold remediation, especially a crawl space or attic, when insulation and dirt and dust and debris are all getting kicked up, the air scrubbers should be cleaning them, but it's still this stuff has like been kicked up for a while and that stuff's just floating in the air. So we need to clean the surfaces, which we've talked about in other videos, but how do you actually clean the air? You can wait for that air scrubber to do as much as it can and filter the air as much as it can and do cross-ventilation and all this stuff, but fogging can literally go into those hard-to-reach places and start to knock stuff out of the air.

So how does it do that? This is the fogger here, okay, and it's going to spray the water droplets into the air. And so back to the picture, if you see the sunlight coming in the window and you see the little particles, if you were to take a spray bottle and just spray a little right there towards those particles, that spray bottle most likely would microscopically, those water droplets would grab onto those light particles and airborne whatevers and knock them down. They will cause them to be heavier and knock them down.

Think of a rainstorm, right? It's going to knock all that stuff out of the air, all the pollen, right? That's why people get a lot of pollen buildup on the ground. That's the same thing.

Water is coming and knocking that stuff out of the air and knocking it onto the surface. So then what's our goal here? Well, it is HEPA vacuuming and doing a microfiber damp wipe down because the goal is removal, right? So when we're trying to remove, the best way to remove out of the air is going to be air scrubbing, cross ventilation, you're cleaning the air as best you can.

But fogging can be extremely helpful, especially in, I said when's the best time to fog? In crawl spaces, in attics, in hard to reach zones. There's a lot of different curveballs that happen in a remediation process where fogging within the contained environment especially, and you can do the rest of the house as long as there's not other sources, you'd be fogging a safe solution, AC3, Benefac Decon 30, you know, maybe a smaller peroxide-based solution, not one of the more concentrated stuff, but you want to get a safe solution. There are other good ones out there.

Forgetting the names right now, forgive me. BioBalance, I believe, is one. Citrusafe, I believe, is one. So yes, you can fog.

That is not the end-all be-all. I always recommend that it's done kind of towards the last 20% or so of remediation because we need to really remember our operation and what our goal is here. Remove, remove, remove, and then one way to remove out of the air is to knock the stuff down to the ground and then go ahead and clean it up off the surface. HEPA vacuum, wipe down, and maybe you fog again to do that and knock it down.

So does fogging work as a remediation solution all by itself? You tell me. If you had a tree in your home, would you spray it with something and think that that's going to take it out of your living room? No.

So fogging by itself, not effective. Fogging in conjunction with a remediation plan where you're knocking stuff out of the air, getting into these cracks and crevices and hard to reach places so you can go and clean it might be a great, great way of completing your remediation properly. Again, it should be approved based on what you're okay with being used in the home. And I don't recommend changing the chemistry and the ecology of the home so much by just kind of constantly spraying different solutions throughout the house, right?

There's a great video by Corbett with Home Performance, which I will link somewhere and I just will keep promoting his page. He is a wealth of knowledge, but he talks about ozone generators and especially on this little clip and video, but how much we want to do this like special silver bullet to kill everything in a house or what it's doing is changing the chemistry in the home and it's really, he explains it much better and that's not for this video, but when we start introducing new things into the home, it can cause a whole host of things. So we want to keep it really simple. We want to physically, manually remove stuff as best we can.

That's cutting stuff out, that's HEPA vacuum, that's wipe down. That involves no chemicals right there. So if we're going to introduce any form of solution, we want to obviously make sure we're good with that solution being safe and non-toxic, and then we want to use it where it's most needed. And this is one way that it can be used.

So goal is removal. What is the function of fogging? To knock stuff out of the air is the most basic function that it has. And the best time to fog is towards the end of remediation, and especially in crawl spaces, attics, and other hard-to-reach zones where the cleaning can be potentially difficult.

