July 1, 2025 • 39 mins
Growth... it's almost as weird as the word MOIST. But this time of year, it's a very real concern as we enter the warm, humid, wet summer. Especially in the dirty South, mold and organic growth is super prevalent this time of year. That's why we brought in expert Kristian Geiger of Avid Inspection Specialists to talk about it, as we dig into:
- the process of inspection for mold
- his personal experiences from the field, including injuries and interesting finds
- and the ethical considerations and licensing requirements surrounding mold inspections.
Other areas of mold inspection we discuss involve things like consumer protection, the methodology for large inspections, the importance of adhering to health standards, and the tools and techniques used in the field. We also touch on the competitive landscape of mold inspection and how it influences standards of practice. So GROW your knowledge with us as we discuss all things mold and organic growth.
The Links:
Register for Inspection Fuel (September 8-10 in New Orleans) here: https://www.inspectionfuel.com/register
Sign up for our newsletter here: https://pages.theridealong.show/newsletter
The TLDR:
- Summer market is busy and full of opportunities.
- Training new inspectors involves hands-on experience and gradual responsibility.
- Mold inspections are a growing area of focus in the industry.
- Unique regional challenges exist, such as termite issues in Louisiana.
- Ethical practices are crucial in mold inspection to avoid conflicts of interest.
- Licensing requirements for mold inspections vary by state.
- Continuous learning is essential for inspectors to stay updated.
- Field experiences often lead to unexpected and interesting stories.
- Networking with other inspectors can provide valuable insights.
- Maintaining high standards in inspections builds trust with clients.
- There are things that protect the consumer in mold inspection.
- Licensed inspectors follow a code of ethics.
- Mold inspections require a thorough understanding of moisture sources.
- The inspection process can be time-consuming and requires foresight.
- Tools should enhance the inspection, not replace the inspector's judgment.
- Health concerns should dictate the standards of practice used.
- Inspectors should rely on visual assessments first.
- Competition influences the tools and techniques used in inspections.
- Mold inspection standards can vary significantly by region.
- Networking and collaboration among inspectors can enhance practices.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Another freaking week, another episode here of the Ride Along with my co-host, Mr.
Matt Brading out in Houston with Texas Edge and Spec.
How's it going, buddy?
what's up?
ah It's going well.
It's going very well, but very busy lately.
Dude, this is good.
Spring Market, it's rolling along.
You've been busy.
That's awesome.
guy started a new a new guy started with me today.
(00:30):
New inspector.
Yeah.
He did OK.
He's right now.
He's just kind of walking around with me, you know, but in upcoming weeks and you knowhe'll he'll slowly get more and more, you know, things that he's doing and get his hands
on more stuff.
More hands on type training right now.
He's just kind of shadowing, but will increases his workload coming up in the upcomingweeks.
(00:53):
his workload increases as his liability decreases.
It's based on how it works, right?
You do now.
So what do you do for like when you're training somebody, is he just carrying the ladderopen in the windows, running the faucets, things like that?
Like, what do you have them doing?
uh carrying a ladder is a huge thing, by the way.
But so yeah, he has actually done some ladder carrying, but for the most part, right now,he's just walking.
(01:17):
This was his first inspection.
He did do a ride along with me.
uh We're on the ride along, but another, you know, an actual ride along.
He did a ride along with me a couple of weeks ago or something like that, just to kind ofsee if we wanted to do this.
And it worked fine.
And so we said, okay, so right now he's just in the shadowing phase.
There's more watching.
Yes, some ladder carrying or it might be like hey girl, we see it reset that GFC I but Iwould imagine that by the end of the week He'll be doing some stuff to kind of help out
(01:45):
the inspection process And that way he's doing a little hands-on and a little learning atthe same time
Dude, I love it.
And we've actually got somebody uh riding along figuratively speaking with us today.
But he is no stranger to the home inspection industry.
In fact, this guy is one of the best there is out of freaking Louisiana, EasternLouisiana.
(02:05):
Mr.
Kristian Geiger, how you doing bud?
I'm doing great man, how are you guys doing?
Wonderful man.
I'm just I'm glad you're here.
We've we follow each other on social media for a minute.
So I'm glad that we've got you on the show because inspecting in in in LA as you are isgot to be fascinating that I mean, the termites that you guys deal with the just the
(02:26):
different terrain and part of the Gulf that you guys are on.
It's very unique.
Yeah, it is.
mean alluvial soil always leads to a little bit more foundation issues.
We don't really have any bedrock that you have to deal with, I believe, in your neck ofthe woods.
(02:47):
But yeah, Formosans are pretty big out here, Formosan termites.
So it's always something that you have to watch out for.
Yeah, definitely man.
So yeah, yeah, Matt's out of Houston.
I'm out of Tampa Bay, Florida area.
We don't have rock.
We just have sand over here.
Yeah, it's a whole lot of sand.
Yeah, we don't need base.
you probably dealt with bedrock a lot more.
(03:07):
Yeah, no, definitely.
And that's actually something I want to get into.
before we before we talk, usually, you know, we'll start the show like I'll ask Matt,like, what's something interesting that he's seen in the field this week?
ah But, you know, since this is mainly because, you know, we've had some reallyinteresting characters on the on the show recently, if you haven't caught up, go back,
(03:27):
watch the episode with Jesse Hernandez, watch episode with Brian Wall.
uh We've talked everything from AI to insurance adjustment.
Um, all kinds of cool stuff, things that intersect with our industry without always justbeing strictly about our industry.
But today it's, it's inspection heavy baby.
And, uh, so we're going to, we're going to talk a little bit about what we've seen thisweek, but before we do that, of course we got to plug inspection fuel cause that's coming
(03:52):
up.
I'm going to be a September eight through the 10th in NOLA over in a Kristian neck of thewoods which you going to be there, bud?
absolutely, tickets are already purchased.
I will be there.
Look forward to seeing you guys.
Dude, this is actually going to be cool because Matt, you know, we've all got something incommon on here.
And I feel like maybe we need to lobby ah Dave Kogan at porch to maybe be the featuredentertainment of inspection fuel because uh we all play music.
(04:19):
We all do have a musical background.
do indeed.
I used to play guitar for many years and a little bit of singing.
Brad, you got a little guitar and I believe you slap it at bass, as they say.
And Kristian, you...
yeah, so I sang for many years.
(04:40):
toured the country, played South by Southwest.
So it's many moons ago, but you know, guitarist, play every day, you're a singer, you singevery day.
So, I mean, you still keep your chops sharpened as it were.
I'm sure it's like riding a bike.
Okay, so we've got the home inspection band.
There's another inspector we were just talking about plays drums.
(05:01):
So mean, we've got we got a four piece band ready to rock, man.
And, you know, look, the chili peppers pull it off with what three, so for see, there yougo.
We got this guy's.
ah Hey, sound off in the comments.
If you want to hear Matt sing, uh you know, if he's if he's really bad, then just juststand there and just be like, it's not supposed to do that.
(05:23):
We'll just hand the mic to Kristian because he's a singer.
Yeah, that's it.
He'll take over.
Alright, so drink of the day.
Guys, what are we sipping on?
On Cinco de Mayo.
Kristian, what you got?
Well, Cinco de Mayo, have got tequila.
Dude, that's the proper thing to do.
But what is in there?
(05:45):
Is that just a whole tumbler of freaking tequila?
Yes, it's about, well, no, no, no, no.
Look, we are trying to get through the show, right?
No, uh I do have some sprite in here to kind of tame it down a little bit.
I gotta stay focused with you guys.
(06:06):
I love it, man.
What are you sipping on,
Tequila.
Just kidding.
It is though.
It is.
I got a ranch water.
I don't have stuff for margaritas, so I got a little lime flavored liquid death, some salton the rim and some tequila.
(06:28):
So, is.
I'm a liquid death fan.
Dude, I will have to check it out, man.
I am just, cheating guys.
Like I'm just sipping on a nooner.
