Guides · Updated September 20, 2026
The Short Answer
A mold air sample report lists each spore type the laboratory found and its concentration, for every location sampled, next to an outdoor sample taken the same day. There is no official pass or fail number. The report is read by comparing indoors with outdoors and one room with another, alongside what the inspection found.
What Is On The Page
Each column is a sample location: usually one outdoor sample and one for each room tested. Each row is a spore type. For every combination the laboratory reports a raw count, which is what the analyst saw under the microscope, and a calculated concentration, usually written as spores per cubic metre of air.
The report also carries the sample volumes, the analysis method and the chain of custody record showing who handled the samples and when.
The Outdoor Sample Is The Yardstick
Mold spores are part of outdoor air everywhere, and more so in Florida. A normal indoor result looks like a thinner version of the outdoor one: similar types, generally lower numbers. Two patterns suggest an indoor source instead. One is a spore type that is much higher indoors than outdoors. The other is a type found indoors that is absent outside.
Types That Point To Long-Term Moisture
Some molds need material that has stayed very wet for a long time and do not travel easily through air. Stachybotrys and Chaetomium are the usual examples. Many assessors treat finding them in an indoor air sample, even in small numbers, as a reason to look for a chronic water problem nearby.
Aspergillus and Penicillium are normally reported together on an air sample, because their spores cannot be told apart under a microscope.
There Is No Pass Or Fail Number
There are currently no EPA regulations or standards for airborne mold contaminants. No count makes a building officially safe or unsafe. That is why the numbers have to be read with the inspection findings: the moisture readings, the thermal images and what was seen on site.
What The Report Cannot Tell You
A lab report describes the building, not the people in it. It cannot say what a result means for anyone's health. That question belongs with a physician, and the report is a useful document to bring to that conversation.
