> Dealing with mold is pretty easy, just get everything dry.
No, that's not enough. Dormant/dead mold can still cause air quality problems. In most cases damaged material needs to be replaced. In some cases it's sufficient to isolate the damaged material to reduce its impact on air quality.
I'm from Finland and it seems that we treat mold much more seriously compared to other countries. I don't know if Finnish people have a genetic or environmental effect that makes people much more susceptible to get symptoms in moldy buildings, but it's super weird reading about how other countries treat mold...
Typically in the US, nobody at any point in the process gives a shit if a home is or will become moldy, except sometimes the person living in the home. It's especially bad for renters who in many states have almost no legal protections (and if they do have them, accessing them is incredibly difficult).
In fairness, they did say monitoring air quality was part of the solution. If you get it dry and clean any visible mold, then the air tests come back fine, it shouldn't be an issue. The air tests are the only way to really know.
Are you talking about those petri dishes you put out? I have heard from a trusted mold expert that they just always show up positive. I don't know that I trust that, but the problem is that every house actually has mold, and in many places, and who knows what's actually contributing to the problems. Are massive air purifiers enough to mitigate the issues? Can you just tackle the surface molds? Maybe these questions are answered in the mold course, I need to take it asap.
The petri dishes are for ID and yeah theyll be positive. Real air quality spore measures require a filter disk and vacuum. Then you need to compare counts inside vs outside. There will always be some level, which is why it's important to compare with ambient outdoor levels. Some say you even need multiple samples at varying weather conditions. Then types are important too.
It's not possible to reliably test if the air has harmful amounts/species of mold or not. The air quality tests contaminate very easily and even when they don't contaminate, there is a lot of uncertainty with the results, and given any particular results, different people will opine different interpretations of them...
The filter/vacuum testing is pretty good. You do need a baseline to compare it to, which is often the exterior spore count. Yes, the recommended actions can be all over the place.
I think this is a big issue in US because the way they build houses, mainly with wood and gypsum. In case of water damage it is really hard to dry those materials.
No, that's not enough. Dormant/dead mold can still cause air quality problems. In most cases damaged material needs to be replaced. In some cases it's sufficient to isolate the damaged material to reduce its impact on air quality.
I'm from Finland and it seems that we treat mold much more seriously compared to other countries. I don't know if Finnish people have a genetic or environmental effect that makes people much more susceptible to get symptoms in moldy buildings, but it's super weird reading about how other countries treat mold...