And I honestly don't care just because uh yesterday was the final day of Country Thunderhere in the Tampa Bay area.
And I did good to wake up this morning.
(06:54):
I tied one on just a little bit.
And so I'm keeping it, I'm keeping it as light as possible for this episode while stillhonoring the segment, you know, try to do anyway.
But, um, but now, now that we got our something to sip on here, uh, I want to go aroundthe horn and talk about, what we have seen in the field because it's been an interesting
week for those of you that, that don't follow Matt, definitely go follow them.
(07:15):
Kristian, where can they follow you at first of all?
You can follow me anywhere, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, everywhere.
I'll follow you anywhere, Kristian.
Wherever you will go throwing it back to the 2000s.
yeah.
So, uh, but no, go follow them because I mean, like we talk about, uh, one of the bestthings about the home inspection industry.
(07:40):
It's like, feel like we were all down to like call our buddies.
It's like, dude, you wouldn't believe this thing that I saw.
or I just saw the wildest thing today.
You wouldn't believe this agent or you know, is it like we tell stories and that oftentranslates onto social media for the content creators.
So go follow those guys so you can pay attention to the stories throughout the week.
But Matt, you have seen some pretty cool stuff and you had a little bit of a war.
(08:02):
I did.
did.
Yeah.
So today I was um coming out of a closet.
This was an occupied house.
They had like a under stair storage inside the closet.
And I saw I was trying to get back there and make sure there was nothing going on backover there.
But I had to like make my way out of it through like their clothing and everything.
I was wearing my meta glasses here.
So this is what I looked like.
(08:23):
Like I had these on.
And as I came out, there was a door that was open and I hit the door and it smashed my earbetween.
the door and my metaglacid and it cut my ear open very, very small little work relatedinjury.
I think I'm going to live guys.
But it did bleed though.
(08:44):
It did bleed.
I was a bleeder.
And so yeah, I had to kind of walk around with a paper towel on my ear for a while, I'mgoing to make it.
I'm going live.
There's plenty of other guys that have had big pillowy coverings on their ears afterthey've been wounded.
look, you could probably run for president next, is all I'm saying.
(09:07):
The guy's an impressionist, I didn't even know.
Some say it was just the baddest wound that they've ever seen on an inspection job site.
can't even touch that.
I can't even touch that.
But yeah, I got a small injury on my ear.
What did you see this week, Kristian?
What's the coolest thing that you've run into in the field?
Man, this week uh I would have to say, yeah.
(09:37):
Well, this week and last week has been pretty heavy with focusing more on the moldinspections.
And the interesting thing this week was actually kind of sad.
I haven't run into this before doing a trailer inspection and uh
I found a baby, not sure if it was a baby rat or a baby squirrel in the drain and themother was nowhere to be found.
(10:06):
So I had to make a pretty hard decision.
you know, it's either let it starve to death or, know, kind of quickly, you know, do whatyou got to do.
So I had not run into that before.
Thankfully, not too many.
I've never ran into a snake under a crawl space.
I've never ran into wild animals or anything like that.
(10:28):
ah But that was pretty interesting and pretty gross.
this video.
You put that out on the video.
saw this video of you in this baby creature.
Now you very cleverly made a video that was actually very successful for you.
Am I, am I mistaken with that?
No, yeah, it's done pretty well.
(10:50):
uh Well, look, in hindsight, even my wife was like, look, you cut it off face in thetoilet for a reason.
That's why everybody thinks I flushed the thing.
But I did not, I'll set the record straight right here, I did not flush it.
You know, I'm not that cruel.
But um it's
(11:16):
Hold on.
done fairly well.
The video's done fairly well.
think it's just a hair over two million uh between Facebook and Instagram.
Well, Kristian, let's give it a minute for your camera to catch up there.
I think it's something something kind of froze on you.
uh Well, while that's.
both frozen on my end.
Oop, and he's gone.
(11:36):
And he's gone.
You know, we've never had this happen on air before.
Now I feel like this is actual radio, you know, it's like that caller that that long timecaller first time listener that, you know, shows up when I think that's the other way
around.
Yeah.
But anyway, okay.
Well, I got a little something too, man, while we're waiting for him to come back onlinehere.
uh So yeah, no.
So okay, when it's, it's awesome to be moving between different locations.
(12:01):
All right.
Up in Virginia, you know, again,
eight or nine years up there.
can't remember exactly how long it was, but ah every place is just so different.
And I thought that inspecting in Florida would be much more simple just because, hey, wegot him back.
There he is.
ah Now, Kristian, I was just saying, you know, it's neat what you find between differentplaces of the country.
I really am kind of still learning some things about the Florida market that where Ithought it would be much more simple down here just because you don't have basements.
(12:30):
Everything is slab above grade.
Um, not always the case.
And, uh, I don't know if you guys do wind mitigation inspections, uh, up on your side ofhurricane alley, but, it's something that I got called for this past week, uh, insurance
agent I'm friends with, need one done.
And, uh, you know, I was looking at pictures and she goes, yeah, I think they got solarpanels.
hate solar panels and go back.
(12:52):
We talked about solar in a previous episode, but, uh, I get up on the roof.
It was not solar at all.
it was actually a hydronic uh solar pool heating system where basically it's just verythin piping with connected to a manifold at the top and the bottom.
It almost looked like a solar panel from a distance, but basically the pool pump will sendit through the filter and then up to this manifold where it will trickle down very slowly.
(13:24):
and get heated by the sun and this thin black tubing and then run back down to the pool.
And it wasn't a huge pool.
I looked at the cost, it means maybe a few thousand bucks to install.
But for a moderately sized, a small to moderately sized pool, it made so much sensebecause it's like, why do you want to pay for another heat pump?
(13:44):
Why do you want to pay for a gas furnace to heat your pool when you can just do it thisway, one and done, and so long as you don't have a hurricane that comes along and mess
things up.
then you've got a fairly consistent source of heated water to keep it pretty livable.
You can keep that pool open through the winter down here.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Certainly uncommon.
I haven't ever seen anything like that.
But although I've seen some like solar, like water heater situations, I've seen that likevery, very rarely, but I've come across something like that before, but not the pool.
(14:17):
Yeah.
is what it is.
Much more simplified version of it.
yeah, hey, always learn it, man.
We're always learning.
But there's another thing, another way that we could take this thing too, guys, which isthat ah since we're always learning, we're always adding to the toolkit, right?
And I want to talk to you guys, especially Kristian, you do a lot of mold inspections aswell in your neck of the woods, correct?
(14:41):
Is that kind of one of your specialties?
uh
is.
Yeah, tell me a little bit about that and how you added that to your scope of work.
Because that's what I really want to get into is how we define our scope of work asinspectors.
So a mold inspection, at least in our area, is not actually considered part of ourstandard of practice.
(15:03):
So we will notate things uh that have the appearance of suspected organic growth, right?
We can't call it mold unless it's tested.
But a mold inspection will be done separately, separate contracts, separate scope,separate terms.
And that way it doesn't fall under our standards of practice.
(15:26):
Yeah, I started that a couple years ago almost the same time that I started homeinspections um It's been a I can't really call it an ancillary service.
That's that is my primary source of income um and so it's been It's been a great uhlearning experience um especially the more uh The more you do it the more you learn the
(15:50):
more you understand what to look for
um And the more you can help your clients, you know because some of them are spending allkinds of money scratching their head trying to figure out why they're having an issue and
we're able to help them.
And so it's very satisfying.
So out there where you're at, it does require a completely separate license to inspectfrom old.
(16:13):
Um, actually no, uh, in Louisiana mold inspectors are not licensed.
Um, you, uh, it has a very low bar for the state of Louisiana, uh, for mold inspecting.
Now obviously remediation, you know, is a different story.
You have to be licensed and insured.
Now, um, I am very heavily certified in the state of Louisiana for mold.
