Resources & Guides

• Non-viable
• Air and surface samples
• How a laboratory analyzes samples

All of our standard mould testing is what is called non-viable testing. Non-viable testing, simply put, assesses the levels and genera (families) of mould in the environment. It does not differentiate between living and dead spores. Both our DIY Kit samples, and the samples taken by our consultants onsite, will generally be non-viable. This is for a few reasons:

1. Both dead and alive spores can remain allergenic and mycotoxic.
2. The presence and levels of fungal hyphae (branching tree-like structures that break down quickly, which give a strong indication of whether there has been recent active mould growth.
3. Non-viable tests are more economical than viable tests (where spores taken from the environment are grown on an agar plate and examined by colony structures.
4. Non-viable tests give a more specific result than viable (viable tests generally assess a sample on a scale from one to five).

Both home DIY Mould Test Kits, and the kits used by our consultants, operate on the same principle - aiming to capture mould spores for later analysis by a laboratory. They even use the same consumables - sticky surface samplers, and small air cassettes.

There is no current device on the market that can identify, quantify and analyse mould samples. There are some clever devices that can use methods such as laser particle counting to guess if the structures are likely to be mould. However, the results are not as accurate or precise as a traditional mould analysis in a lab, and reliant on the often incorrect presumption that increased particle counts are indicative of mould sporulation. As a result, sampling and lab analysis is the industry standard for mould testing. As far as we are aware, all mould laboratories in Australia conduct non-viable counting.

An alternative method as mentioned is using a DIY test kit to take an air sample on a cassette. The cassette can be taken to a lab where we can analyse it and send you the results. Please visit our DIY mould test kit page for more information.

A mould analysis laboratory report will almost always contain a table with counts of moulds found, as well as a count of total fungal structures. If there is interpretation, it is usually conducted by a hygienist or indoor environmental professional, though some laboratories (ours included) will include a degree of interpretation. This is what allows our DIY Mould Test kits to be useful to clients - interpretation of results is extremely difficult without training and experience with various genera of mould and their growth and sporulation patterns.

Detecting mould in walls is often difficult for homeowners and tenants. There are a couple of tricks for sampling wall cavities to check if these have mould growths inside.

• Zefon Air-O-Cell cassettes are able to connect to wall-sampling tubes . These enable sampling of the inside of a wall. However, they’re designed for one-time use, and reusing a wall sampling tube can invalidate the later sample results.
• In order to reduce wall damage, consultants may open up a light switch casing or TV-socket casing and insert the wall sampling tube into the light switch hole. 
• Many wall cavities are quite dirty, and it may be necessary to sample for a smaller time - consider 2 minutes, rather than the standard 5. Just note that this must be labeled on the chain of custody with the sample, or the laboratory analysis will be completely invalidated.

If you’d like to conduct your own wall sampling, or are thinking about sampling your walls for mould, consider giving us a call! We’re always happy to help where we can, and can help clarify the positives and negatives of each testing alternative.