And so does it work? You tell me. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Hey, let's talk about the dreaded topic, mold and your stuff. Okay, so ton of questions about this I get all the time. I will say every situation is different and will be a bit nuanced, and I'll touch on that. By the book, by the IICRC S520 mold remediation standards, they would say that the porous materials in a mold contaminated environment cannot be cleaned and saved, that it should, that all porous items should be thrown away.

There are cleaning measures for non-porous and semi-porous. We're going to talk about that, but I will just say by the book, that's what it is. Now, where does the nuance come in? Well, what is a mold contaminated environment?

How bad is it in there? What are the sensitivities? There's a lot of different factors on truly how contaminated that different spot is. So, first of all, we sort our contents into three different categories, and those three, like I said, would be non-porous, semi-porous, and porous.

These can differ just based on a lot of different things. So porous or non-porous would be there's no pores in that material, of course, so mold doesn't have a chance to take root in that item. Semi-porous, it can take root in there, and then porous items, it will these microscopic little contaminants will get inside of there. So for the non-porous items, we'd have metal, glass, sealed wood, and other hard surfaces.

When you see mold growing on these, if you ever have, it's usually because the dust on top of it is growing the visible mold. But these can be cleaned and saved almost every time. So no need to throw away your non-porous items. They can all be cleaned in a detailed way.

And then semi-porous items would be more like unsealed wood, some plastics, most plastics, concrete even. And these can be cleaned and saved most times unless they have been significantly water damaged, have a lot of growth in them. We might need to do a lot more aggressive type of cleaning on it. Refer to my mold removal video for how to clean these items and how to remove the mold off or out of them.

Like I've said, mold is like a microscopic plant or tree, so it will take root in these pores. And so that's why the cleaning might need to be a little bit more in depth on the wood and plastic. Now the porous items, okay? This is your drywall.

If drywall has visible mold growth on it, it's got to get taken out, completely removed. Upholstery, clothing, paper, cardboard, carpets, and insulation, etc. Okay. So porous items has a chance not just for mold to be growing in or on it, but also the small particulates landing in and getting into those porous items.

So this is where we need to make some decisions. Maybe it's time to do a spring cleaning anyway, and let's just get rid of anything that is maybe in question, and then we're left with what's behind. This is what I help people with on a case-by-case situation because if there's not much mold sensitivity, if the mold situation is not crazy, you know, contaminated with a lot of different sources throughout the home and things like that, it's tough to exactly measure what is on every single porous item. And so we just do the best with what we can, with what is within reason.

So porous items is where we need to make those decisions and see what we need to dispose. So clothing, for instance, if it's in a moldy environment that was very, very humid, really highly contaminated, it might not be able to get clean. Maybe you can't get that musty smell out. But also, if it's just in the house somewhere and we don't really know how much is on there, that's when you would add an EC3 laundry additive to your laundry, maybe do it a few loads over and not have to get rid of all your clothing that way.

When we talk about these cleaning steps, what do I mean by cleaning? HEPA vacuum, damp wipe down, HEPA vacuum again, and probably repeating that process so that we get these areas about as dust-free as possible because this stuff is micro, microscopic, so we got to get that stuff out. For the semi-porous and non-porous stuff that might have little nooks and crannies and hard-to-reach areas, maybe within cabinets or dressers and things like that, you might need to use an air compressor to blow that stuff, you know, out. And that might be best to do outside or ask your remediator who's doing the content cleaning to do that.

Maybe there's a use of peroxide solution, other manners of, you know, taking some of that stuff off. Again, refer to my mold removal video. The porous items is, you know, to me the best bang for our buck as far as like what return on our investment we're going to get from a health standpoint is porous items that we're going to be around a lot. Okay?

So do I think that, you know, one of your boxes that have some memoirs and pictures and things or a few books in it, do I think that's the thing that's going to really mess your health up? Hard to say, right? Probably not as much as a mattress that you're sleeping six to eight hours a night on. So the mattresses, the couches are probably going to be the best return on our investment as far as getting new ones on that.