(16:38):
Um, and, uh, so I went through LSU.
through programs that they have there where they certify you and you're taught directly bya uh microbiologist and a mycologist.
um And then I've gathered many other certifications to make sure that uh I'm giving myclients a good product.
(16:59):
And in a few weeks, I'll be able to challenge the test for the board certified indoorenvironmentalist.
And so that will be a very large piece of uh
uh peace of mind for my clients that they're getting somebody who knows what they'redoing, knows what to look for, and can help them complete a project from start to finish
(17:24):
as far as giving direction to the remediation company, giving direction on what to lookfor, what chemicals to use, what methods to use uh to be able to successfully get them
back to a normal fungal ecology.
Now that's awesome man and again that's your your normal gosh that's where you're makingmost of your money.
So that's fantastic but when did you kind of realize that that was going to be the biggestdifferentiator in your business.
(17:49):
first six months of even being in business.
So ah I say the first six months, the first six months of consistent work.
So I got licensed in as a home inspector in September or October of 2022, I believe it is.
So, I mean, it's not licensed in our state, but so you definitely have to make sure thatyou're getting somebody who is very qualified for what they do.
(18:17):
uh So my professor, the person who taught me is one of the top uh expert witnesses in notjust Louisiana, but really across the nation for mold inspecting, but also, you know,
things to look for philosophies.
You know, there's not all mold inspectors are the same.
(18:39):
Um, you know, yeah, some of them, uh, it's just, you know, call it like it is.
You know, some of them are have unethical practices, you know?
And so you hear that you hear that I hear that every week.
That's the biggest concern that, uh, my clients have is, um, the horror stories they hearabout mold remediation companies and, and mold testers.
(19:03):
So.
uh You definitely have to make sure that you bring and exude confidence and trustabilityto your clients.
These horror stories you talk about, that like people that maybe had a mold inspection orthese, they had a mold inspector out, but they recommended a whole bunch of remediation
(19:24):
that maybe wasn't necessary because of some feedback they're the remediation company or isthat what you're talking about?
oh
Yes.
So, um, the biggest conflict you'll have out here, which is, um, something that you're notsupposed to do.
And of course they legally try to find ways around it is let's say the inspector is, hashis own mold inspection company and his wife just so happens to run a remediation company.
(19:54):
And so that is convenient, right?
Um,
dink.
as luck would have it.
And so they obviously they trade work back and forth and there's a clear conflict ofinterest there.
As far as the inspector side, uh you do have some inspection companies, uh ones that areused quite a bit, who will take a single air sample and walk around an entire house with
(20:20):
it and collect air out of the entire house and pass that off as a mold inspection.
Right.
So traditionally,
the way it's done.
Depending on the openness, if there's an open floor plan or if it's an older style homewhere you've got lots of hallways and twists and turns, if it's an older home, you
(20:40):
generally want to stay somewhere between the five to 700 square feet per air sample range.
And if it's a large open floor plan, you could very reasonably get away with 800 to 1000square feet per sample.
But the idea is you want to break the house down into segments.
Right?
So if one segment has extensive mold in it in the air, then you're able to narrow yourfocus down to that one spot.
(21:06):
And so what some of these other companies will do, they will walk through with a singlesample, they'll find something.
And now you have no idea where it came from in the house.
And so that incentivizes them to be able to come back and charge a client again to do amore focused inspection, ah which they should have done in the first place.
(21:26):
So yeah, these are
These are some of the things that the clients hear about.
And some of the times it's some things that are actually done to them.
So it's not just rumor or speculation.
These are things that I've personally in last two weeks heard about from a client whoreached out to me for a different mold inspection.
(21:48):
Man, that's nuts.
So this is where, you know, it does benefit to have licensure, right?
Like for the state of Florida, ah mold inspections have to be done.
Like Ryan Wall, who we had on the show previously, he's now licensed for mold as well, Ibelieve.
ah You know, Ryan, correct me if I'm wrong at that, but I'm pretty sure you said on yoursite that you are.
ah But anyway, that's kind of the different process down here.
(22:12):
I don't hate that, right?
Because again, there's...
There are things there that protect the consumer, right?
And it weeds out some of these people who are going to mess the industry up for perfectlyexceptional inspectors like yourself, who are going to go through and actually look out
for the good of the homeowner.
Well, and also like if you're licensed, then they're probably going to have some sort ofcode of ethics that they have to follow, which would eliminate, you know, the people that
(22:37):
you were talking about, or at least to some degree it would.
But, know, I want to talk about in getting prepared for the show.
We were talking to Kristian about, you know, some upcoming work you have, and you have arather large mold inspection this week, I believe.
Yes I do.
The details are still being finalized but it's somewhere around 75,000 square feet.
(23:00):
It's a rather small inspection.
Yeah, yeah.
yeah, it's a little tiny.
uh Yeah, it's.
start asking questions about this, be honest with you.
Like, I don't know how you even go about it.
I don't know how you go about pricing it.
How do you break it down?
Like give me, give me the cliff notes on this massive structure.
(23:21):
it depends on what function you're going to serve, right?
So I can do the inspections and the assessment, but those two things aren't necessarilydone with the same price point, right?
So if I'm going to come in and just do a basic inspection, typically with these types ofbuildings, it's narrow hallways.
(23:42):
It's, you know, eight, eight and a half, nine foot ceilings.
So.
you know, they're dropped tiles, a lot uh of these types of inspections.
So it does introduce a different dynamic um because you want to sample indoor conditionedair, right?
You don't want to sample outdoor, unconditioned air.
(24:04):
um And so with these older buildings, they're very leaky, right?
So you have to pay attention to that and just make notes.
um But the basics of it, something like this, if you were going to do the assessment,
The first thing you have to do is figure out where they're getting the problem from.
You you do your initial air sampling and swab sampling or tape lifts or what have you,just to get a baseline.
(24:30):
But the purpose of the mold inspection is not just to get the fungal ecology of that spaceor of that room, but also to find out where the moisture is coming from.
Right?
So if you are going to do the assessment and
create the scope of work for the remediation company, then you'll have to have a firmgrasp on the condition of the building envelope.
(24:57):
You'll have to have a firm grasp on where the moisture problems are and have a way toeliminate those.
If you don't eliminate those, there's no point in starting any kind of remedial workwhatsoever.
That has to be addressed first before you can start that process.
um
And so it is a long and drawn out process.
(25:18):
is uh time consuming and it does take foresight, but uh it's something that can prettyeasily be done.
I mean, the difference between a large project and a small project is simply time, right?
The principles and the aspects to get from point A to point B are still the same.
so Kristian, when you're, when you're doing a property this size, first of all, it bringsup a couple of questions into my mind.
(25:43):
Number one, if there's no licensing board in Louisiana for mold, ah who establishes thestandard of practice for a mold inspection?
Is that InterNACHI or how do you come about that?
So the EPA has guidelines, The CRC the cleaning residential code.
There are a lot of different regulatory boards that are national, CESB, that speak on bestpractices.
(26:12):
But then you have opposing philosophies.
So this is where it gets kind of murky.
you have um the ICRC and then you have other philosophies such as NORME.
And the very, very basic uh differences on the cleanup.
But um your standard mold inspection remediation process is going to be testing, find outwhat your ecology is, fix the problem.
(26:41):
And then you have to, obviously in fixing that problem, you have to remove those moldspores.
You have to get those four counts down.
um You know, it's interesting, the second edition of the bio aerosols remediation andcontrol is an interesting point it makes where it says that the spores viability, so
(27:02):
whether it's alive or dead, can propagate or not, does not in any way affect its toxicity.
um And so
it could be completely dead um and still have many of the same health effects to theperson.
um with regards to a large building, that's very difficult to get a good control of thebuilding envelope.
(27:25):
I mean, in this case, it's two buildings, it's multiple floors.
um It's just tens of thousands of square feet, right?
um It's an older building, right?
You still have a lot of asbestos in there.
You still have a lot of lead-based products.
oh And so it's definitely a process.
