Laboratory & Methods

How your samples are analyzed

We work with seven independent laboratories and we are owned by none of them. Here is exactly which laboratory analyzes your samples, which method they use, and why that one was chosen for your question. If a test won't answer what you're actually asking, we say so before you pay for it.

Written & reviewed by W. David Winstead, NORMI Certified Microbial Inspector · HBIA Certified Microbial Biotoxin Assessor · 22+ years in indoor environmental quality · Last updated August 2026

Why seven laboratories and not one

Most inspection firms send everything to a single laboratory. Often that laboratory is a business partner, sometimes a licensor, and sometimes the inspector earns margin on every panel sold. The result is predictable: the recommended test tends to be the test that laboratory happens to sell.

Airborne spores, airborne mycotoxins, settled dust DNA, surface residue, endotoxins, Actinobacteria and chemical vapors are seven different questions. They require different instruments — light microscopy, ELISA, quantitative PCR, kinetic LAL, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry — and no single laboratory is the strongest at all of them. So we don't ask one to be.

Financial independence. We perform no remediation, sell no remediation products, and accept no referral fees — from laboratories, from remediation contractors, or from product manufacturers. Laboratory costs are passed through and disclosed.

Method independence. We are not tied to one laboratory or one test. We choose the analysis that answers your question — including when the honest answer is that no test will, and what you actually need is a better building investigation.

Which laboratory analyzes what

The question you're asking	What we collect	Laboratory & method
Are mold spores airborne in this room right now?	Spore trap cassette on a calibrated pump, with an outdoor control sample	Sporecyte — AI-assisted spore and air particulate analysis
Standard spore trap and surface confirmation	Air-O-Cell cassettes; tape lifts, swabs and bulk samples	NexLab Environmental — direct microscopy, A2LA accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2017
Am I breathing mycotoxins?	Breathing-zone air	Respirare Labs — AMEA™ airborne mycotoxin analysis
Is this specific surface or belonging contaminated?	Sterile surface swab	Respirare Labs — MESA™ surface mycotoxin analysis
What mold and mycotoxins have accumulated in the dust here?	Settled dust	Respirare Labs — EMMA dust analysis
Which mycotoxins, at what levels, for my clinical protocol?	Dust or surface sample	RealTime Laboratories — mycotoxin panels
What does my building's dust DNA profile look like? (ERMI)	Standardized settled dust — dust cloth on hard surfaces, vacuum cassette on carpet	LIS Biotech by default — qPCR, 36-species index. RealTime Laboratories when your practitioner or prior lab work is already with them
Is it safe for me to move back in? (HERTSMI-2)	Standardized settled dust	Respirare Labs — qPCR, five-species re-occupancy score
Are bacterial endotoxins present?	Settled dust or air	Respirare Labs and LIS Biotech — kinetic LAL assay
Are Actinobacteria present? (actinomycetes)	Settled dust	Respirare Labs and LIS Biotech — DNA-based detection and quantification
Is there fungal biomass here even without airborne spores? (beta-glucan)	Settled dust or air	LIS Biotech — beta-glucan assay
How much Wallemia is here — the dry-loving mold that scores low and gets ignored?	Standardized settled dust	EnviroBiomics — Wallemia sebi quantified within the ERMI and HERTSMI-2 qPCR dust panels
Are there chemical vapors — VOCs, MVOCs, formaldehyde?	Low-volume pump with sorbent tubes; formaldehyde badge or tube	Enthalpy Analytical — GC/MS analysis, AIHA-LAP accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2017
Did the remediation actually work?	Depends entirely on what was found before — usually air plus surface, measured against the documented pre-remediation baseline	Matched to the pre-remediation laboratory and method, so the comparison is valid

That last row is the one people underestimate. A clearance test only means something if it measures the same thing, the same way, as the sample taken before the work began. Changing laboratories or methods midway through a project produces a number that cannot honestly be compared to anything — which is convenient for whoever wants the building declared clean, and useless to everyone else. More on how we handle clearance work on the post-remediation verification page.

The laboratories we work with

Mold spores & air particulate

Sporecyte

Sporecyte applies AI-assisted image analysis to spore trap and air particulate samples, with a digital chain of custody carried from collection through report. For the traditional spore count — the test most homeowners have heard of — this is a meaningfully more consistent read than analyst-by-analyst manual counting, and the turnaround is faster.

A Techcyte company · sporecyte.com

Spore trap & surface microscopy

NexLab Environmental

Our laboratory for Air-O-Cell spore trap cassettes and for surface samples — tape lifts, swabs and bulk material. Direct microscopic examination remains the fastest way to confirm what is growing on a specific surface, and it is often the right first move before anything more elaborate is ordered. NexLab is accredited by A2LA to the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 international standard.