When I'm talking about cleaners here, basic dish soap and water is actually very effective for cleaning. So we don't need to get too, you know, focused on a specific like magic solution or magic potion here. For the damp wipe down and the maintenance cleaning, that's where companies like CitraSafe, BioBalance, EC3, and Benefect are really good options, okay? Those are really good non-toxic cleaners, and our goal is mold removal, like we talked about in the previous video.

So these are just great maintenance companies that just have great quality in all that they do. I hope this helps a bit. I know it's not going to answer every question. I know your situation is going to be a little bit different, and I offer one-on-one consultations for that so that we really determine what building materials need to be removed in this process based on our remediation plan, based on whatever inspection or testing we've done.

And when we come down to the content section, how do we most thoroughly clean and save these things? And then with the porous items, what should we dispose of versus what could we clean and save? And that's a case-by-case scenario. Hope this helps and it probably is going to cause a lot more questions to be asked, so bring them on.

Hey, Amy, I want to hear your story. Saw you about two years ago or so at your home in Texas, and you were dealing with eczema and the kids and everything. So tell us what happened. All right.

Well, let's dive in. I do feel like it was 2023, and we had gone through a whole lot of years and years of eczema, allergies, asthma journeys of sorts with our kids, with our, you know, different things with all the kids. We have three. And it got to be, we did a mold dog and that kind of created more fear than it created good.

So went through that and pretty much just dealt with the base level of the house, didn't deal with anything up in the attic, up anywhere, a lot of surface things. And then I still remember going to a dermatologist appointment and they were telling me, you know, I just went for a regular skin check. They were like, "Okay, let's check your skin." Well, then she saw my hands, you know, just terrible with eczema, broken out. And she was like, "You know, like, I can help you with that." I was like, "Yeah, but I'm gonna, you know, I'm doing some other things." So she was like, "Well, nothing you're going to do will help that.

That's a chronic issue. And I was like, okay, like, thank you. I left there in like tears with just like, okay, here's one more doctor telling me like, oh, this is definitely something you're going to have to deal with like the rest of your life. So I remember I sat in the parking lot and I was just like, okay, God, you know, like, what is sorry, I'm getting emotional.

That I called a friend who had told me, like, she was dealing with health stuff. She was like, you got to get in touch with this guy, Andrew. He's like a mold specialist of sorts and check your house for mold. It can cause all these things, all these health issues.

And so I was like, I'll give it a shot. So we had already had the mold dog, already been through a lot of like holistic treatments and everything. So I called you and it was crazy because you happened to be in Keller. I thought you were in North Carolina.

You were like, I'm right down the road. I was like, oh my gosh, this is like God designed, you know? I'd just moved there. Yeah.

Yes. Like within weeks. And so I was like, oh my gosh. And you were like, I can come to your house.

I was like, oh my goodness, you're coming to my house. You know? So it was definitely an answered prayer that you could come and come so soon because that was October, and I think you came within a few days. And it just felt like a calm.

I didn't feel like you were coming in like fearful, like you're going to have to totally remodel your whole house, you're going to have to do all this stuff. It felt very … um, like a calm approach. And, um, so you came and I love what you said. You checked main things in the main house, but you were like, "Let me check your air ducts," you know, and that's, I feel like when something clicked because you were like, "The air is like the lungs of the house, and it was just like a light bulb went off because our son had like struggled.

Our s- I feel you. It's a yeah. You can I we were going to do a virtual No, no, we're good. We were going to do a virtual consult because I had just moved there, but then when you said you were there, I'm just down the road.

Let me get over there ASAP. And yeah, walk in the house. I mean, I was like, you've done a lot of work. You keep a beautiful home.

Everything's in like good condition. I didn't see anything big that would be causing this kind of, because I would even call you guys eczema experts with your little, you knew everything about it on, you know, from the body side and skincare side and, you know, your company, you know, for the skincare and all that. And something still held up. And so I was like committed to say like, if this is environmental, like we've got to just find it.

