The Washington DC Area’s
Instant, 99% Accurate Mold Testing
We Have 1 Of 70 Machines In The World That Can Test On The Spot.
No Waiting. No Guesstimates. No Human Error.
If you even think you have mold, turn to Valor Mold Removal. We can provide test results for mold on the spot.
We’ve invested in groundbreaking technology that eliminates the issues of the typical mold test. Namely, the waiting time, the inaccuracies, and the high costs.
InstaScope by DetectionTek
Traditional mold sampling has about a week turnaround time. The mold tester takes hours to get the samples. Then he has to send the samples to a lab, with the results coming back days later. The tester then has to write the report detailing what the lab analysis shows. We provide results AND the report right on the spot and email it before we leave. Our mold testing machine to complete the test in about 60 minutes, provide completely accurate results, and email you the report on the spot. You get immediate answers, and the results are ultra-easy to understand. Traditional mold-test results contain a bunch of Latin names for mold you can’t pronounce and complicated numbers that are hard to understand. The InstaScope, however, shows results in three simple colors:
- Green: Airborne mold concentrations in the room are at expected levels under normal conditions.
- Yellow: Airborne mold concentrations are moderately higher than what’s expected under normal conditions.
- Red: Airborne mold concentrations are significantly higher or different than what’s expected under normal conditions.
It’s that straightforward. No confusing Latin. No obscure numbers and data. Just crystal-clear facts about the mold in your home.
With traditional sampling, the mold tester takes the samples and mails them to a lab.
The problem? The lab technician only looks at 5% of the sample under the microscope, counts the spores they see with a clicker, and comes up with the results of your test result.
There is a huge margin of error with this. What one lab tech thinks is a mold spore, another tech may not. One famous study found the standard deviation was 75%.1 This means the accuracy of lab techs is so bad that if you don’t like the results of one lab, then send it to another. The second lab might tell you what you want to hear.
Why hasn’t the industry done better? Because this method was the only option the industry had. It’s not too long ago that mold testing was done with petri dishes (which is even more inaccurate!).
The InstaScope has revolutionized mold testing. It uses UV light and sophisticated algorithms to assess mold in up to 15 rooms in your home—at NO additional charge. Results come through in real-time and are displayed on an iPad in a simple-to-read chart.
Bottom line: Zero room for human error.
Mold testing costs you anywhere from $300 to $10,000. The cheapest competent testers charge $600 to $1,000.
In their 2019 report, Angie’s List reported the average national price for mold testing was $644. And that price generally includes just testing two rooms in your home. And two rooms don’t paint the full picture of how much mold you’re being exposed to.2
Want more than two rooms tested? The typical three-bedroom, two-bath house has 10 rooms. Since each additional room costs you $50 to $100, that’s $500 to $1,000 extra in testing fees!
Our mold testing machine eliminates these costs—and saves YOU money. We don’t prep and send samples to a lab, so we can test your entire home for mold for a flat rate of $650!
Bottom line: Would you rather know the mold count in one room… or every room in your home? The more data you have, the more informed decision you can make.
*Up to 15 rooms for $650. $30 per room after that.
About InstaScope™, Our Mold Testing Technology
InstaScope technology was created by DetectionTek, a tech company based in Boulder, CO.
The UK Ministry of Defence developed the technology to detect anthrax in airports, train stations, and other facilities after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. DetectionTek later worked with leading professors at the University of Colorado, calibrated it around mold, and came up with the InstaScope. Basically, it’s like the UK Ministry of Defence built the combustion engine and DetectionTek built the car.
InstaScope’s groundbreaking technology is the first of its kind, and its results have been published in several peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Common Questions About Our Mold Testing
A: If you see a visible mold colony, then mold testing is generally not needed. It does, however, have two benefits:
- If you’re in conflict with someone (like a property manager, landlord,builder, etc.) who denies what you see is mold, then a tape sample will prove it IS mold.
- Air sampling will help you find out if mold spores came off the mold colony and cross-contaminated into other rooms… and let you know you’re breathing the spores in and being exposed every day.
On the flip side, some people think if the air test result comes back okay, then they’re safe and can tear the mold out themselves or leave it alone.
Absolutely not!
The AIHA booklet Facts About Mold clearly states that “if visible mold is present, then it should be remediated, regardless of what species are present and whether samples are taken.”
A: We do not test other remediators’ work. Since we also do mold remediation, testing another remediator’s work creates a conflict of interest.
If you want to test your mold remediator’s work, we recommend hiring a reputable independent mold tester. While they may not be able to provide instant test results like we can, using a third-party tester could avoid conflict.
If we do the testing, then your remediator could feel we have “sour grapes” because we didn’t get the remediation. Or want to make them look bad. We don’t want to get ourselves, or you, in the middle of a “finger pointing” game.
If you’re looking for a great independent mold tester, we would be happy to refer you to one we have personally vetted and trust.