Accreditation as published by the laboratory · nexlabenvironmental.com

Mycotoxins · HERTSMI-2 · endotoxins · Actinobacteria

Respirare Labs

Respirare specializes in environmental mycotoxin analysis and publishes its methods as ELISA and molecular qPCR. We run their AMEA™ air test when the question is what you are breathing, MESA™ when a specific surface or belonging is in question, and EMMA for settled dust. We also use them for HERTSMI-2 re-occupancy scoring and for endotoxin and Actinobacteria markers. AMOLDBUSTER is a listed Respirare Labs provider.

Methods as published by the laboratory · respirarelabs.com

ERMI · mycotoxins · endotoxins · Actinobacteria · beta-glucan

LIS Biotech

LIS Biotech runs quantitative PCR panels for environmental microorganisms, including the 36-species ERMI index, kinetic LAL endotoxin quantification, and bacterial identification covering Actinobacteria. This is our default laboratory for dust DNA work, and where most ERMI sampling goes unless a client's clinical history points elsewhere.

Methods as published by the laboratory · lisbiotech.com

Mycotoxin panels · ERMI on request

RealTime Laboratories

RealTime is long established in environmental and clinical mycotoxin testing and works directly with physicians treating exposure-related illness. W. David Winstead holds RealTime Laboratories certification, completed and passed their examinations, and is authorized to collect samples for their panels.

Here is where independence stops being a slogan and becomes a practical matter. Our default ERMI laboratory is LIS Biotech. But if your physician has been reading RealTime reports for two years, or your own prior lab work is with them, we run RealTime — because a result you can compare to your own history is worth more than a result from whichever laboratory we happen to prefer. A single-lab firm cannot make that accommodation. We can, and we do it regularly.

Certified sample collection authority held by AMOLDBUSTER

VOC, MVOC & formaldehyde chemistry

Enthalpy Analytical

The chemistry laboratory, and the one that matters most when a report has to hold up in front of an insurer, a school board, a hospital facilities committee, or opposing counsel. Accredited by AIHA Laboratory Accreditation Programs to the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 international standard for the competence of testing laboratories, under laboratory ID LAP-166272, with industrial hygiene and unique-scope accreditations current through August 2027. We have worked with this laboratory and its predecessor organizations for years, through changes of ownership and name — same analysts, same instruments, same standard.

Accreditation verifiable in the AIHA-LAP accredited laboratory directory · enthalpy.com

Dust DNA panels · Wallemia focus

EnviroBiomics

EnviroBiomics runs qPCR dust panels including ERMI and HERTSMI-2. We use them when the Wallemia sebi number is the question — and it is the question more often than the industry behaves as though it is.

Here is the part almost nobody explains. Wallemia sebi is one of the five HERTSMI-2 species, so it is already being measured on reports people receive every day. But the scoring thresholds are not comparable between species. Chaetomium globosum and Stachybotrys chartarum reach the maximum 10 points above roughly 125 spore E./mg. Wallemia sebi does not reach 10 points until it exceeds 2,500. A building can carry twenty times the Wallemia and contribute the same to the score — which means a HERTSMI-2 that reads comfortably under 11 can be sitting on a substantial Wallemia load.

Wallemia is also xerophilic: it grows at water activity low enough that conventional leak-and-moisture inspection logic looks in the wrong rooms for it. Shoemaker's own HERTSMI-2 work makes this point — the five species stratify by water activity, and where elevated Wallemia turns up without an obvious matching condition, the search has to continue rather than stop. On top of that, a spore trap cannot identify it, and standard mycotoxin panels do not target its metabolites at all.

So we read the number rather than the total. That is the difference, and it costs a client nothing extra — it is attention, not an upsell. Full explanation of the Wallemia sebi scoring problem →

qPCR dust analysis · envirobiomics.com

What "accredited" actually means

The word gets used loosely. Here is the substance of it.

ISO/IEC 17025 is the international standard for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. A laboratory accredited to it has been audited by an independent body and shown that its methods, equipment, analysts and quality controls produce results that can be relied upon and reproduced.

AIHA Laboratory Accreditation Programs (AIHA-LAP) is the body that assesses laboratories to that standard for indoor environmental work, through its Industrial Hygiene and Environmental Microbiology programs among others.

Two details most people miss. Accreditation is granted for specific methods — a laboratory accredited for one analysis is not automatically accredited for another. And it expires, subject to ongoing proficiency testing. When we cite an accreditation on this page we give the laboratory ID and the expiry date, because both are publicly verifiable, and a claim you can't check isn't worth much.

Chain of custody: how a sample gets from your home to the lab

1. Collection. Samples are collected by a NORMI- and HBIA-certified inspector, not a technician, and logged at the point of collection with location, time, conditions, temperature, relative humidity and moisture readings.
2. Documentation. Every sample is recorded on a chain-of-custody form identifying each person who handled it from collection to laboratory receipt.
3. Direct submission. Samples go from us to the laboratory. No remediation contractor, product vendor, or other party with a financial interest in the result handles them at any point.
4. Independent analysis. The laboratory reports what it finds. We do not preview, edit, or influence the result.
5. Interpretation. We read the raw laboratory data against what was observed in the building and give you a written interpretation and a prioritized action plan — because a number without building context is not an answer.

