What is a Professional and Informative Indoor Environmental (IEQ) or Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Report?
A professionally prepared Indoor Environmental or Indoor Air Quality Report should clearly answer the following questions:
Is there an Indoor Environmental or Indoor Air Quality Concern in your home or office?
What was the cause?
Where is the problem source?
What containment and cleaning are needed?
What home or office repairs are needed to prevent future problems?
How will we assure that the field investigation work is properly done?
How will we assure that the mold test lab work was actually collected by an expert?
An indoor air quality test laboratory report can produce a lot of information but it does not answer any of those questions.
A Professional Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant should have the ability to do much more than hit the on switch of the air sampling pump and hand the client a lab report.
Are Air Quality Lab Reports Useful Without a Home or office Investigation?
An Air Quality Report from the laboratory which simply offers some counts or numbers or culture results is not a good value. Not when the mold inspector was supposed to have performed a "Indoor Air Quality Inspection" for all Indoor Air Quality Concerns in the home or office, but did not perform a thorough visual inspection of the home or office.
A superficial air test for mold spores risks leaving the client with ambiguous results, or even if the test suggests that a problem with mold is present, the client has no idea where the problem is, if any, and what to do about it. In many cases the air samples for mold spores come back with no elevations but the Client continues to have symptoms. The mold inspector that only collected air-o-cell spore trap samples and nothing else can provide no professional guidance at all.
If you suspect that there is an indoor air problem in the home or office involving any unknown Allergens, Asthma Triggers, or Mold, you need to know the following:
Is Indoor Environmental Sampling Necessary?
If Sampling is necessary Why?
Where? And
Which Type of Sampling is Recommended?
The Visual Inspection should provide a Sampling Plan specific to the findings in your home or office so you can then determine;
If there is a mold, allergen, asthma trigger, or similar environmental problem in the home or office?
If there is a problem, where is it and how big is it?
What does the lab work indicate about the level of risk to occupants or workers?
Are we looking at a "cosmetic-only" concern?
What is the extent of remediation or cleaning necessary, and
based on the lab results, what is the level of containment and care needed?
What needs to be changed or repaired on the home or office so that problems don't recur? And
after the cleanup has been completed, was it proper and complete?
A professionally prepared Indoor Environmental Report or Indoor Air Quality Report must be useful:
In other words, in exchange for being paid a substantial professional fee to investigate a home or office, an Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant (CIEC) should provide accurate and useful diagnostic and prescriptive information to his or her client, and should include not only an identification of problematic Indoor Environmental Concerns, but an indication of where the problem is, how big it is, and what work is needed to remove the contaminant and return the home or office to a healthy indoor environment.
An Ethical Indoor Environmental Consultant should interview the client carefully before the inspection to assist in deciding if such a costly Indoor Environmental Assessment and Testing process is really appropriate and cost-justified.
Our Indoor Environmental Assessments are also an education on the 7 Seven Principles of Healthy Homes
Dry: Damp houses provide a nurturing environment for mites, roaches, rodents, and molds, all of which are associated with asthma.
Clean: Clean homes help reduce pest infestations and exposure to contaminants.
Pest-Free: Recent studies show a causal relationship between exposure to mice and cockroaches and asthma episodes in children; yet inappropriate treatment for pest infestations can exacerbate health problems, since pesticide residues in homes pose risks for neurological damage and cancer.
Safe: The majority of injuries among children occur in the home. Falls are the most frequent cause of residential injuries to children, followed by injuries from objects in the home, burns, and poisonings.
Contaminant-Free: Chemical exposures include lead, radon, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, and environmental tobacco smoke. Exposures to asbestos particles, radon gas, carbon monoxide, and second-hand tobacco smoke are far higher indoors than outside.
Ventilated: Studies show that increasing the fresh air supply in a home improves respiratory health.
Maintained: Poorly-maintained homes are at risk for moisture and pest problems. Deteriorated lead-based paint in older housing is the primary cause of lead poisoning, which affects some 240,000 U.S. children.
A Professional Indoor Environmental Assessment is much more than the collection of samples.
Unless the sample collection was combined with an Expert Indoor Environmental Assessment of the home or office, no one can be certain of the extent of any indoor air contaminant or other particle contamination in a home or office.
Similarly, without an Expert Indoor Environmental Assessment one cannot determine if a sample accurately represents all of the indoor environmental contaminants or indoor air quality contaminants present in the home or office.
A competent Indoor Environmental Assessment Report should identify, right up front, what is important and what needs to be done. It should support these opinions with competent detail and professional, reliable lab work.
We provide an Indoor Environmental Assessment Report that will indentify the indoor environmental Concerns within your home or office and provide you with the guidance to take specific corrective action to quickly improve your indoor environment and indoor air quality.
Our Clients are always welcome to call to discuss our findings and to ask for further explanation or guidance without incurring additional cost.
Our goal is to become our Clients personal Indoor Environmental consultant for life!
Our Professional Indoor Environmental (IEQ) and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Reports Include the Following:
Indoor Environmental Assessment
Client Areas of Concern
The S-520 Conditions
Condition 1
Condition 2
Condition 3
Visual Inspection
Site Inspection findings
Visual Inspection Summary
Air Sampling and Analysis:
Bioaerosol Laboratory Result Interpretation
Air Sampling Laboratory Findings
Indoor Environmental Measurements (Particulate Matter, Temperature, and Humidity)
Indoor Environmental Measurement Summary
Specific Repair Recommendations
General IAQ Improvement Recommendations
Reducing concentrations of particulate matter in your home
ACGIH: Bioaerosols: Assessment and Control, Janet Macher, Ed., American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, Cincinnati, ON (1999).
IESO: Indoor Environmental Standard Organization: 2nd Edition 2003. Standard of Practice for the Assessment of Indoor Environmental Quality: Volume 1: Mold Sampling: Assessment of Mold Contamination
IICRC S520 2008 ANSI approved national standard: 2nd Edition 2008
EPA 402-K-01-001 Mold Remediation in Schools and Commercial Home or offices
American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality (ASHRAE 62-2001) and
Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy (ASHRAE 55-2004)
for Your Indoor Environmental Assessment or Orlando Mold InspectionToday! 407-383-9459
1170 Tree Swallow Dr. Suite 330 Winter Springs, Florida 32708 51 E JEFFERSON ST ORLANDO FL 32801 424 East Central Boulevard Orlando FL 32801 8870 Boggy Creek Road Orlando FL 32824 2607 Edgewater Dr Orlando 32804