What Your Lab Results Contain
Issued when samples are collected. The accredited laboratory reports numbers and declines to interpret them — this document is the licensed interpretation.
- Document
- Laboratory Analysis Addendum
- Length
- Typically 25–30 pages
- Issued
- After the accredited laboratory returns results, as a numbered addendum to the parent report
Every section of the laboratory analysis addendum
The sections below are the real structure of the document, in the order they are printed. Written to be handed to homeowners, insurance adjusters, remediation contractors, attorneys.
Addendum Information
Addendum number, the parent report it attaches to, property, dates sampled and analysed, the laboratory, its report code, each sample ID, the analytical method, the laboratory result, and the assessor of record with licence number.
Why it matters. An addendum that cannot be tied to its parent report and its laboratory code is not evidence of anything.
Purpose and Scope of This Addendum
What this document decides and what it does not.
Why it matters. The parent report closes before results return, stating in several places that no fungal genus is identified anywhere in it and none should be inferred. This is the document that supplies the interpretation.
Documents and Data Reviewed
Everything the interpretation rests on: the parent report, the laboratory certificate, the chain of custody, and the field record.
Executive Summary
What the laboratory found and what it means for the building, before any of the detail.
Laboratory and Analytical Information
The accredited laboratory, its address, the analytical method, the detection limit, and the sampled volume or area.
Why it matters. Detection limit and volume decide what a result can support. A number without them is not a measurement.
Sample Reconciliation and Chain of Custody
Each sample reconciled between the field record, the chain of custody form and the laboratory certificate — ID, location, date sampled, date received, date analysed.
Why it matters. This is what makes the result defensible. If the sample the lab analysed cannot be tied to the place it came from, the number proves nothing.
Limitations of This Addendum
What sampling can and cannot establish, including the snapshot nature of a single sample.
Laboratory Results
The certificate data reproduced in full: raw count, spores per unit, percentage of total, hyphal fragments, background debris rating, and the laboratory's own result classification.
How this reads in the document Aspergillus/Penicillium — raw count 15, 450 spores/cm², 23% of total. Chaetomium — raw count 49, 1,470 spores/cm², 77% of total. Background debris 2 of 5. Laboratory classification: GROWTH LIKELY.
Threshold Evaluation — The Matrix Applied
The laboratory's classification worked through against the applicable threshold, showing how the result maps to IICRC S520 Condition 1, 2 or 3.
Why it matters. The lab supplies a category. This section shows the reasoning that turns a category into a decision about a building.
Mold Type and Significance — Spore by Spore
Each organism identified, taken individually: what it is, what it typically grows on, what its presence at this level indicates, and what it does not indicate.
Why it matters. Where the depth actually lives. A genus name on a certificate means nothing to a homeowner without this.
Why Prior Surface Treatment Matters to This Result
Whether anything was cleaned, painted or treated before sampling, and how that affects what the numbers can be read to mean.
Why it matters. A surface that was wiped last week produces a misleading sample. Reports that ignore this overstate their own certainty.
Correlation With the Field Findings
The laboratory data set against what was actually observed, measured and photographed on site — agreements and disagreements both.
Why it matters. A number that contradicts the field record is a finding in itself, and it gets stated rather than smoothed over.
Building Science Discussion — Why These Organisms, and Why Here
What the identified organisms imply about the moisture history of the assembly they were found on.
Why it matters. Different organisms need different amounts of water for different lengths of time. That is how a spore count becomes a moisture diagnosis.
Source Determination and Responsibility Context
Where the water came from, stated as a determination with its supporting evidence.
Why it matters. The question a claim turns on. It is answered explicitly rather than left for someone else to infer.
Sampling Position — What This Sample Decides and Does Not Decide
The boundary of the conclusion: which questions this sample settles, and which remain open.
Recommendations
What to do about the result, ranked.
Recommended Corrective Sequence
The order of operations, including which steps must complete before verification is meaningful.
Health and Safety Note
Non-diagnostic, non-medical framing, with a direction to a physician for anything health-related.
Conclusion
The determination, stated plainly.
Assessor Certification
Signed by the assessor of record with the Florida licence number, and the independence statement carried forward from the parent assessment.
Common questions
Yes. The accredited laboratory's Certificate of Analysis and the signed chain of custody are both delivered with the addendum. You receive the primary evidence, not only our reading of it.
The other documents an inspection produces
Mold assessment report
The main deliverable. Scope, limitations, methodology, findings, conclusions, ranked recommendations, next steps, and a photographic appendix.
Typically 30–35 pages including the photographic appendix
Remediation protocol
The specification a remediation contractor works to and is held to. Containment class, engineering controls, defined removal scope, and the clearance criteria their work will be judged against.
Typically 25–40 pages including the photographic record
Ready for clear answers about moisture and mold?
Request an inspection or call Sterling. We explain what we find, what it means, and what to do next — with no remediation upsell.