Mold inspection in Las Vegas

Why the water comes first

EPA puts it plainly. The key to mold control is moisture control¹. If you clean up mold and leave the water problem alone, the mold will most likely come back⁴. So an inspection that only hunts for spores is answering the wrong question.

Las Vegas is the driest major metro in the continental United States, says the National Weather Service². Outdoor air rarely keeps a wall wet. When we find mold inside a house here, we nearly always find a water source with it. A supply line, a drain, a roof, a cooler or an AC drain.

What we look at, room by room

1. The story. When the smell started, the last storm, the last plumbing job and what changed.
2. The wet rooms. Under sinks, around toilets and tubs, the laundry box and the water heater closet.
3. The air side. The air handler, its drip pan and drain line, and supply registers. EPA says to keep drip pans clean and drain lines flowing⁵.
4. The envelope. Window sills, ceilings under the roof or a cooler, and baseboards on outside walls.
5. The floor. Carpet edges, warm spots and baseboards where a slab line could be leaking.

Hidden mold, and when to open a wall

EPA says you may suspect hidden mold when a place smells moldy but you cannot see the source, or when there was water damage and people report health problems³. In that case EPA suggests an experienced professional⁶.

We use moisture readings to decide where a small inspection opening is worth it. A dry wall with a musty room usually means the source is somewhere else. A wet wall gets opened where the reading peaks, not at random.

Inspection versus testing

These are two different things. CDC does not recommend mold testing⁷, and EPA says that in most cases, if mold is visible, sampling is not needed⁸. An inspection tells you where the water is and how much material is affected. A test tells you what was in a sample at one moment. Our mold testing page covers when a test is worth paying for.

What you get when you call

You talk to a person, you describe what you see or smell, and you get a plain answer about whether it sounds like a small cleanup you can handle or a job that needs an inspection. If we come out, you get the readings, photos and a written list of findings in the order we would fix them. You can call or text (702) 728-4493.