A: We prefer you have a 3rd party tester test our work. Why? Because if mold ever reappears later, we have confirmation with your tester that our work was cleared. This means your water damage problem wasn’t fixed right—not that there was an issue with our remediation.
But the problem is only 10% of our past clients would hire a third-party tester due to cost and/or time delays. So we bought the InstaScope as an internal quality control device to at least check our work after you firmly decide you aren’t having third-party testing.
It’s always been considered a conflict of interest for a remediator to test their own work. Why? Because there are no serial numbers on the test samples cassettes. Unethical remediators will take a sample in their containment area, throw that sample away later, take another sample in a cleanroom in their office, and mail that to the lab as if it came from your house. It was a problem with the “Chain of Custody.”
This isn’t a theory. We know one remediator who told us he did this… and there’s another remediator that’s been proven to do it. Both are still in business and have good reviews.
The InstaScope eliminates the conflict of interest:
- It’s instant, so you can stand next to us and see the results come back in real-time. Therefore, no funny business with the sample.
- The machine judges the airborne mold exposure in each sample as green, yellow, or red. Therefore, you’re not relying on us to interpret the results and give our opinion whether a room passes or fails. We’re both looking at the colors together. If it’s green, then it’s safe to take the containment down.
A: No. We only offer the InstaScope after you decide you’re not having 3rd party testing. To us, using the InstaScope on one of our remediations is an internal quality control device. If you’re having external quality control, then there’s no need for the InstaScope.
A: Our Mold Testing Price page explains this in detail. The short version is…
- The InstaScope is the laboratory, so we don’t have to pay lab fees to have the samples analyzed.
- It takes us about an hour to test every room, and we’re only taking a closer look if the InstaScope flags a room as yellow or red. Whereas quality third-party testers take half the day to comb over every inch of your house, like a detective with a magnifying glass.
Just want to know if the air you breathe is okay and have us check out areas that you’re worried about? Then call us. Want a whole home assessment and a book report on the conditions? Then call one of the 3rd party testers we recommend.
A: It depends on the cubic volume of the area we’re testing. We’re unique in that we test your entire home, rather than just a few rooms. The average room takes us about three to five minutes to test, and the overall test takes about 30 to 60 minutes.
A: Yes!
How? Biofluorescence.
About a hundred years ago, scientists discovered that basically all organic matter reflects when you shine UV light at it. What the UK Ministry of Defence discovered is if you shine UV light at different wavelengths, then all the species of mold, pollen, and bacteria have unique reflections. Just like a fingerprint or DNA.
The InstaScope shines it’s UV light at each particle it collects, sees the reflection, and can say, “That’s a Stachybotrys mold spore, that’s an Aspergillus mold spore, that’s E. Coli bacteria, that’s ragweed pollen” and so on. So this is how the InstaScope quickly and accurately tells which mold spores are present in the air and their counts.
If type A mold is outside but type B mold is in a room, then the machine flags that room as yellow or red. If the count of type A mold is significantly higher in a room than the count in surrounding rooms or the count outside, then the machine flags the room as yellow or red. If things look normal then the machine flags the room as green.
With traditional mold testing, the results are examined by a lab technician and have a deviation of +/-75%.1 Why? Because what one lab tech thinks is a spore, another tech may not.
A: Because it costs $40,000! Every mold company in the industry is impressed with the technology. But they simply aren’t willing to “pay the price of admission.”
The other reason is that the manufacturer of InstaScope (DetectionTek) doesn’t let just anyone buy their machine. Companies must go through training to receive the Certified InstaScope Inspector Certificate.
A: We serve Northern VA, DC, and Southern MD. Visit our Service Areas page for a comprehensive list of places in which we offer mold tests.
References:
- A famous 2010 study by Larry Robertson and Bob Brandys sent 4 slides to 7 AIHA EMPAT approved labs (the gold standard certification of labs) and found the variance between their results was an “order of magnitude.” To put it in layman terms, the Pen/Asp indoor counts ranged from 0 to 1,453 and the outdoor counts ranged from 0 to 1,970. That means you can send your slide to one lab and get results of 1,200 inside your containment and 150 outside (which almost all mold testers would judge as too high). Don’t like that? Send it to another lab and they could tell you the count is 100 inside and 1,000 outside (which almost all testers would judge as wonderful results).
- We’ve had InstaScope appointments where the visible mold is in the basement yet the basement air tests fine while the 2nd floor air (where the bedrooms are) is terrible. People think the air quality will be bad where the mold is and fine where the mold isn’t, but that’s not always the case. You’ll never know until you test!
Why Choose Us
We remove mold the right way… and it would be an honor to hear from you.
96% Success Rate
Your home is in the best hands—our chemical-free remediation has the highest success rate in the industry.
Instant Mold Testing
You get the answers you need—our special mold testing provides 99% accurate results on the spot.
300+ Happy Clients
You can trust our process—we’ve performed over 300 successful projects since we opened in 2006.
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