The Homeowner’s Guide to Mold
Posted by admin in Mold Tuesday, 31 August 2010 16:47 5 Comments
Product Description
As homeowners learn more about the real damage mold can cause to their health and home, their concerns are rapidly rising. They’re beginning to realize that their energy-efficient, “tight” homes built since the ‘70s energy crisis can actually be havens for destructive mold, thanks to poor circulation and “mold-friendly” materials like conventional drywall and particleboard. They’re also discovering that many insurance companies are no longer covering mold-rela… More >>
The Homeowner’s Guide to MOLD is a great, easy to read and understandable book on a very scary subject…MOLD. It is very well written and lists facts for homowner”s when faced with this delicate situation. All areas of the home are covered thoroughly! He even gives tips on questions to ask remediation contractors that may be feeding on the homeowners emotions!
I had a few additional specific questions concerning mold in my ductwork and e-mailed them to the author. Michael Pugliese personally responded to my e-mail and even called me on the phone to be sure I got his information!
Rating: 5 / 5
I bought this book at Home Depot. I am a certified microbial Consultant (glorified mold-inspector) by the American Indoor Air Quality Council.
I thought the book was well written and contains sound advice as far as removing and cleaning mold. It’s nice to finally see someone tell people that bleach is not effective for mold remediation.
I can tell the author has a lot experience as a mold remediator. There are some things I disagree with in the section on testing for mold. Petri dishes (self test kits) are useless for the homeowner. They are very inaccurate. They may tell you have mold problem when you don’t and miss a mold problem that exists.
Reading test reports is not always that simple either. The author has done a better job of explaining testing than most other books on the market.
The other disagreement I have is with the EPA guidelines on quantifying “how big is your mold problem”. The problem with these guidelines is that they are based on the amount of mold you can see. Most mold is hidden. The EPA adapted them from the state of New York in the beginning when there were not other guidelines around.
Very interesting appendix on estimating how much it cost to have a professional do the mold remediation for you. It’s nice to see some numbers. Usually the estimates from remediators vary greatly. Maybe this can be used a baseline to do a reality check on the estimates you get.
I (Dan Stih) am the author of Healthy Living Spaces: Top 10 Hazards Affecting Your Health.
Rating: 4 / 5
I bought this book looking for info specificaly to avoid building mistakes that could lead to mold. There is really no info on building techniques, this book is written for what to do after mold is already there. It’s a disapointment for me as I have two old stone structures to renovate and ‘prevent’ mold. This book will be helpful to you, however, if you have a mold situation already.
Rating: 3 / 5
I bought this book to help out my sister with a mold problem. This book sounded just like one “expert” who quoted $7000 that did not even include all recommended repairs. Another inspector was brought in and took samples which were sent to an accredited biological test lab and based on the particular species involved was comfortable only reccomending less $1200 in redmisiation and repairs. The only thing not included was a new coat of paint which we were going to do anyway.
The use of scare tactics is rife in this business.
Rating: 2 / 5
Our family purchased a home with a covered up mold problem that went unnoticed during the inspection, appraisal, realtor and purchasing process. We have purchased several other books before this one. This one is the best for the money without hiring a Certified Industrial Hygienist.
If we would have known what is written on these pages for the mere $21.95, we could have saved ourselves much time, money, our health and nerves. The book is categorized very nicely. The author and publisher really made this very informative, educational and it seems to be a labor of love.
Rating: 5 / 5