So after walking the house, I was like, there's still something more, and so let's go finish up in the attic. And yeah, when we opened up the HVAC system, that's where, you know, you can tell. Yeah, yeah. I just remember it clicked because you were like, it's the lungs of the house.

And like our son had just been through all the allergy, asthma, like journey that I was like, oh, his lungs, his lungs are being triggered. And you just said, like, let's check the lungs of the house. So, um, and our house was, it was completely remodeled, completely redone before we bought it. But I guess they didn't change out any of the air ducts.

And it was a lady had lived here before us that smoked, had dogs, and kind of a hoarder, but they just came in and flipped it, but didn't flip the internal stuff. Yes. So it was a mess. And so you had pinpointed like, hey, I think this is the biggest bang for your buck is to get this cleared up.

And I had a guy that's amazing. He does, he's like DFW air. He did amazing duct work. He could come in pretty quick.

I think he came in November. So I saw you in October. He came in in November, and I actually went on like a little girls trip. So he came, did the ductwork while I was gone.

I took a picture of my hands before I left. They were just, you know, cracked, bleeding, all the things. And then when I got back, it's like almost immediately they started healing, they started, like, the wounds started closing up, you know, and our son's allergies got better. He got off of all of his allergy shots.

He's like, "These aren't helping. These allergy shots aren't helping," you know? And the allergist had created a lot of fear in him too, so I think he just was like, "I don't want to go back there," because every time they checked his lungs, they were like, "His lungs, I mean, they're at 50% capacity. I don't see how he's even doing sports, and he's an active baseball player.

So I have a whole another story about that, but it's he they created so much fear with him that I felt like he'd go he would go in feeling good and come out just defeated, feeling like, oh man, you know, the mental side of things. Yeah. Got the air ducts changed and our daughter's legs cleared up. My hands have completely been clear.

So that's been three years. They're still clear. I mean, haven't broken out at all. No, like inflammation.

Our daughter's legs are clear. She no longer talks about them being itchy. And our son doesn't take allergy shots. He's not on, you know, any allergy meds, any inhaler.

He doesn't, you know, doesn't need it. So, we definitely feel like that was the biggest bang for our buck. And you coming in and creating so much, like, calm and peace about it, I felt like was helpful, was very helpful for not being like, oh my gosh, if you don't get this changed, you've got to move out and you're all going to, you know, it was very, hey, let's figure out these issues. You're going to be fine, you know.

So I did feel like you coming in was very beneficial for us and godsend for us. This is one of my favorite stories. I love it. I wish more success stories were this quick.

Yeah. It was so cool to see that picture. I was like, wait, you're getting, you just got your ducts changed out completely and the system changed out like six days prior, seven days prior. So it actually tells a lot about the terrain of your body and everyone's body was probably in pretty good shape, but something was burdening the body up from elsewhere that didn't have as much to do with the terrain.

So your body, everyone presents differently, different symptoms or different types, amounts, and severity. I always really help people prioritize those different aspects of the home. But I'm just getting more and more convinced that what has the most amount of particles, the most amount of pathways to us, and the highest pressure that moves it through those pathways really causes the symptoms to get fairly extreme like that. And everyone, again, presents symptoms differently.

In your guys' case, it was more skin. So it's so cool to see that change. But the body, the burden came off the body enough where it could heal itself like God made it to. And it's just about getting to the bottom of it, see if we're missing something big in the home.

That's so, so cool that that happened and it helped the entire family. That's really awesome. And I don't know how much of it was just mold alone. That system was had all types of stuff in there, you know?

So whatever it was, it really put some stress on the body. And the fact that even you mentioned inflammation going down is so cool. The symptom list for mold and all that just gets longer and longer, it seems like, 50 symptoms long. And it's hard for me to dial in, like, these symptoms are exactly mold because everyone's body's different and homes are different and what's mixing.

