- Hi, I'm Parris, and if you've been following
along with my DIY mold testing adventure since
having some leaks in the roof from rain,
I am now up to the point where I just received
this identification test kit.
I can send in samples with this and they will
tell me the types of mold that are growing.
What I'm going to use as a source for that
are these mold check test strips which in
my previous video I put out around the house,
let them incubate and saw some mold in a
few places so now I'd like to find out
what those molds are.
The next step is taking the samples
with these little test strips and sending
this off to the lab.
Let's see how this works.
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This DIY Mold Test Easy Mold Test
is about $50,
and they don't send you a whole lot.
There's instructions in an envelope and then in
these plastic containers are the little
adhesive strips,
I believe they give you three so you can take
three samples of mold and send it in.
The reason it's $50 is the analysis that they
tell you which type of mold you have.
There are a number of mold kits I found,
this seemed to be the most reasonable because I
didn't want to just rely on sending in one sample
and that was about $35 anyway,
so it seemed like about $50 for three was the
most reasonable.
If you'd like to find out more about this
specific kit there is a link to it down
below the video.
So, it was $50 for the ten test papers to find
out where mold was growing in the house and how
much there was,
and then $50 for this test kit with the
three samples I get to send them for analysis.
Now, in my case, I'm in Texas, so there is, yay,
an extra $24 fee because it has to go to a
Texas state certified laboratory for testing.
But for most of you, it will just be the
$50 or so that you pay for it on Amazon.
So, let's see what the instructions say
and how these adhesive strips work.
You might be curious to see,
those of you who have been following along,
what happened on these strips.
I'm on day eight now, I think.
And I showed you a day four.
After day five they're not quite as reliable.
Stuff happens, I think all of the
mold food dries out.
But I will show you an update of those
when we go in to get samples.
Makes it look easy.
I have read over all of the paperwork.
There is actually a fair amount.
You have to fill out a chain of custody form
with all of the specific information about
where you are, where the testing was done,
the sample numbers and so forth.
I think it's more in terms of if there were
a lawsuit or something more serious happening
in the future.
However, they do tell you on the back of this
that your testing is just representative of a
moment in time in a particular spot.
So just because it shows you don't have mold here
doesn't mean you don't have mold in your house.
Basically I think don't blame them if it
doesn't catch everything because you're just
going to take three small surface area samples.
I already have the samples I want tested.
Now, they give you a guide to go through,
areas you ought to check in your house for
visible signs of mold, the smell,
that sort of thing.
They do also say that when you are collecting
your samples that you should wear
protective clothing, eye gear, mask,
possibly even a full Hazmat suit kind of thing.
But I'm not going to be doing that.
Don't do what you see me doing here if
you are trying this yourself and you're concerned
because of probably health issues,
you don't want to be stirring this stuff up
and having your face in it.
So, do as they say, not as I do.
Now, the clear plastic case here you're going to
put the little slip back into.
It's like a little slide.
Huh.
There's a little spot on it to write
the identifier, the location or the code,
anyway, whatever will give meaning to you
so you know the where and when of when
the sample was taken.
Then I'm gonna peel something off then you
take it to the surface that you want tested
and with your thumb on the back of it,
you press it on, pull it back, it's adhesive,
and you should see some little
granules of discoloration, anyway,
something you think is the mold.
Put it back into here and it goes with the
rest of them and the form and gets sent off
to them for testing.
Okay, I promised you a look at my mold check test
sheets on day eight.
The really bad ones here.
This was the outside sample,
up in the attic
and in the entry way.
As awful as these look I'm not that worried
about it because I think both of them could
reflect mold spores blown in simply by this one
being right by the front door and this one by
having the vents up in the attic to allow air in.
These are relatively clean.
The blue stains and other things can just mean yeast.
You don't really worry about those, I think,
as being mold.
The three I'm going to have tested are these.
The one colony that grew on the sheet that was
in Ximena's bedroom,
the three colonies from Roxanna's bedroom,
and one colony from the master bath.
Here is the first biofilm.
I would call it a slide.
It feels just like a slide you put under
a microscope except it is a little bit flexible
so I don't think it's glass,
I think it's plastic.
Here is where I've labeled Ximena's bedroom,
and this portion here on the same side seems
to be the collection area between those two
black lines.
I thought it was a larger area on the back you
were able to press all that against the
mold growth, but no,
this is what you got to work with.
So, let me peel this off.
I've peeled it off.
This part here on the front is sticky.
So, I'm going to grab my mold sample here,
open this film cover up and then press this
onto that until I see that there are some
black grains adhered to here,
then I'm ready to pack this up to send
back to them.
Remember, do as they say for safety,
not as you see me doing here.
Okay.
Pressing it down against it.
It's kinda slippery slidy.
Hmmm, I don't see any black.
I'll try again.
Hmmm, maybe because it's all liquidy.
Or maybe it's not lifting it off of this.
I can see on the paper here that some lifted off.
Let me try to lift it off the paper.
I want to see something black on this.
I'm not seeing it.
I wanna scrape some of it and just
throw it on here.
Maybe if I slide this over it.
Surely some is on here but I can't
actually see that.
I'm going to have a problem with these others
I'm sure as well.
Okay.
Definitely don't do this.
There, I scraped some of it onto the thing.
Sshhh!
Okay.
And I don't put this back,
there's no cover for it.
It simply goes in here and you snap it closed.
It's congealed itself into a black thing on there.
Good enough.
That one's ready to go.
I have all three samples.
Probably better that you didn't see my
collecting of the other two.
But I got samples to go.
Now I have to fill out my chain of custody form.
I need to get a Ziploc bag to put these into,
seal that.
And then put them in an envelope and send them
to this address.
I think I'll pick up a bubble wrap kind of
envelope to put them into along with this form
along with a check for the additional $24.
Then I will wait a few weeks until I
get the results.
Then I'll be back and show you the results
and find out exactly what kind of mold
I discovered here in the house.
You can keep checking back for that video
or you can click that subscribe button down below
and you'll get notified when our videos go up.
See you on the next review.
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