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Are home mold test kits that I see at hardware stores worth trying?

Last Updated: March 05, 2010

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Home mold test kits generally contain a petri dish of mycological agar and instructions for sending the dish for fungal identification. Mold spores are everywhere, so open a petri dish in any room in any house, and you will soon see fungal colonies growing on the agar. So this test kit really doesn't tell you much.

If you see mold growing on drywall, wall paper, floor joists, etc., this generally indicates a moisture problem. Remove the mold using established guidelines such as are listed on the EPA website and fix the moisture problem that created the environment that permitted the mold to grow.

EPA mold resources

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