It's not just, you know, one type of mold. There's a lot of different allergens, particulates, toxins, gases, all types of stuff that can be our enclosed homes where we're breathing over and over. And so the accumulative exposure can really tip those scales. And so for you guys, the key was that.

And it was so much volume of air that was being impacted by that, that now coming off the body can just heal much quicker. So cool. Right. And we did have our son tested.

He showed, like we had him blood tested and urine test, I think it was urine test, and from a functional doctor, and his mold spores were off the charts. And so we had already started, like, you know, the biotoxin, the toxin removal pills, the charcoal, you know, so we, I felt like we were doing all the things, but like you said, there was just still something. So I do feel like our bodies are designed to heal, like God created us to heal and be healthy. And so I do feel like we were checking all the boxes of functional health and, you know, wellness that our bodies were like, okay, now that you've lessened that big burden, let's heal.

Let's, you know, let's get back. So, yeah. Yeah, our bodies are so brilliant. They'll tell us via symptoms what's happening.

And so I always say that you're a better test than anybody. And you were convinced. You said something's in the house. I just need to get a check.

Something is. And I'm going around the home and I'm like, so far, I believe you, but I'm not seeing it. Right. And so when we got up there, I was like, okay, good.

You know. Yeah. Probably it. Let's tackle that first.

And there was definitely mold in there, but all types of stuff. So let's just get it all out. And uh, so cool. I and I'm sure my husband really wanted you to find something because he's like, we all did.

She's going crazy if she's going crazy if you don't find something. So, um. We all did. So two years later, three years, whatever, you're all cleared up and hands are better?

Yeah, hands all, I mean, so good. So good. I feel like I look at them, you know, periodically with just like, oh my gosh, like, thank you. Because I feel like every year I was just kind of like, okay, when's that shoe going to drop?

When are they going to break out or, you know, and I feel like that breakout was probably six months of just relentless and, you know, going through that. And then just knowing our son, you know, coughing and wheezing and all that, and then our daughter with her legs, it was just like, okay. I feel I do feel like our kids are kind of a mirror of what we kind of need to heal as adults. And I felt like God knew the pathway was through my kids, was like, okay, like, your kids have this, but now you have it.

I know you'll fight for your kids. So, it was kind of like, I need my kids to be well. So he's like, okay, I know you'll fight to the end, but if I just, if it's just you, I'm just going to deal with it. You know, I'm just going to, hey, let's just deal.

This is something mom's dealing with," you know? But I feel like with the kids being sick and kids stuff, it's like, "Oh, we're going to figure this out," you know, mom on a mission. It's a great point, and it's a large amount of people I work with are these moms who just have this knowing or this connection, and I always say that women have a radio station on that men just don't even have access to. They can sense things and environments, and it's partially their superpower to harness that that we can, you know, listen to as men.

But then moms too, you know, that connection with the kids and with the environment and some of the most loving and giving moms have mom guilt that the kids are sick. And I'm like, that's I'll never be a mom. Not one day in my life will I ever be a mom and know what you're feeling. But I need to stray you away from mom guilt because you're literally here doing all you can to help and heal the kids as much as you can.

So don't let that be an additional weight. And so for you to use it as a driver like that, and I just love success stories. We need more of them. It's really, really a beautiful thing that we're interconnected with so many different aspects of what health is.

I believe it's spirit. I believe it's mentality, emotional, biological, and then environmental. Like there's and many, many more, really. Our bodies, our whole being is a collection of so many different things that make it into this mystery of the spirit, the soul, and the body that we are.

And creation is very intertwined with that, and we're made of creation. So, and the things on the outside. So, that's why I'm seeing this environmental health industry, you know, world as just a very deep, important work for homes to get in order and bodies to get healed up and for us to have a connection to nature and really learn who we are, who God made us to be. Right, right.

