Mold Testing
Project: Senior Medical Care Center
Scope of Work: Indoor Air Quality Testing
Overview:
The testing was requested by the owner of a Senior Care Facility due to specific rooms having spots on the walls which was suspected to be mold. EEC performed an initial walk through inspection of the facility, and proposed a follow up inspection and testing plan based on the original walk through. The scope of work included the use of a moisture meter, infra-red camera inspection, measuring the comfort parameters (temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide levels) and performing non-viable fungal spore testing of the air and swab samples of suspect hard surfaces for fungal spores. In some rooms it appeared the possible water source for the air quality problems was the shower stall overflowing to the floor, to the adjacent baseboard and then around the corner to the backside of the shower wall. This was confirmed with the moisture meter and also with the infra red camera as wall area was affected on the baseboard by water. There were individual thermostats in each unit. They were also equipped with humidity control settings. The relative humidity and carbon dioxide readings were erratic indicating the AC system was out of balance. The AC contractor of this two year old facility was called in to recheck the system. Once the humidity control was re-established the spots on the walls ceased.
Project: Large Office Building (75,000 sf)
Scope of Work: Indoor Air Quality Testing
Overview:
EEC performed an Indoor Air Quality inspection on an office park with 10 office buildings in Tampa, Florida. This was a study requested by an insurance company underwriter as part of the policy renewal. After inspecting all 10 buildings for potential signs of mold, including air conditioning vents and air handler unit coils and pans, EEC conducted a full-scale air analysis. Each building was tested for temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide level. Some offices had at dirty air conditioning supply vents. EEC did not observe anything that appeared to be mold on any of the air conditioning supply or return vents. We observed that some suites had water stained ceiling tiles. The outside air non-viable fungal result was 667 spores per cubic meter of air sampled (spores/m3) with the most predominant species being Basidiospores at 227 spores/m3 (34% of the sample total), followed by Cladosporium at 207 spores/m3 (31% of the sample total) and Aspergillus/Penicillium-Like at 180 spores/m3 (27% of the sample total). The eight indoor air quality samples for non-viable fungal samples were determined to be satisfactory when compared to the outside air result. EEC recommended the preventative maintenance activities for air conditioning systems should be continued as they are working for this particular location.