Find Out What's In your Indoor Air.

Indoor Air Quality Testing Options

Though the most common indoor air quality concern is mold, there are numerous other pollutants that can manifest in a building, resulting in poor air quality. The following information is intended to help you prioritize testing in a manner that is informed by observations that has resulted in your concerns.

General Categories

Given that everything is a solid, liquid, or gas, pollutants in your building must fit into one or more of these general categories. If a pollutant is in the air, it must be either a microscopic solid matter or gaseous in nature because liquids must evaporate and become gaseous to remain in the air.

Particulate

The indoor and outdoor air almost always contains tens of thousands of particles per cubic meter of air. Particle types commonly found in the indoor air include soil, carbon, cellulose, talc- like particulate, drywall dust, insulation, insect fragments, and pollen, and mold spores.

Common sources of particulate allergens in the indoor air include the outdoor air via doors and windows, on clothing and shoes, infiltration from unfinished spaces such as attics, dirt floor crawlspace, and unfinished basements, demolition, remodeling, organic growth such as mold and bacteria, and within a dirty air conditioning system.

When total particulates in the indoor air get too high, symptoms may occur. Such symptoms may include itchy, watery eyes, skin irritation, rash, sinus drainage, congestion, and asthma-like symptoms.

Gases

Indoor air almost always contains a myriad of volatile organic compounds. Common sources of gases in the indoor are household cleaning chemicals, personal hygiene products, natural gas, and Carbon Monoxide leaks from gas appliances sewage gas leaks, off- gassing from newly installed building materials, off-gassing from microbiological growth, infiltration of compounds from chemicals stored in garages and basements, etc. Symptoms commonly associated with gaseous pollutants include headache, brain fog, memory
loss, nausea, vomiting, and respiratory distress.

Test Methods

Testing methods vary depending on the types of pollutants that are being measured. Costs for testing vary significantly and are most influenced by the scope of work performed by the laboratory. For these reasons, we must learn about any symptoms you may be experiencing and also learn about the building of concern prior to recommending sample types.