What does my air test result actually mean?

You sent off an air sample, you got back a page covered in Latin names and numbers, and it raised more questions than it answered. Let's decode it together, in plain language.

What the test actually captured

A spore-trap air sample pulls a known volume of air across a sticky slide for a set time. The lab counts the spores that landed and identifies them by genus. The result is a snapshot — what was airborne in that room, during those minutes. It's powerful, but it's a moment in time, which is why how you sample matters as much as what the lab finds.

The genera, briefly

A few names show up constantly. Cladosporium is the most common mold on earth and is usually an outdoor visitor that drifted inside. Aspergillus and Penicillium are grouped together on most reports because their spores look alike under the microscope; indoors, elevated Asp/Pen often points to an active moisture problem. Stachybotrys (the "black mold" people fear) is heavy and doesn't travel far through the air — so even small airborne numbers can mean a significant nearby source. Basidiospores and ascospores are typically outdoor/decay fungi and rise after rain.

The number that matters most

A single indoor count means little on its own. The indoor-to-outdoor comparison is where the story lives.

Outdoor air sets the baseline for the day — spore counts swing wildly with weather, season, and geography. A "high" indoor number can be completely normal if outdoors is higher still. The signal you're looking for is amplification: an indoor genus that's elevated relative to the outdoor sample taken the same day, or present indoors and absent outdoors. That pattern says the source is inside.

What it can't tell you

An air test can't tell you about mold sealed behind a wall that isn't shedding into the room, and it can't tell you about past contamination that's no longer active. That's why no single test is complete. The right read combines the numbers, the indoor/outdoor ratio, the genera present, and what's actually happening in your home and your body. That interpretation — turning the page of numbers into a decision — is the part MoldGrade was built to do for you.