The Bay Area's Leader in Mold and Microbial Investigations

Other Air Quality Services

Real Estate Investigations

Real Estate InvestigationsThere’s a huge difference between a home inspector and an environmental consultant. Home inspectors play an important role in the buying and selling process, but they generally don’t have the education, training or experience to evaluate a home for mold.

The real estate industry has been begging for a low cost microbial investigation that’s both comprehensive and quick. Pacific IAQ now offers a real estate package that includes the microbial investigation, where we inspect the property for visible evidence of water intrusion and microbial growth, as well as air sampling. The real estate package is identical to our standard mold investigation, without the remediation map or protocol. If at some point your buyer would like to have a protocol, we can provide everything they need.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s)

Volatile Organic CompoundsIndoor air quality (IAQ) professionals are challenged with selecting the appropriate indoor sampling and analysis methods. Indoor air can be very complex, with up to 300 individual volatile organic compounds (VOCs) comprising a typical indoor air sample. Many VOCs are typically found in indoor air and their sources include building materials, furnishings, floor coverings, wall coverings, paints and stains, copiers and printers, and outdoor air.

Pacific IAQ offers VOC analysis methods based on USEPA protocols. Using a mass spectral database of more than 120,000 individual compounds. Pacific IAQ can provide the following analysis:

  • Total VOCs with All Individual VOCs
  • Total VOCs with Top 20 Individual VOCs
  • Microbial VOCs (MVOCs)

 

PCR Analysis

PCR AnalysisMycologists traditionally rely on direct microscopic examination to quantify and identify mold in air and surface samples. Speciation of molds is a skilled and labor-intensive task, even for the most experienced mycologists, and the “human element” can be subjective.

The traditional spore-trap analysis provides quantitative and qualitative analysis to the genus level (ex. Fusarium sp.) but cannot distinguish between Aspergillus and Penicillium.

Research conducted at the US-EPA's National Exposure Research Laboratory has provided an alternative to traditional microscope-based analysis. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) is a fast and accurate DNA-based analytical method for identifying and quantifying molds to the species level.

qPCR has a limit of detection (LOD) of one spore per sample, but can still accurately quantify millions of spores per sample. In the instance of water intrusion, accurate and rapid speciation and measurement are crucial to an effective risk assessment. qPCR analysis provides quantitative and qualitative analysis down to the species level (ex. Aspergillus niger).