And like to touch on that, like releasing the burden of moms, because I feel like as moms, we always feel like, oh, we did this. You know, they always say like, oh, the baby gets the mom's gut. And I'm like, sorry, kids, you know, but it's like, you know, I felt like I read in the Bible of John 9, and it was just like talking about the blind man, and God says like, you did not do this. You know, it's to see the works of God work through this, not you didn't do this, you know, and so I do feel like you still deal with it as a mom, you know, you're like, I did this to them, you know, but I've learned to release that burden.

They have their own journeys. I'm here to guide and, you know, just take care of them. But God is ultimately in control. That's right.

Wow. So surrendering is hard. That's so, so good. And the wisdom he gives amidst these complex things is now almost like a badge of authority over those things.

So you were already moving into this, you know, eczema and helping people with health and living this kind of functional health life. And this now is another key that you've been given with this success that you have, in a sense, your words carry more weight and more people can be impacted by it because you walked through it and didn't stop in the middle, didn't play victim, you moved through it. And along with everything else your guys' family does and is called to, this is just another kind of thing that God helped you govern over. And that story is to be shared.

And hopefully there is a grace and empowerment for the next people and everyone who happens to listen to this. Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. I feel finally able to talk about it without all the emotions and Let them be. Yeah.

Yeah. Because I do feel like we're only stronger for going through it. And I feel like going through it, I was like, thank you, Lord, for having us go through this journey. I don't know why I'm being thankful, but, you know, you can take this away in an instant and, you know, because it was a long time.

You it's like you feel like you had the healing kind of like overnight, but it was a long time, you know? So long journey, but we kind of feel more empowered with our health. I love this. I want more of these success stories.

I'm so happy you guys are one, and thank you so much for doing this and talking it out with us. No, thank you. We really appreciate you.

How's it going everybody? Back in front of the whiteboard. Testing for mold in the home is what I want to talk about briefly, and there are many, many different options. Right off the bat, I need to say I've done hundreds of inspections and I know from doing the actual inspection, getting the test results, knowing the history of the home, all these other facets, that there are a lot of gaps in the results in testing, a lot of strengths and a lot of weaknesses for each testing type that is most common.

Right off the bat, I'll say that the little plates, the little mold-catching plates DIY, nearly impossible for me to interpret. I don't recommend them really hardly ever. So low cost, there's a lot of downsides to it. Look into it.

Didn't want to include that into this list. I wanted to start with the ERMI or dust collection sample, which is what most people these days on Instagram especially and these other platforms are knowing about. So what is the ERMI? I have a lot of info on this.

I have longer videos. Go look through all my page, but I'll say something briefly about it now. This is a do-it-yourself option that the EPA developed about 15 or so years ago. And this is a dust collection sample.

So you get sent a Swiffer pad and you collect dust from about 10 different surfaces throughout the home. You list what those surfaces were, and then you send off that innocent looking dust to the lab and they will tell you what is in your dust from a mold perspective. It will have the different species. There will be 36 different species that the ERMI will list and it has, like I said, different strengths and weaknesses.

Why I did this little funnel looking thing was because the ERMI is probably the most broad. You can't develop an entire remediation plan, or I like to say, don't make any big time life decisions based on one ERMI test. It's very broad and it's a starting point just to see what's in your innocent looking dust throughout the home. And it needs to be, like every testing method, it needs to be paired with proper knowledge of the history of the home and the current state of the home and inspections throughout the home.

So you can start to do this yourself with a bright flashlight and we can talk about that part as well, but I did want to hone in on testing. This test is what you can determine is sitting in your home and maybe what is adding to that overall concentration that is just in the home at a daily level. So for instance, if you have a really, really dirty HVAC system or you're living on top of a really contaminated crawl space, that's a lot of surface area that's going to be influencing a lot of the surfaces of dust throughout the home and that's what could cause a high ERMI. A very toxigenic mold source or a few of them throughout the home will add to that in the dust and you can find that in the ERMI.

The ERMI does have its downsides. I cannot interpret an ERMI all by itself. I need to have certain questions answered in certain contexts. I like to have pictures or video clips and that's what I do in my one-on-one consultations to interpret the ERMI properly for you guys and not just say, oh, it's good, oh, it's bad.