Sure, yeah.
(27:46):
Now, when it comes to determining your standards, which did you go off of when you weresetting it up?
CRC or?
Yeah, I mean, you know, you always want to go with the most stringent when health concernsare involved.
In my opinion, obviously, now I'm not an authority on that, but you know, you always wantto realize why you're there.
(28:09):
You know, you're not there just to get paid.
You're not there to solve a problem.
You're there to, or to remediate rather, you know, you're there because likely someone'sfeeling sick.
Right.
You're there because likely someone is not feeling well.
Um, and so if you look at two different methodologies and one of them is more stringentand would lead to a, maybe a better health outcome and one of them is less stringent, you
(28:38):
would always, in my opinion, you would want to lean towards the, the more stringent of thetwo.
You know, you're talking about healthy people being healthy or people being sick.
And that reminds me of uh your line of work prior to inspecting.
You had something kind of interesting going on before you got into the inspection field,did you not?
(28:59):
Yeah, so many, years ago, many moons ago, I was an EMT with Acadian Ambulance.
And so I've seen, uh unfortunately, a lot of a lot of carnage, a lot of uh lot of thingsthat uh and some of which relate directly to the things I now expect.
(29:20):
You know, it didn't happen often, but, you know, I did happen upon a few deck failures,right?
broken bones and cervical spine damage and issues.
And some people ending up with paralysis, others with paresis, which is like a uh loss offull strength either on one or both sides of your body hemispherically, either left or
(29:50):
right.
I've seen uh people that have been shocked.
I never came across anybody that got electrocuted, right?
So there is a difference.
oh But you know, it's many of the things that we deal with and many of the things thatmaybe you get pushed back on on your reports.
(30:11):
Where people tell you, oh, it's not that big of a deal.
Well, I've been on the other end of that out of the inspection field and it is a big deal.
So.
a big deal until it happens to you, you know.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
what was the title for when you are over the condition where you lose strength on bothsides of your body?
(30:32):
So it's something called paresis.
So yeah, paresis.
Yeah, so the Cliff Notes on it is basically, you have some movement on that side, but youare weakened to a noticeable degree, right?
so you're dealing with some, some very serious health issues there, which makes sense forwhy you want to go with a beefed up standard of practice for sure.
(30:58):
ah Now tool wise, I mean, do you, do you find that it's advantageous to continue to
add to what you have to offer to clients in terms of exceeding the basic standard for amold inspection?
And at what point do you uh kind of cap that where it's like, at the same time, you don'tnecessarily need all of these excessive things in order to do the basic job that they're
(31:24):
tasking me with, which is evaluating the condition of this environment.
I mean, everybody's different, but personally, I feel like your first tools that youshould use are your eyes.
Right.
We should use the visual.
It is a visual inspection.
Right.
You know, it, doesn't do anybody that good to go dig through a 40 or 50 year old home toomuch.
(31:52):
Like no house is perfect.
No house is going to have everything functioning correctly, but we are there as homeinspectors to observe function and safety.
Right.
So function and safety is what we focus on.
Now you can go overboard.
Right.
So I think I've talked to Matt about this before and other other inspectors where let'ssay you're using a thermal camera, right?
(32:13):
A thermal camera uh looks at the something that's either hot or cold.
So it displays it in many different colors.
Right.
But typically something that's cold is blue and something that's hot is more orange orred.
Now, evaporative cooling from something like a leak is going to draw that heat away, soit's going to show up as blue.
(32:37):
However, it's not always as cut and dry.
So there are times where I've had a wall that's completely saturated and it does not showup on thermal.
And so it's reached the same temperature as the room now, right?
So it blends in with the rest of the room.
And so there are some dangers with relying solely on your tools.
(32:59):
ah You do have
to know what you're working with and know your tools for sure.
And I mean, I've said, I've made videos on this tons of times where I say, you know, thefirst tools we need to walk in with our eyes and our brain, you have to look and you have
to think, right?
And you have to think about that same stuff whenever you're using the tools, you just haveto use your eyes and your brain when you're using the tool as well.
I mean, without the tool, you have to do that for sure.
(33:21):
That's your first, the first thing that you should be using.
But even when you're using your tool, the tools and the specialized tools that we have,
You still have to think about things, look at things, you know, with the knowledge of, youknow, and the experience that we have to know what you're looking at.
Because like you said, you look at something and it just because it's one temperaturedoesn't mean just because it's blue doesn't mean that it's wet.
(33:47):
That just means that it's cold.
And so you got to you got to be able to know where these problems might exist and thinkabout it think about what you're seeing and verify that kind of stuff.
Anyway, picking up on your land.
said was that the tools should be the seasoning and not the meal.
Right?
So the tools should be used to add emphasis to your inspection, but they should not besolely relied on.
(34:11):
Look, I love Tony Sacheris and hot sauce like the rest of us, but I'm not going to takeshots of Tony's or take shots of hot sauce.
They add flavor to the report.
They add flavor to the meal.
but they should not be relied on as the basis of your report.
Now I hear that, but at the same time, like everything, you gotta season, man.
(34:33):
You gotta use some seasoning.
And there's some of you out there that don't, and you need to come to New Orleans nextyear, or I'm sorry, in September to find out what season is all about because they some
good cooking down there.
ah Just to write them out a seasoning.
I mean, I think, you know, you have to figure out like, I know we're talking aboutseasoning.
we talking about tools or we're talking about inspection report?
(34:54):
But in terms of the seasoning in the report, I mean, I do think that you need to figureout where you're going to draw the line in terms of how much, you know, tools and tech
you're going to bring in because, know, at least in huge or in Texas, the the Texas realestate commission and the standards of practice that we go by says that we do not have to
(35:14):
use special.
But I can't imagine doing a home inspection without my thermal camera.
I wouldn't do it.
So Kristian, here's another thing, getting back to standards of practice.
How much of the level to which you exceed basic standards for a mold inspection, how muchof it is actually determined by your competition and what they're doing?
(35:37):
You know, obviously you do want to uh take a look at what the um the tools thateverybody's using, right?
You do want to have what you need to service your clients.
But as far as I mean, I was just asked this today.
I was asked uh for a different project if I knew two other mold inspectors um that I couldrecommend for the bidding process.
(36:05):
And I can only think of one.
Like I really don't know a lot of mold inspectors, ironically, in Louisiana with tons ofmold.
I really don't know a lot of other mold inspectors in my area.
So as far as what equipment they use, um I really rely heavily on the instruction from myprofessor from Bill Fahini um to know whether I'm kind of going the right direction or the
(36:27):
wrong direction, things I should be using, methods, techniques, know, things like that.
But
um As far as as that relates to the home inspection to the standards of practice um Atthis point, I've got a whole different contract.
I've got a whole different I'm no longer under the standards of practice whenever I'mdoing my mold inspections So I don't really have to worry about that per se um But uh you
(36:53):
know Oddly enough for the inspection side.
There's really not there's really not a tremendous amount of liability by the time theycall you
They already have a problem.
They already have a problem.
So all you're there to do is give them a 10 minute snapshot.
Right?
So the amount of time I generally run my samples is 10 minutes,
(37:17):
Now definitely, we want to hear from you guys that are listening here as well.
Truly, like, where do you guys draw the line as far as uh the inspection standards ofpractice or if you're in mold, you know, what standards of practice do you go by if your
state's licensed, right?
I know Florida licensed other states not necessarily so much, but how do you choose thatline to where you exceed it uh or where you just do the minimum if you're one that just
(37:41):
prefers to kind of.
not make it any fancier than it necessarily needs to be.
We want to know where you guys cap it at.
And we want to know what's in your tool bag too.
That's a fun thing to talk about.
So sound off in the comments.
Let us know what you're carrying with you.
And let us know the coolest thing that you have picked up and added to your toolkit thisyear, because we're all looking and learning and trying to figure out what's the next fun
(38:04):
gadget that we need, an expensable item for next year's returns, right?