Without documented chain of custody, a result can be challenged and is generally not defensible in a legal, insurance, or real estate dispute. If there is any chance your situation ends up in one of those rooms, this is the part that decides whether your data survives.

Common questions

Why not just use one laboratory for everything?

Because the questions are different. A spore count answers "what is airborne right now." A dust DNA panel answers "what has accumulated here over time." A mycotoxin test answers "am I exposed to mold's chemical byproducts." An endotoxin or Actinobacteria assay answers "is there a bacterial component nobody has looked for." A GC/MS run answers "what chemicals are off-gassing." No single laboratory is strongest at all five. Routing everything to one partner is convenient for the inspector; it is not optimal for the client.

What's the difference between ERMI and HERTSMI-2?

Both are qPCR analyses of settled dust. ERMI quantifies 36 mold species and produces a broad relative index. HERTSMI-2 quantifies five species associated with water-damaged buildings and produces a narrower score used in re-occupancy decisions. ERMI gives a wider picture; HERTSMI-2 answers the more specific question of whether a sensitized person is likely to tolerate re-entering a building. Neither can tell you where a problem is located, which is why both belong inside a building investigation rather than instead of one.

Is ERMI accurate?

ERMI is a dust-based DNA panel reporting selected mold species markers in settled dust. The EPA developed it as a research tool and has stated it is not validated as a routine home test. It can be genuinely useful for a sensitized client tracking one building over time, and many clinical protocols call for it. It cannot locate a problem, and it is not a substitute for a building investigation. We run it when the clinical question calls for it, and we tell you plainly when it will not answer what you're asking.

Do you test for endotoxins, Actinobacteria and beta-glucan?

Yes. Endotoxins are bacterial cell-wall components measured by kinetic LAL assay. Actinobacteria — often called actinomycetes — are bacteria associated with chronically damp building materials and are quantified by DNA-based methods. Beta-glucan is a fungal cell-wall marker that can indicate fungal biomass whether or not spores are airborne. These matter because a client can react strongly to a building that returns an unremarkable spore count, and a spore trap alone will never explain that. More on our sampling approach on the mycotoxin sampling page.

Everything came back normal and I still feel sick. What now?

That is one of the most common conversations we have, and it usually means the right question hasn't been asked yet rather than that nothing is wrong. Four things get missed routinely: Actinobacteria, endotoxins, mycotoxins that persist after the mold itself is gone, and a Wallemia sebi number that was measured but never read, because its scoring threshold is so much higher than the other species that a substantial load barely moves the total. A spore trap will not detect any of them. If you have a file of unremarkable results and an occupant who keeps reacting, bring us the file — reading someone else's data and identifying what was never looked for is a service we provide on its own.

What is Wallemia, and why does it get overlooked?

Wallemia sebi is a xerophilic mold — it grows at water activity low enough that conventional leak-driven inspection looks in the wrong places for it. It is not an obscure test: it is one of the five HERTSMI-2 species and one of the ERMI 36, so it is already on reports people receive every day. What gets overlooked is the number itself. The HERTSMI-2 scoring threshold for Wallemia sebi is roughly twenty times higher than for Stachybotrys or Chaetomium — it takes more than 2,500 spore E./mg to reach 10 points, against about 125 for those two. A total score that reads comfortably safe can therefore sit on top of a real Wallemia load. Add that a spore trap cannot identify it and standard mycotoxin panels do not target its metabolites, and you get a mold that is routinely measured and routinely ignored. We read the individual number, not just the total. See the full HERTSMI-2 threshold table →

Do you make money on the lab fees?

No. We accept no referral fees or commissions from any laboratory, remediation contractor, or product manufacturer, and we perform no remediation. Laboratory costs are passed through and disclosed. What you pay us for is the assessment and the interpretation — nothing else.

My practitioner asked for a specific test. Can you run it?

Usually, yes — and that is much of the point of working with seven laboratories rather than one. If your CIRS practitioner wants a RealTime panel, a LIS Biotech ERMI, or a HERTSMI-2 before clearing you to move back in, we can collect for all of them. If we can't run something, we will tell you who can rather than substituting a different test and hoping it passes. We correspond directly with functional medicine physicians, biological dentists and veterinarians about sampling strategy before we come out.

Not sure which test answers your question?

That conversation is free, and it's the right place to start. Every laboratory fee is quoted before anything is collected — you will never see a line item you didn't approve.

Book a Free Consultation Call (240) 347-1142

Virtual investigation tiers are published openly: $895 · $1,495 · $2,295, plus the $725 DIY kit and $395 interpretation add-on. Request the full fee schedule →

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Educational & informational use. AMOLDBUSTER is an indoor environmental health and assessment service. Laboratory names, methods and accreditations are described as published by each laboratory; accreditation scopes and expiry dates change, and current status can be verified through the accrediting body. Environmental testing identifies what is present in a sample. It does not diagnose illness or establish medical causation. Always consult your physician or qualified healthcare provider regarding any medical condition.