About Us
Local Family Business in San Francisco Since 2001
About Us
American Air Testing is a small, local family business of indoor environmental professionals who are qualified by knowledge, skill, education, training, certifications and experience. Quality customer service is our primary goal.
Our team is able to perform assessments of the condition of structures, systems, and contents at a job site, create a sampling strategy, sample the indoor environment, including outside baselines, and submit samples to an appropriate laboratories. Laboratory results are reviewed and interpreted, along with the onsite inspection information, for the purpose of establishing an abatement/remediation protocol to return of the job site to a healthy indoor air environment.
With current industry standard knowledge and equipment, we provide consulting and testing of indoor air contamination for a wide variety of contaminants:
- Allergens in Dust – dog, cat, mouse, rat, dust mites, and molds
- Asbestos – status, demo surveys, and clearance
CAC and SST licenses - Lead-based Paint – NOVs, status, soil, water, and clearance
LRCIA and LST - Mold – status, and verification (clearance)
Certifications: CIE, CMRS, CMC - Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) – surveys, and clearance
- Drinking Water – lead, pesticides, chemicals (PFAAs), plus a lot more
- Air Mapping – TVOCs and particulates
- LEEDs support air testing – v4 and v4.1 with quick turnaround using preliminary Air Mapping
Independent Environmental Testing
We are environmental consultants. We do not perform any sort of abatement or remediation services. We submit our samples to independent, certified laboratories for analysis – we do not analyze our own samples. By doing business this way we remain independent. This insures we can always delivery unbiased information. If you don’t have a problem we tell you – we don’t need to “make things up” to earn more money on a project. It’s unfortunate that some companies do this.
We do offer “Peace of Mind” inspections with reports. Know for sure before you invest your time and money into an environmental cleanup.
Our History
Our company was formed in the months following September 11th, 2001. At that time, a California law was passed that required real estate professionals to disclose the toxic mold condition of properties transferred, just like a termite inspection.
Testing for mold was how this business began. As we performed more and more inspections, we saw the need for additional testing services and expanded our knowledge and ability to include testing for asbestos, lead-based paint, sewage (bacteria), VOCs, allergens, and drinking water analysis to our services. We also offer LEEDs v4 and v4.1 initial testing and recertification.
Laws, Guidelines, and Industry Standards
The real estate mold disclosure law remains in effect, however, it is difficult to enforce as there is no clearly defined levels of acceptable toxic mold. Industry standard dictates that interior levels of mold must be less than or comparable to an outside baseline. There are also local laws that were intended to protect tenants.
For real estate transactions, we recommend that all Buyers request Sellers to provide a CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) report. This report is from the insurance industry and lists all water related claims for the property. If there’s been a water claim, a buyer should request a mold clearance document from the seller.
Asbestos laws are administered by the EPA and the Bay Air Air Quality Management. The rules and laws are complex. Application for a demo permit or to remove a load-bearing wall require a licensed asbestos inspection before a building/demo permit is issued. We on the approved vendor list of both asbestos and lead inspectors.
There are government and industry standards for odors/VOCs and particulate matter. There are 187 hazardous air pollutants designated by the EPA. This group of chemicals is referred to as HAPS. Here’s the EPA’s list of HAPS. Asbestos is included in this list, though asbestos fibers are a mineral from Serpentine rocks.