For next year's write-offs.
mean, as much as I don't really like use a whole bunch of gadgety stuff, I am awfullyinterested in, you know, the latest and greatest new toys and tools.
absolutely, man.
Absolutely.
Well, Kristian, it's been awesome talking with you, man.
(38:25):
I'm excited for for getting the the band together in New Orleans.
It's gonna be fun, proverbially speaking.
I look forward to it.
I love being on stage.
You know, love being with guys like yourselves and uh playing some good music and, youknow, uh you know, it'll be fun.
Let's let's make let's try to I know one of you one of you high powered inspectors knowssomebody who knows somebody who can make this thing happen.
(38:52):
So uh I'm dependent.
I'm dependent on you guys.
either way, there's gonna be good times to be had in New Orleans for inspection fuel forsure.
So I'm looking forward to seeing you there and you too, Brad, for sure.
But yeah, we'll all get together no matter what.
It's gonna be a good time.
Yep, definitely sign up guys.
The link's going to be down in the description.
So until next time, we'll see you right back here, right on the run along.
Another freaking week, another episode here of the Ride Along with my co-host, Mr.
Matt Brading out in Houston with Texas Edge and Spec.
How's it going, buddy?
what's up?
ah It's going well.
It's going very well, but very busy lately.
Dude, this is good.
Spring Market, it's rolling along.
You've been busy.
That's awesome.
guy started a new a new guy started with me today.
(00:30):
New inspector.
Yeah.
He did OK.
He's right now.
He's just kind of walking around with me, you know, but in upcoming weeks and you knowhe'll he'll slowly get more and more, you know, things that he's doing and get his hands
on more stuff.
More hands on type training right now.
He's just kind of shadowing, but will increases his workload coming up in the upcomingweeks.
(00:53):
his workload increases as his liability decreases.
It's based on how it works, right?
You do now.
So what do you do for like when you're training somebody, is he just carrying the ladderopen in the windows, running the faucets, things like that?
Like, what do you have them doing?
uh carrying a ladder is a huge thing, by the way.
But so yeah, he has actually done some ladder carrying, but for the most part, right now,he's just walking.
(01:17):
This was his first inspection.
He did do a ride along with me.
uh We're on the ride along, but another, you know, an actual ride along.
He did a ride along with me a couple of weeks ago or something like that, just to kind ofsee if we wanted to do this.
And it worked fine.
And so we said, okay, so right now he's just in the shadowing phase.
There's more watching.
Yes, some ladder carrying or it might be like hey girl, we see it reset that GFC I but Iwould imagine that by the end of the week He'll be doing some stuff to kind of help out
(01:45):
the inspection process And that way he's doing a little hands-on and a little learning atthe same time
Dude, I love it.
And we've actually got somebody uh riding along figuratively speaking with us today.
But he is no stranger to the home inspection industry.
In fact, this guy is one of the best there is out of freaking Louisiana, EasternLouisiana.
(02:05):
Mr.
Kristian Geiger, how you doing bud?
I'm doing great man, how are you guys doing?
Wonderful man.
I'm just I'm glad you're here.
We've we follow each other on social media for a minute.
So I'm glad that we've got you on the show because inspecting in in in LA as you are isgot to be fascinating that I mean, the termites that you guys deal with the just the
(02:26):
different terrain and part of the Gulf that you guys are on.
It's very unique.
Yeah, it is.
mean alluvial soil always leads to a little bit more foundation issues.
We don't really have any bedrock that you have to deal with, I believe, in your neck ofthe woods.
(02:47):
But yeah, Formosans are pretty big out here, Formosan termites.
So it's always something that you have to watch out for.
Yeah, definitely man.
So yeah, yeah, Matt's out of Houston.
I'm out of Tampa Bay, Florida area.
We don't have rock.
We just have sand over here.
Yeah, it's a whole lot of sand.
Yeah, we don't need base.
you probably dealt with bedrock a lot more.
(03:07):
Yeah, no, definitely.
And that's actually something I want to get into.
before we before we talk, usually, you know, we'll start the show like I'll ask Matt,like, what's something interesting that he's seen in the field this week?
ah But, you know, since this is mainly because, you know, we've had some reallyinteresting characters on the on the show recently, if you haven't caught up, go back,
(03:27):
watch the episode with Jesse Hernandez, watch episode with Brian Wall.
uh We've talked everything from AI to insurance adjustment.
Um, all kinds of cool stuff, things that intersect with our industry without always justbeing strictly about our industry.
But today it's, it's inspection heavy baby.
And, uh, so we're going to, we're going to talk a little bit about what we've seen thisweek, but before we do that, of course we got to plug inspection fuel cause that's coming
(03:52):
up.
I'm going to be a September eight through the 10th in NOLA over in a Kristian neck of thewoods which you going to be there, bud?
absolutely, tickets are already purchased.
I will be there.
Look forward to seeing you guys.
Dude, this is actually going to be cool because Matt, you know, we've all got something incommon on here.
And I feel like maybe we need to lobby ah Dave Kogan at porch to maybe be the featuredentertainment of inspection fuel because uh we all play music.
(04:19):
We all do have a musical background.
do indeed.
I used to play guitar for many years and a little bit of singing.
Brad, you got a little guitar and I believe you slap it at bass, as they say.
And Kristian, you...
yeah, so I sang for many years.
(04:40):
toured the country, played South by Southwest.
So it's many moons ago, but you know, guitarist, play every day, you're a singer, you singevery day.
So, I mean, you still keep your chops sharpened as it were.
I'm sure it's like riding a bike.
Okay, so we've got the home inspection band.
There's another inspector we were just talking about plays drums.
(05:01):
So mean, we've got we got a four piece band ready to rock, man.
And, you know, look, the chili peppers pull it off with what three, so for see, there yougo.
We got this guy's.
ah Hey, sound off in the comments.
If you want to hear Matt sing, uh you know, if he's if he's really bad, then just juststand there and just be like, it's not supposed to do that.
(05:23):
We'll just hand the mic to Kristian because he's a singer.
Yeah, that's it.
He'll take over.
Alright, so drink of the day.
Guys, what are we sipping on?
On Cinco de Mayo.
Kristian, what you got?
Well, Cinco de Mayo, have got tequila.
Dude, that's the proper thing to do.
But what is in there?
(05:45):
Is that just a whole tumbler of freaking tequila?
Yes, it's about, well, no, no, no, no.
Look, we are trying to get through the show, right?
No, uh I do have some sprite in here to kind of tame it down a little bit.
I gotta stay focused with you guys.
(06:06):
I love it, man.
What are you sipping on,
Tequila.
Just kidding.
It is though.
It is.
I got a ranch water.
I don't have stuff for margaritas, so I got a little lime flavored liquid death, some salton the rim and some tequila.
(06:28):
So, is.
I'm a liquid death fan.
Dude, I will have to check it out, man.
I am just, cheating guys.
Like I'm just sipping on a nooner.
And I honestly don't care just because uh yesterday was the final day of Country Thunderhere in the Tampa Bay area.
And I did good to wake up this morning.
(06:54):
I tied one on just a little bit.
And so I'm keeping it, I'm keeping it as light as possible for this episode while stillhonoring the segment, you know, try to do anyway.
But, um, but now, now that we got our something to sip on here, uh, I want to go aroundthe horn and talk about, what we have seen in the field because it's been an interesting
week for those of you that, that don't follow Matt, definitely go follow them.
(07:15):
Kristian, where can they follow you at first of all?
You can follow me anywhere, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, everywhere.
I'll follow you anywhere, Kristian.
Wherever you will go throwing it back to the 2000s.
yeah.
So, uh, but no, go follow them because I mean, like we talk about, uh, one of the bestthings about the home inspection industry.
(07:40):
It's like, feel like we were all down to like call our buddies.
It's like, dude, you wouldn't believe this thing that I saw.
or I just saw the wildest thing today.
