Experience and the right tools find hidden MOLD in the home

Hello Active Rain. Thanks for all of the comments on my last blog  "You may think you have a mold problem, but you may not"  Here is an interesting story of a call I received about a year ago. A single man living in Aliso Viejo, California called me with a very concerning tone with regards to possible mold in his home. He expressed to me that he has had extreme allergy problems his entire life.  He explained that he was a business man that worked for a company that required him to do a significant amount of traveling. It was not uncommon for him to be away from his home for several days at a time, but shortly after returning each time he would go into moderate to high levels of respiratory distress.  The first thing that went through my mind was that a single guy, maybe not the cleanest person in the world, may just need a cleaning service to get things in order. Well nothing could have been further from the truth. This was a very well maintained and elegantly designed home. The first thing I do before conducting an investigation is to get a water loss history on the home. A water loss history helps me understand the scope of what may be going on in the home, and helps me understand why I may be seeing damage in particular areas of the house.  After gathering the information, which there was none, I was off doing my investigative work to find areas of moisture, mold and possible future problems that may be present. This was one of the cleanest homes that I had inspected in a long time. No issues were visible which makes this a perfect job for one of my MOLD DETECTION DOGS. Before I go on with the story, I have to explain the room that we (we, meaning the  Dog and me) eventually found the problem.  This was a formal dining room just off the kitchen. The dining room was about 18 feet long and 12 feet wide with big French doors. A new thick wooden rustic looking table with 8 large chairs decorated the room. This room was located just outside the kitchen where my client would have to pass each time he entered the kitchen or the family room, you know the areas he spent the most time. I proceeded to work "Trace", that's my dog, through the house. If you have never had the chance to see a scent detection dog at work, go to my web site at www.jlcinspections.com and on the front page is a video of him working at a news station interview. Anyway, when I got into the dining room Trace moved sharply in the direction of, that's right, the table! He started alerting to the bottom of the table like the crazy dog he is. The more excited Trace gets about an area, the more prevalent the problem usually is. I looked at the bottom side of the table to see a greenish blue fluffy mold completely coving the bottom side. This was very Cool, I guess you would have to be a mold inspector to get a high off of this. Anyway mystery solved. This table turns out was made in Mexico, and was never sealed on the bottom side. The table's natural moisture content continued to grow mold, and each time my client passed by the room he got a disturbing dose of spores. When I took air samples in the dining room it was no wonder that he was having problems. We closed the doors to the room, wrapped the table in plastic and shrink wrap, and had the company that sold it to him come and get it. I had air scrubbers placed in the home. These are HEPA rated filters in large machines that pull contaminated air in one side, push clean air out the other. Within 24 hours he was feeling great inside his own home.  I will end for now just to say it looks as if my business has gone to the "Dogs" Thanks, like to hear your comments.