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ERMI Test


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I don't mean to whine, I know some on here are going through incredibly tough times.

 

I am struggling through my own Lyme illness right now- on many antibiotics, herbs and detox,

trying to keep my head above water to take care of my 3 kids, 1 with Lyme and company herself- keep our house running.

I do have a good husband, but he is working long hours, stressed- etc.

 

Okay- I had the mold inspection - thorough- issue in garage fixed under water heater- got rid of our mold washing machine 18 months ago, new top loader.

Change my filters, uncluttered clean house.

Air samples came back with 'some of the cleanest air we've seen'

 

ERMI test: 2 rooms, dd's and my bedrooms.

One came back a 3, and one came back a 4.

'Homes with a level 3 are more likely to have a mold problem, homes with a level

4 are have the greatest likelihood of having a mold problem.' (quote)

 

I can't handle this. I am not leaving my home. I don't have more money for all of this.

Financially, we cannot leave. I am so frustrated with all of this.

The mold inspector found no evidence, anywhere, of mold inside my home.

No basement, single level.

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I moved into a home with a "3" and although it did "keep" us sick initially, the changes we made in the house have gotten the house to test now at a "1", which is considered to be average and healthy as far as I've heard. Our health has improved steadily along with the ERMI score.

 

You can clean a 3 & a 4 for sure. You can start investigating where your problem may be by closing off certain rooms/areas for a couple of days to see if you feel any different while the room is closed off. We closed down the masterbathroom for a week. We then noticed we felt a lot better. Since then we took out toilet, sink, etc. and did find a lot of hidden mold that was not visible before we removed it. Also, another big culprit was the ventilation fan in the bathrooms. These were not installed properly and there was a good amount of mold growing in it which we couldn't see until we actually took it out. Air purifiers did not help us. All it did was blow the mold around even more.

 

At our old house, we had mold inspectors go up into our attic and tell us it was perfectly clean. However, after a year my husband and I realized that the mold growing in the attic just looked like dust. It was not black or slimy, it looked like dust which is why we never thought it was mold.

 

Stay strong and take it from me, if mold is your problem, it can be a long expensive road, but at least you have control over the illness. You can control your environment. It is truly empowering to clean up a moldy bathroom, feel better because of it, and know that you just improved your child's long term health by leaps and bounds. In the long run you and your kids will be healthier.

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We sent our ERMI test off last Monday. We should receive our results this week. We have air purifiers on each level of our house and have done extensive remediation in our basement. Hopefully we have done enough or I will be feeling just like you :wacko:

 

 

Well, I just spoke to the VP of the ERMI company, who talked me off the ledge a bit.

 

He recommended getting an air purifier for each room.

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You are an amazing person doing all the things you are doing!

 

Our ERMI test came back much higher than yours! I did cheat and dust the all-house heater filter which probably threw the results off. I really did not think anything would come back. Just learned that on the sheet that lists all the molds, the top portion are indoor molds and the bottom portion are outdoor molds. They subtract the outdoor from the indoor to get your ERMI reading. After talking to the chemist, he pointed out one that did not look good. It was the 'Aspergillus restrictus' that was the highest on our indoor. My limited research turned up: Most toxic, cause liver damage, cancer, and damage vital organs!

 

We had removed mold in our basement a few times over the last 12 years, so the chemist recommended that we clean house top-to-bottom (vacuum/wash/vacuum walls/floors). He said there could have been cross contamination. This went on forever, and we did a bit of long-needed remodeling upstairs and found some mold around the kitchen sink and a small amount in the bathroom. We are going to re-do the ERMI in another month.

 

Doctor recommended an air-cleaner in son's room, but knew it would not get all the mold out of the air. Anyway, a few of son's tests are coming back looking much better (MSH, TGF-1, C4a, C3a, etc.). Only the VIP and MSH are not normal yet. Still have other viral issues he is dealing with as well.

 

This is all very overwhelming, but our health is more important than anything (hopefully we can still afford to eat!). We are not sure if we can stay in this house and may have to do something about it later, but just taking one day at a time and moving along with these health issues as we can and as quickly as we can.

 

Best wishes to you and your family! Keep posting so we can hear how you and your family are progressing.

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If I'm reading the report correctly, our family room came back as a 7.81 and our upstairs hallway (outside of bathroom) is a 4. Our family room is an addition built on piers and is located indirectly above the basement which we remediated recently due to air testing. Not sure what to do next :(

 

On my report, it lists all the types of molds, then says:

ERMI score.

My graph shown goes from -10 to 20

but anything after 5 is colored red- meaning what, danger zone?

 

So how'd you do?

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Not very fun, is it?

I'm sorry :-(

This whole mold issue has really, really stressed me out.

I guess we just take one step at a time, do the best we can.

Maybe move your air purifier into the family room for the time being?

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No, not fun at all. Although the good news is that my son's labs for mold (Dr. S.) are improving so we're doing somethings right :). We actually have an air purifier on every floor so the family room has one already. Hate to think what the ERMI was before we did remediation and bought the purifiers. I guess I need to work on a new plan. How about you?

 

 

Not very fun, is it?

I'm sorry :-(

This whole mold issue has really, really stressed me out.

I guess we just take one step at a time, do the best we can.

Maybe move your air purifier into the family room for the time being?

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I did buy 2 good Hepa air purifiers (Merry Christmas) and will put one in

dd's bedroom, one in the master bedroom.

My DH is the computer guy, not the tool guy, and hiring someone to come in and start taking

things apart (after we already have had a mold inspection)

is not something I'm willing to do-

so this is where we are at- best we can do.

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What brand purifiers are y'all purchasing? Years back (when I had some funds) I purchased an IQ Compact for my dd's constant sinus infections. I haven't used it in a while - need to pull it out and clean/change filters.

 

After researching it, and considering price,

we went with 2 Winix 5500

covers 350 sq. feet, pre carbon filter, washable true hepa filter captures 99.97%

no harmful ozone, quiet.

I did not want an ionic.

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I'm really sorry you're going through this. I have an ERMI kit sitting on the table staring at me, and I'm afraid to find out! But of course we'll do it and I may be posting similar things soon.

 

Anyway, I had a thought. Maybe you could call the original company that did your mold inspection and tell them about the ERMI results, and say "You guys missed something. Can you come back out and look again?" Just a thought. Good luck!

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I'm really sorry you're going through this. I have an ERMI kit sitting on the table staring at me, and I'm afraid to find out! But of course we'll do it and I may be posting similar things soon.

 

Anyway, I had a thought. Maybe you could call the original company that did your mold inspection and tell them about the ERMI results, and say "You guys missed something. Can you come back out and look again?" Just a thought. Good luck!

 

*Hey Mama2Alex!

I did call our mold inspection people- they sort of hemmed and hawed, didn't know what to say, because they checked EVERYTHING here, and found 0 visible mold anywhere, except

the garage, which we had them fix/remediate.

So-- I bought one more Hepa air purifier on sale from Costco, will put that one in dd's room, take the 2nd larger one we ordered and put

it in the family room,

getting a hand held vacuum from Target today and will crawl under heavy beds to vacuum,

vacuum all the high shelves in closet, ladder to get to the top of the kitchen cabinets,

and then I am DONE!

DONE with the mold thing! (keep using our CMS powder)

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