That's really the best interpretation you can give if you don't have additional information around it. So context is very important on this. The vacuum cartridge type is how the EPA originally did it. So not going to get too technical here, but the averages that we have with the ERMI scores was determined by those 1100 or so homes that was taken via vacuum cartridge in two spots in the home.

That's how the test was administered. So now when we're going through Envirobiomics to do dust collection throughout the home, there are, let's just say a lot of, it's not apples to apples from the at-home option and the vacuum cartridge. So the ERMI really helps with cross-contamination measuring, just determining again what we're dealing with, which types, you know, we don't want to be showing up at a species level. Look at the rest of my content about that.

But sometimes this is a good broad starting point as well. But don't just take an ERMI blind and don't search like and skip searching around the house. The ERMI is a very important reading to match what you're doing with your inspection. Hope that makes sense.

Air samples. Air samples have downsides and upsides as well. So the downsides of an air sample is that when you're collecting an air sample, it's in a little cassette and you're basically taking a snapshot of air for about 5 to 10 minutes, however you're running that air sample. So you're only collecting that air for those five minutes at that time.

You don't know yesterday's air, a month ago's air. The upside of an ERMI is those previous airflow circulation aspects fall and land in the dust and that's where we're getting a little bit more of a long-term reading that's building up in the dust. With the air sample, it's a snapshot of what's in the air at that time. So if mold doesn't happen to be jumping up into the air, you know, for your air sample when it's being taken, then you're going to have a much lower reading.

That's why I like to do air samples in a little bit more contained zones, more localized areas, and I like to help give oversight for that. When I say there's a DIY option, that's on my link tree as well from a company called gotmold.com. This is a way that you can order air cassettes to do your own air samples, I think two to three or four at a time, however you want to order it. And I often help people with my oversight say, "Hey, yeah, this is probably the best place to set up your air sample, under that sink, you know, next to that toilet, wherever it might be where we're going to be looking to do a more localized reading.

And there is a difference between the ambient air sample and the contained or cavity air samples. Air samples, like I said, are extremely variable based on the circulation and airflow that happens all day long in your home or building. So that's why air samples can be a lot of can do a lot of false negatives. But it's very important to pair air samples with ERMI's and now you're getting more data, more information, and you can actually start to put some remediation plans in place.

Air samples have a very wide variety of what molds they're finding, not the species level, but just the overall types of mold. And without getting too technical on this video, I'll explain it in another one if you care to know the difference between mold and then mold species and then the mycotoxins and the mycotoxin producing species, and then the mycotoxin names themselves and how it funnels and changes names every time. So it can get confusing. You don't need to know all that.

You just need to know that doing both together could be the most comprehensive way, but just know what you're doing and why you're doing it if you're going to choose air samples or ERMI or combine them. Finally, direct swab tests. So here I mentioned real quick Envirobiomics, you can get it from Assured Biolabs, other ERMI options, Mycometrics, I believe. Air samples you can get from your inspector or the one DIY option I know right now is from gotmold.com.

And then finally, direct swab tests. The best DIY option for this is from Assured Biolabs. Assured Bio is not on my link tree because there's no way yet for me to partner with them that I know of, but they have very good options for, hey, we have discoloration right here or we want to know exactly what's on our AC coil and we want to take a direct swab sample, for instance. When you see a mold colony forming or a questionable substance, that's when you want to do a direct swab test.

These have the least room for error because it's very presence versus absence type of test. If you have something you're in question of, you just put a swab on it, send it to the lab, and they will do the reading and send you the result. There's less variations that the air samples and ERMI's might have in their testing. So just again, don't make too many huge decisions in life or don't put too much stress on any one test showing up, you know, high in a certain way.

