How air tests are done

Before diving into how to read the results, it’s important to understand how air tests are conducted.

An air test uses a sealed cassette, which is attached to an air sampling machine. This is what the cassettes look like. They are typically created and sealed from the lab from which you do your testing:

It is then attached to an air sampling machine which looks like something out of ghostbusters:

The machine runs for 5 minutes, pulling in and capturing any mold spores present. It’s worth noting how small the sample size is—by design, the machine barely pulls in any air, making false negatives a common issue.

For accurate results, all air purifiers should be turned off a few hours beforehand. We often walk around with compressed air to stir up dust and get the air moving.

We also sometimes take an outdoor sample to compare indoor mold levels. In some regions and seasons, outdoor mold counts are naturally high, so an indoor sample could seem elevated just because windows were open.

Once collected, the cassette is sealed and sent to a lab, where it’s examined under a microscope and cultured according to the requested specifications.

Typical lab processing times are about three days but may be more if they are culturing the sample.

Reading tabular mold test results

We’re not going to go into detail about every section of this test but we’ll describe the main parts.

A - Test and lab identification
B - Raw counts of spores taken in your test sample
C - The labs estimate for the full mold load in your home based on calculations they do to extrapolate your sample to a larger space
D - Non-mold elements found in your sample

Reading MoldScore Mold test results

A - Your MoldScore which is the labs estimate of the likelihood that the spores found originated and are growing inside your home. Green is ok. Some orange may be ok (depends on the spore types found) red is bad
B - Raw counts of spores taken in your test sample on a scale relative to the outside. You can see the actual raw counts directly to the left of the blue bar
C - Outdoor raw counts and estimated mold load in your outdoor air
D - Specific spore counts by type. Any other spores found will be listed under “other”

You can see lots of example tests in our mold case studies and use this as a reference to try and read them.

Hopefully that is helpful. Obviously if we do testing for you we will walk you through all of this live with your own results. 

If you have a test from a different mold testing or remediation company that you want a second opinion on, we’re happy to review it and do it all the time. Just call us anytime:
(615) 486-2217