FAQ concerning water testing, home inspections, well inspections, mold testing and real estate water testing
Water testing, home inspection, well inspection related questions.
A: FAQ is an acronym for "frequently asked questions."
A: Not really.....but you definitely get what you pay for. The Florida Attorney General warns that free water tests are very often a scam to scare people into buying unnecessary water treatment equipment.
A: Attaining lab certification, and maintaining state certification is a difficult and expensive ongoing pursuit. Performing analyses that meet the stringent accuracy requirements of the state (our accuracy is audited twice a year) is not easy or cheap....but you get what you pay for and you can rest assured that the results you get from a state-certified lab are accurate. Cheap water tests (done by non certified labs) are not regulated and are often wildly innaccurate or just plain wrong.
A: You don't if you're not using a state-certified lab.
A: The easiest way is to
go to the link below and check the search by county box and then enter the county where the lab or analyst is located and make sure they are certified. Some labs may provide service in counties outside of the physical location of the lab, so ask for the address of the lab before doing the search.
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/labs/cgi-bin/aams/loc_search.asp
A: Although many home inspectors advertise water testing (well water analysis), none that we have been able to find are certified to do well water inspections or really understands what is involved in the correct process of sample collection and the chemistry and microbiology of water analysis.
Q: What is the Turn-around-time for water tests, well inspection (water analysis)?
A: For most FHA, USDA, well inspections/ water analysis the turn-around-time is three days.
Q: What if the well inspection water test fails? Will I be charged extra for additional tests?
A: No, not for additional bacteria testing which is the test which fails most frequently. As long as we were the ones who collected the original samples, we will return to the property, disinfect the well (when the well is serviceable, which they are 95% of the time) and flush it until we get the water pure enough to pass according to EPA standards....FOR NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE.