One day you go into your bedroom closet where you store all the beautiful clothes and shoes that you painstakingly collected and spent your hard-earned money to acquire, and you find what appears to be mold growing on them. After taking a closer look, you see many black spots on the closet wall, and a musty smell is present. You want to know for sure if it is mold as soon as possible and control the situation.
How to test for mold
The first thing you should do is take a sample of the suspected material and send it to a mold testing lab for analysis. The best method in the above scenario is to use one cotton swab and rub it against your clothes’ surface. Then take a separate swab to take a sample from the wall and place both models in different ziploc® bags and write numbers and the item sampled on each bag. You can also take a 3-inch square piece of the drywall or a portion of fabric from the filthy piece of clothing and also place each item in a separate plastic bag, labeling each the same way as mentioned above.
Once you have collected the samples, you should identify a local mold testing lab that will analyze the material for the type and level of mold present. The lab should be able to provide results as soon as 24 hours from receipt.
How much does mold testing cost?
It can cost between $25-$50 per sample to test for mold, but if you hire a professional to come out to your home and perform a complete inspection as well as testing for mold, it can cost between $250-$450 for their service.
Same day mold testing
5 Microns Inc. offers same-day mold testing service from receipt. You can mail in mold samples for testing, or you can drop off your mold samples for testing 24/7 in our dropbox. Just make sure to fill out our chain of custody record from and include it with your sample.
Where to send mold samples for testing
Mail in samples to the following address:
5 Microns Inc.
7100 Fort Dent Way #100
Tukwila, WA 98188
IMPORTANT-MUST READ FIRST: All mail-in samples must have a tracking number and include our general chain of custody form to be processed. If the chain of custody form is missing, your sample(s) will not be accepted and processed. Drop-offs MUST have the COC form inside your package but not in the sample bag. DO NOT MAIL YOUR SAMPLES BY FIRST CLASS MAIL. Send your sample(s) via USPS Priority Mail, UPS, and FedEx. It is essential to closely follow these directions so our asbestos testing lab can promptly process your sample(s).
*PLEASE NOTE FOR ALL DROP-OFFS: All samples must be dropped off at the back of the office building located at 7100 Fort Dent Way Tukwila WA outside the Tabor 100 Office and placed inside the black drop-box pictured below. Do not take your samples to the front desk. The front desk will not accept drop-offs over the counter, NO EXCEPTIONS!
5 Microns Inc. Sample Drop Box