You wouldn't believe this agent or you know, is it like we tell stories and that oftentranslates onto social media for the content creators.
So go follow those guys so you can pay attention to the stories throughout the week.
But Matt, you have seen some pretty cool stuff and you had a little bit of a war.
(08:02):
I did.
did.
Yeah.
So today I was um coming out of a closet.
This was an occupied house.
They had like a under stair storage inside the closet.
And I saw I was trying to get back there and make sure there was nothing going on backover there.
But I had to like make my way out of it through like their clothing and everything.
I was wearing my meta glasses here.
So this is what I looked like.
(08:23):
Like I had these on.
And as I came out, there was a door that was open and I hit the door and it smashed my earbetween.
the door and my metaglacid and it cut my ear open very, very small little work relatedinjury.
I think I'm going to live guys.
But it did bleed though.
(08:44):
It did bleed.
I was a bleeder.
And so yeah, I had to kind of walk around with a paper towel on my ear for a while, I'mgoing to make it.
I'm going live.
There's plenty of other guys that have had big pillowy coverings on their ears afterthey've been wounded.
look, you could probably run for president next, is all I'm saying.
(09:07):
The guy's an impressionist, I didn't even know.
Some say it was just the baddest wound that they've ever seen on an inspection job site.
can't even touch that.
I can't even touch that.
But yeah, I got a small injury on my ear.
What did you see this week, Kristian?
What's the coolest thing that you've run into in the field?
Man, this week uh I would have to say, yeah.
(09:37):
Well, this week and last week has been pretty heavy with focusing more on the moldinspections.
And the interesting thing this week was actually kind of sad.
I haven't run into this before doing a trailer inspection and uh
I found a baby, not sure if it was a baby rat or a baby squirrel in the drain and themother was nowhere to be found.
(10:06):
So I had to make a pretty hard decision.
you know, it's either let it starve to death or, know, kind of quickly, you know, do whatyou got to do.
So I had not run into that before.
Thankfully, not too many.
I've never ran into a snake under a crawl space.
I've never ran into wild animals or anything like that.
(10:28):
ah But that was pretty interesting and pretty gross.
this video.
You put that out on the video.
saw this video of you in this baby creature.
Now you very cleverly made a video that was actually very successful for you.
Am I, am I mistaken with that?
No, yeah, it's done pretty well.
(10:50):
uh Well, look, in hindsight, even my wife was like, look, you cut it off face in thetoilet for a reason.
That's why everybody thinks I flushed the thing.
But I did not, I'll set the record straight right here, I did not flush it.
You know, I'm not that cruel.
But um it's
(11:16):
Hold on.
done fairly well.
The video's done fairly well.
think it's just a hair over two million uh between Facebook and Instagram.
Well, Kristian, let's give it a minute for your camera to catch up there.
I think it's something something kind of froze on you.
uh Well, while that's.
both frozen on my end.
Oop, and he's gone.
(11:36):
And he's gone.
You know, we've never had this happen on air before.
Now I feel like this is actual radio, you know, it's like that caller that that long timecaller first time listener that, you know, shows up when I think that's the other way
around.
Yeah.
But anyway, okay.
Well, I got a little something too, man, while we're waiting for him to come back onlinehere.
uh So yeah, no.
So okay, when it's, it's awesome to be moving between different locations.
(12:01):
All right.
Up in Virginia, you know, again,
eight or nine years up there.
can't remember exactly how long it was, but ah every place is just so different.
And I thought that inspecting in Florida would be much more simple just because, hey, wegot him back.
There he is.
ah Now, Kristian, I was just saying, you know, it's neat what you find between differentplaces of the country.
I really am kind of still learning some things about the Florida market that where Ithought it would be much more simple down here just because you don't have basements.
(12:30):
Everything is slab above grade.
Um, not always the case.
And, uh, I don't know if you guys do wind mitigation inspections, uh, up on your side ofhurricane alley, but, it's something that I got called for this past week, uh, insurance
agent I'm friends with, need one done.
And, uh, you know, I was looking at pictures and she goes, yeah, I think they got solarpanels.
hate solar panels and go back.
(12:52):
We talked about solar in a previous episode, but, uh, I get up on the roof.
It was not solar at all.
it was actually a hydronic uh solar pool heating system where basically it's just verythin piping with connected to a manifold at the top and the bottom.
It almost looked like a solar panel from a distance, but basically the pool pump will sendit through the filter and then up to this manifold where it will trickle down very slowly.
(13:24):
and get heated by the sun and this thin black tubing and then run back down to the pool.
And it wasn't a huge pool.
I looked at the cost, it means maybe a few thousand bucks to install.
But for a moderately sized, a small to moderately sized pool, it made so much sensebecause it's like, why do you want to pay for another heat pump?
(13:44):
Why do you want to pay for a gas furnace to heat your pool when you can just do it thisway, one and done, and so long as you don't have a hurricane that comes along and mess
things up.
then you've got a fairly consistent source of heated water to keep it pretty livable.
You can keep that pool open through the winter down here.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Certainly uncommon.
I haven't ever seen anything like that.
But although I've seen some like solar, like water heater situations, I've seen that likevery, very rarely, but I've come across something like that before, but not the pool.
(14:17):
Yeah.
is what it is.
Much more simplified version of it.
yeah, hey, always learn it, man.
We're always learning.
But there's another thing, another way that we could take this thing too, guys, which isthat ah since we're always learning, we're always adding to the toolkit, right?
And I want to talk to you guys, especially Kristian, you do a lot of mold inspections aswell in your neck of the woods, correct?
(14:41):
Is that kind of one of your specialties?
uh
is.
Yeah, tell me a little bit about that and how you added that to your scope of work.
Because that's what I really want to get into is how we define our scope of work asinspectors.
So a mold inspection, at least in our area, is not actually considered part of ourstandard of practice.
(15:03):
So we will notate things uh that have the appearance of suspected organic growth, right?
We can't call it mold unless it's tested.
But a mold inspection will be done separately, separate contracts, separate scope,separate terms.
And that way it doesn't fall under our standards of practice.
(15:26):
Yeah, I started that a couple years ago almost the same time that I started homeinspections um It's been a I can't really call it an ancillary service.
That's that is my primary source of income um and so it's been It's been a great uhlearning experience um especially the more uh The more you do it the more you learn the
(15:50):
more you understand what to look for
um And the more you can help your clients, you know because some of them are spending allkinds of money scratching their head trying to figure out why they're having an issue and
we're able to help them.
And so it's very satisfying.
So out there where you're at, it does require a completely separate license to inspectfrom old.
(16:13):
Um, actually no, uh, in Louisiana mold inspectors are not licensed.
Um, you, uh, it has a very low bar for the state of Louisiana, uh, for mold inspecting.
Now obviously remediation, you know, is a different story.
You have to be licensed and insured.
Now, um, I am very heavily certified in the state of Louisiana for mold.
(16:38):
Um, and, uh, so I went through LSU.
through programs that they have there where they certify you and you're taught directly bya uh microbiologist and a mycologist.
um And then I've gathered many other certifications to make sure that uh I'm giving myclients a good product.
(16:59):
And in a few weeks, I'll be able to challenge the test for the board certified indoorenvironmentalist.
And so that will be a very large piece of uh
uh peace of mind for my clients that they're getting somebody who knows what they'redoing, knows what to look for, and can help them complete a project from start to finish
(17:24):
as far as giving direction to the remediation company, giving direction on what to lookfor, what chemicals to use, what methods to use uh to be able to successfully get them
back to a normal fungal ecology.
Now that's awesome man and again that's your your normal gosh that's where you're makingmost of your money.
So that's fantastic but when did you kind of realize that that was going to be the biggestdifferentiator in your business.
(17:49):
first six months of even being in business.
So ah I say the first six months, the first six months of consistent work.
So I got licensed in as a home inspector in September or October of 2022, I believe it is.
So, I mean, it's not licensed in our state, but so you definitely have to make sure thatyou're getting somebody who is very qualified for what they do.
