How it works
What actually happens
From booking to report is usually under a week. Here is the whole thing, including the parts people get wrong.
Before the visit
There is one instruction that matters more than all the others: leave the property alone. Do not clean it, do not repaint it, do not open every window and air it out for a week.
It feels like the wrong advice — surely a clean property is a better starting point? It is not. Cleaning removes surface residue without touching what has soaked into paint, plaster and carpet backing, so the swabs come back low while the problem is still there. Repainting is worse, because it seals residue under a fresh surface and the result can look almost clean. Either way you have paid for a number that does not describe the building.
Beyond that, we need:
- Access to every room being sampled, including the garage if it is attached
- Power on, if possible — not essential, but it helps
- Anyone living there to be out during the visit, or at least out of the rooms being sampled
- The owner's permission, if the property is not yours
That last one is not a formality. Sampling a property you do not own or occupy, without the owner's knowledge, is not something we will do — and a result obtained that way is not much use to you anyway.
On the day
Walk-through
We look at the property first, note the construction and the surfaces, and confirm which rooms are in scope for the test you booked.
Sampling
Swabs are taken from measured areas using a documented method, so the result can be traced back to exactly where it came from.
Chain of custody
Samples are sealed, labelled and logged. That paper trail is what makes a laboratory result defensible if anyone questions it later.
Off to the lab
Samples go to a NATA-accredited laboratory. Presumptive screens are the exception — you get that answer before we leave.
Most visits run under an hour. By-room and detailed sampling take longer, because there are more samples and each one has to be documented separately.
The report
Laboratory results come back in three to five business days, and you get a written report the same day we receive them. It states what was sampled, where, by what method, what the laboratory found, and the investigation level the findings are measured against.
It is written to be handed to somebody else — an agent, an insurer, a solicitor, a buyer — without needing us to explain it first.
What a result does and does not mean
A result under the investigation level
The surfaces we sampled, on the day we sampled them, were below the level at which further investigation is indicated. That is genuinely good news. It is not a certificate that the property is clean forever, and it does not cover surfaces or rooms outside the scope you booked.
A result over the investigation level
Further investigation is indicated. It does not automatically mean a full strip-out, and it does not tell you what remediation would cost. Working that out is a Certified Occupational Hygienist's job — they assess the property and prepare a remediation plan.
We test. We do not write remediation plans and we do not carry out clean-ups, so a positive result earns us nothing further.
Ready to book?
Pick a test and a time, or ring 1800 638 483 and we will sort it out on the call.