It needs to be paired with things. Now the upside of the swab sample, like I said, is it's going to tell you the type, amount, condition on that swab where you collected it. If there's an entire wall full of mold and you take a swab of one spot, yes, your swab is going to show so much less than the whole, but it's going to tell you the type and amount on that swab, the condition it's in, you know, growing or not. If it's a very small area, again, you're trying to identify that.

So this is also very helpful as a renter or when you're trying to use this as proof to build a case. It's either mold or not, and the direct swab sample will show you that. Oftentimes people, you know, doing air samples or ERMIs will try to use that to build a case and it can help, but there's a lot of nuance with that that I can explain more in person or one-on-one consult if you'd like. But these are very, very good, cheaper option, bang for good bang for your buck.

So how do we make sense of all of these? Like I said, it's best when paired with an inspection. I've told some people don't even bother testing yet until you know certain things about the home. When people are in a home search, for instance, they want to know what's in the home or should I just collect the dust of the previous owners and whatever the ERMI says, I'll make my next big life decision based on that.

I say, you know, you can take that ERMI, that's fine, but please pair it with a proper inspection. A bright flashlight and a low-cost moisture meter can get you very, very far. You can go around the home, and again, I teach this often on how to do some of your own inspections as well. If you're going to have an inspector come in or remediator, be the best homeowner or tenant you can be and do your homework and have a list prior of these different spots in the house that you want tested, that you already know have or did have water damage.

So you want to be best prepared. My analogy here is don't just give over your keys to the mechanic and say, yeah, do whatever you want. You're going to have a much higher bill and you didn't even know if it was needed or not, right? So do your own homework on your own home to identify those areas and then do these different testing options.

Like I said, the ERMI is going to be the most broad. The air sample can get a little bit more localized and dialed in, and then the direct swab sample will really pinpoint the types and amounts there. And with interpretations, that's a video in itself. How people interpret these results are all different and all variable with me.

That's why I like to have pictures. I like to have history of the home, current state of the home, symptoms people are experiencing, and a lot of other aspects that I like to make the home, you know, one big puzzle that I'm putting together through all these different data points. And that's how I best interpret it. I do interpret it based on, you know, the types and amounts.

So if there are the most toxicogenic mold types showing up in longer-term water damage and at very high levels, then yes, that's a very easy interpretation to make. But even the ones in the medium to low, we still need to make some steps to either remediate or clean and lower those concentrations for your best health and best air quality in your home. I could go on and on. There are so many nuances and different situations that we can talk about.

And that's where if you have specific questions, go on my link tree in my bio and book one-on-one with me. I would love to help. These are very, very high value options that can save you a ton of money in the long term because I will walk with you through this and get a really good game plan that's going to give you the most return on your investment for your next steps. I don't want you going six figures in the hole if you don't need to.

Some people do. It just depends again on what type of home you're living in and the different situations at hand. But this is where hopefully I can be a good resource for you in the exploratory stage, the testing stage. Maybe you already have testing, need interpretation.

Maybe you're in the middle of remediation, you want some guided oversight. Maybe you're done with remediation and you want to make sure you did everything well and now you're set up to maintain your home and maintain the cleanliness there. Again, no matter where you are in the process, I would love to help. All of these have great testing options online, which are in my link tree.

I have an ERMI link. Unfortunately, no discount code. I couldn't make that happen after I tried many times. So it's just going to be the link directly on Envirobiomics, and I'll link that.

The air samples, like I said, is going to be from your professional inspector who's going to be coming and doing these air samples, or gotmold.com has a DIY option that is also in my link tree. That one does have a discount code, so that's good. And then direct swab test, that would be off of Assured Biolabs and they are a fantastic lab that if you have questions, call them. They will explain some things to you as well.

These are the basic three that you guys need to know about. Oh, final thing, and I did miss this, the mycotoxin test from Real Time Labs. That's another good option. We're not going to go into all the details of that, but that is something else that you could order or have your inspector do if they are literate in that.

And so I hope this helps. I know testing can be a very confusing or just complex type of topic to be discussed here. So I hope this brought some clarity and I will see you soon.