(18:17):
uh So my professor, the person who taught me is one of the top uh expert witnesses in notjust Louisiana, but really across the nation for mold inspecting, but also, you know,
things to look for philosophies.
You know, there's not all mold inspectors are the same.
(18:39):
Um, you know, yeah, some of them, uh, it's just, you know, call it like it is.
You know, some of them are have unethical practices, you know?
And so you hear that you hear that I hear that every week.
That's the biggest concern that, uh, my clients have is, um, the horror stories they hearabout mold remediation companies and, and mold testers.
(19:03):
So.
uh You definitely have to make sure that you bring and exude confidence and trustabilityto your clients.
These horror stories you talk about, that like people that maybe had a mold inspection orthese, they had a mold inspector out, but they recommended a whole bunch of remediation
(19:24):
that maybe wasn't necessary because of some feedback they're the remediation company or isthat what you're talking about?
oh
Yes.
So, um, the biggest conflict you'll have out here, which is, um, something that you're notsupposed to do.
And of course they legally try to find ways around it is let's say the inspector is, hashis own mold inspection company and his wife just so happens to run a remediation company.
(19:54):
And so that is convenient, right?
Um,
dink.
as luck would have it.
And so they obviously they trade work back and forth and there's a clear conflict ofinterest there.
As far as the inspector side, uh you do have some inspection companies, uh ones that areused quite a bit, who will take a single air sample and walk around an entire house with
(20:20):
it and collect air out of the entire house and pass that off as a mold inspection.
Right.
So traditionally,
the way it's done.
Depending on the openness, if there's an open floor plan or if it's an older style homewhere you've got lots of hallways and twists and turns, if it's an older home, you
(20:40):
generally want to stay somewhere between the five to 700 square feet per air sample range.
And if it's a large open floor plan, you could very reasonably get away with 800 to 1000square feet per sample.
But the idea is you want to break the house down into segments.
Right?
So if one segment has extensive mold in it in the air, then you're able to narrow yourfocus down to that one spot.
(21:06):
And so what some of these other companies will do, they will walk through with a singlesample, they'll find something.
And now you have no idea where it came from in the house.
And so that incentivizes them to be able to come back and charge a client again to do amore focused inspection, ah which they should have done in the first place.
(21:26):
So yeah, these are
These are some of the things that the clients hear about.
And some of the times it's some things that are actually done to them.
So it's not just rumor or speculation.
These are things that I've personally in last two weeks heard about from a client whoreached out to me for a different mold inspection.
(21:48):
Man, that's nuts.
So this is where, you know, it does benefit to have licensure, right?
Like for the state of Florida, ah mold inspections have to be done.
Like Ryan Wall, who we had on the show previously, he's now licensed for mold as well, Ibelieve.
ah You know, Ryan, correct me if I'm wrong at that, but I'm pretty sure you said on yoursite that you are.
ah But anyway, that's kind of the different process down here.
(22:12):
I don't hate that, right?
Because again, there's...
There are things there that protect the consumer, right?
And it weeds out some of these people who are going to mess the industry up for perfectlyexceptional inspectors like yourself, who are going to go through and actually look out
for the good of the homeowner.
Well, and also like if you're licensed, then they're probably going to have some sort ofcode of ethics that they have to follow, which would eliminate, you know, the people that
(22:37):
you were talking about, or at least to some degree it would.
But, know, I want to talk about in getting prepared for the show.
We were talking to Kristian about, you know, some upcoming work you have, and you have arather large mold inspection this week, I believe.
Yes I do.
The details are still being finalized but it's somewhere around 75,000 square feet.
(23:00):
It's a rather small inspection.
Yeah, yeah.
yeah, it's a little tiny.
uh Yeah, it's.
start asking questions about this, be honest with you.
Like, I don't know how you even go about it.
I don't know how you go about pricing it.
How do you break it down?
Like give me, give me the cliff notes on this massive structure.
(23:21):
it depends on what function you're going to serve, right?
So I can do the inspections and the assessment, but those two things aren't necessarilydone with the same price point, right?
So if I'm going to come in and just do a basic inspection, typically with these types ofbuildings, it's narrow hallways.
(23:42):
It's, you know, eight, eight and a half, nine foot ceilings.
So.
you know, they're dropped tiles, a lot uh of these types of inspections.
So it does introduce a different dynamic um because you want to sample indoor conditionedair, right?
You don't want to sample outdoor, unconditioned air.
(24:04):
um And so with these older buildings, they're very leaky, right?
So you have to pay attention to that and just make notes.
um But the basics of it, something like this, if you were going to do the assessment,
The first thing you have to do is figure out where they're getting the problem from.
You you do your initial air sampling and swab sampling or tape lifts or what have you,just to get a baseline.
(24:30):
But the purpose of the mold inspection is not just to get the fungal ecology of that spaceor of that room, but also to find out where the moisture is coming from.
Right?
So if you are going to do the assessment and
create the scope of work for the remediation company, then you'll have to have a firmgrasp on the condition of the building envelope.
(24:57):
You'll have to have a firm grasp on where the moisture problems are and have a way toeliminate those.
If you don't eliminate those, there's no point in starting any kind of remedial workwhatsoever.
That has to be addressed first before you can start that process.
um
And so it is a long and drawn out process.
(25:18):
is uh time consuming and it does take foresight, but uh it's something that can prettyeasily be done.
I mean, the difference between a large project and a small project is simply time, right?
The principles and the aspects to get from point A to point B are still the same.
so Kristian, when you're, when you're doing a property this size, first of all, it bringsup a couple of questions into my mind.
(25:43):
Number one, if there's no licensing board in Louisiana for mold, ah who establishes thestandard of practice for a mold inspection?
Is that InterNACHI or how do you come about that?
So the EPA has guidelines, The CRC the cleaning residential code.
There are a lot of different regulatory boards that are national, CESB, that speak on bestpractices.
(26:12):
But then you have opposing philosophies.
So this is where it gets kind of murky.
you have um the ICRC and then you have other philosophies such as NORME.
And the very, very basic uh differences on the cleanup.
But um your standard mold inspection remediation process is going to be testing, find outwhat your ecology is, fix the problem.
(26:41):
And then you have to, obviously in fixing that problem, you have to remove those moldspores.
You have to get those four counts down.
um You know, it's interesting, the second edition of the bio aerosols remediation andcontrol is an interesting point it makes where it says that the spores viability, so
(27:02):
whether it's alive or dead, can propagate or not, does not in any way affect its toxicity.
um And so
it could be completely dead um and still have many of the same health effects to theperson.
um with regards to a large building, that's very difficult to get a good control of thebuilding envelope.
(27:25):
I mean, in this case, it's two buildings, it's multiple floors.
um It's just tens of thousands of square feet, right?
um It's an older building, right?
You still have a lot of asbestos in there.
You still have a lot of lead-based products.
oh And so it's definitely a process.
Sure, yeah.
(27:46):
Now, when it comes to determining your standards, which did you go off of when you weresetting it up?
CRC or?
Yeah, I mean, you know, you always want to go with the most stringent when health concernsare involved.
In my opinion, obviously, now I'm not an authority on that, but you know, you always wantto realize why you're there.
(28:09):
You know, you're not there just to get paid.
You're not there to solve a problem.
You're there to, or to remediate rather, you know, you're there because likely someone'sfeeling sick.
Right.
You're there because likely someone is not feeling well.
Um, and so if you look at two different methodologies and one of them is more stringentand would lead to a, maybe a better health outcome and one of them is less stringent, you
(28:38):
would always, in my opinion, you would want to lean towards the, the more stringent of thetwo.
You know, you're talking about healthy people being healthy or people being sick.
And that reminds me of uh your line of work prior to inspecting.
You had something kind of interesting going on before you got into the inspection field,did you not?
(28:59):
Yeah, so many, years ago, many moons ago, I was an EMT with Acadian Ambulance.
And so I've seen, uh unfortunately, a lot of a lot of carnage, a lot of uh lot of thingsthat uh and some of which relate directly to the things I now expect.
(29:20):
You know, it didn't happen often, but, you know, I did happen upon a few deck failures,right?
broken bones and cervical spine damage and issues.
And some people ending up with paralysis, others with paresis, which is like a uh loss offull strength either on one or both sides of your body hemispherically, either left or
(29:50):
right.
I've seen uh people that have been shocked.
I never came across anybody that got electrocuted, right?
So there is a difference.
oh But you know, it's many of the things that we deal with and many of the things thatmaybe you get pushed back on on your reports.
(30:11):
Where people tell you, oh, it's not that big of a deal.
Well, I've been on the other end of that out of the inspection field and it is a big deal.
So.
a big deal until it happens to you, you know.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
what was the title for when you are over the condition where you lose strength on bothsides of your body?
(30:32):
So it's something called paresis.
So yeah, paresis.
Yeah, so the Cliff Notes on it is basically, you have some movement on that side, but youare weakened to a noticeable degree, right?
so you're dealing with some, some very serious health issues there, which makes sense forwhy you want to go with a beefed up standard of practice for sure.
(30:58):
ah Now tool wise, I mean, do you, do you find that it's advantageous to continue to
add to what you have to offer to clients in terms of exceeding the basic standard for amold inspection?
And at what point do you uh kind of cap that where it's like, at the same time, you don'tnecessarily need all of these excessive things in order to do the basic job that they're
(31:24):
tasking me with, which is evaluating the condition of this environment.
I mean, everybody's different, but personally, I feel like your first tools that youshould use are your eyes.
Right.
We should use the visual.
It is a visual inspection.
Right.
You know, it, doesn't do anybody that good to go dig through a 40 or 50 year old home toomuch.
(31:52):
Like no house is perfect.
No house is going to have everything functioning correctly, but we are there as homeinspectors to observe function and safety.
Right.
So function and safety is what we focus on.
Now you can go overboard.
Right.
So I think I've talked to Matt about this before and other other inspectors where let'ssay you're using a thermal camera, right?
(32:13):
A thermal camera uh looks at the something that's either hot or cold.
So it displays it in many different colors.
Right.
But typically something that's cold is blue and something that's hot is more orange orred.
Now, evaporative cooling from something like a leak is going to draw that heat away, soit's going to show up as blue.
(32:37):
However, it's not always as cut and dry.
So there are times where I've had a wall that's completely saturated and it does not showup on thermal.
And so it's reached the same temperature as the room now, right?
So it blends in with the rest of the room.
And so there are some dangers with relying solely on your tools.
(32:59):
ah You do have
to know what you're working with and know your tools for sure.
And I mean, I've said, I've made videos on this tons of times where I say, you know, thefirst tools we need to walk in with our eyes and our brain, you have to look and you have
to think, right?
And you have to think about that same stuff whenever you're using the tools, you just haveto use your eyes and your brain when you're using the tool as well.
I mean, without the tool, you have to do that for sure.
(33:21):
That's your first, the first thing that you should be using.
But even when you're using your tool, the tools and the specialized tools that we have,
You still have to think about things, look at things, you know, with the knowledge of, youknow, and the experience that we have to know what you're looking at.
Because like you said, you look at something and it just because it's one temperaturedoesn't mean just because it's blue doesn't mean that it's wet.
(33:47):
That just means that it's cold.
And so you got to you got to be able to know where these problems might exist and thinkabout it think about what you're seeing and verify that kind of stuff.
Anyway, picking up on your land.
said was that the tools should be the seasoning and not the meal.
Right?
So the tools should be used to add emphasis to your inspection, but they should not besolely relied on.
(34:11):
Look, I love Tony Sacheris and hot sauce like the rest of us, but I'm not going to takeshots of Tony's or take shots of hot sauce.
They add flavor to the report.
They add flavor to the meal.
but they should not be relied on as the basis of your report.
Now I hear that, but at the same time, like everything, you gotta season, man.
(34:33):
You gotta use some seasoning.
And there's some of you out there that don't, and you need to come to New Orleans nextyear, or I'm sorry, in September to find out what season is all about because they some
good cooking down there.
ah Just to write them out a seasoning.
I mean, I think, you know, you have to figure out like, I know we're talking aboutseasoning.
we talking about tools or we're talking about inspection report?
(34:54):
But in terms of the seasoning in the report, I mean, I do think that you need to figureout where you're going to draw the line in terms of how much, you know, tools and tech
you're going to bring in because, know, at least in huge or in Texas, the the Texas realestate commission and the standards of practice that we go by says that we do not have to
(35:14):
use special.
But I can't imagine doing a home inspection without my thermal camera.
I wouldn't do it.
So Kristian, here's another thing, getting back to standards of practice.
How much of the level to which you exceed basic standards for a mold inspection, how muchof it is actually determined by your competition and what they're doing?
(35:37):
You know, obviously you do want to uh take a look at what the um the tools thateverybody's using, right?
You do want to have what you need to service your clients.
But as far as I mean, I was just asked this today.
I was asked uh for a different project if I knew two other mold inspectors um that I couldrecommend for the bidding process.
(36:05):
And I can only think of one.
Like I really don't know a lot of mold inspectors, ironically, in Louisiana with tons ofmold.
I really don't know a lot of other mold inspectors in my area.
So as far as what equipment they use, um I really rely heavily on the instruction from myprofessor from Bill Fahini um to know whether I'm kind of going the right direction or the
(36:27):
wrong direction, things I should be using, methods, techniques, know, things like that.
But
um As far as as that relates to the home inspection to the standards of practice um Atthis point, I've got a whole different contract.
I've got a whole different I'm no longer under the standards of practice whenever I'mdoing my mold inspections So I don't really have to worry about that per se um But uh you
(36:53):
know Oddly enough for the inspection side.
There's really not there's really not a tremendous amount of liability by the time theycall you
They already have a problem.
They already have a problem.
So all you're there to do is give them a 10 minute snapshot.
Right?
So the amount of time I generally run my samples is 10 minutes,
(37:17):
Now definitely, we want to hear from you guys that are listening here as well.
Truly, like, where do you guys draw the line as far as uh the inspection standards ofpractice or if you're in mold, you know, what standards of practice do you go by if your
state's licensed, right?
I know Florida licensed other states not necessarily so much, but how do you choose thatline to where you exceed it uh or where you just do the minimum if you're one that just
(37:41):
prefers to kind of.
not make it any fancier than it necessarily needs to be.
We want to know where you guys cap it at.
And we want to know what's in your tool bag too.
That's a fun thing to talk about.
So sound off in the comments.
Let us know what you're carrying with you.
And let us know the coolest thing that you have picked up and added to your toolkit thisyear, because we're all looking and learning and trying to figure out what's the next fun
(38:04):
gadget that we need, an expensable item for next year's returns, right?
For next year's write-offs.
mean, as much as I don't really like use a whole bunch of gadgety stuff, I am awfullyinterested in, you know, the latest and greatest new toys and tools.
absolutely, man.
Absolutely.
Well, Kristian, it's been awesome talking with you, man.
(38:25):
I'm excited for for getting the the band together in New Orleans.
It's gonna be fun, proverbially speaking.
I look forward to it.
I love being on stage.
You know, love being with guys like yourselves and uh playing some good music and, youknow, uh you know, it'll be fun.
Let's let's make let's try to I know one of you one of you high powered inspectors knowssomebody who knows somebody who can make this thing happen.
(38:52):
So uh I'm dependent.
I'm dependent on you guys.
either way, there's gonna be good times to be had in New Orleans for inspection fuel forsure.
So I'm looking forward to seeing you there and you too, Brad, for sure.
But yeah, we'll all get together no matter what.
It's gonna be a good time.
Yep, definitely sign up guys.
The link's going to be down in the description.
So until next time, we'll see you right back here, right on the run along.
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