Shelly Thousand Oaks, CA

February 2011

Mold is a nightmare to deal with. When we realized we had a slow leak and needed to have a mold inspection, we were warned by so many people we knew to be very careful because a lot of times a company comes out for a “free mold inspection” because they’re basically going to “find” a disaster and then HEY, they can clean that right up for you for $$$$$.

We did a ton of research and, on the advice of many, looked into finding a company who will charge a set fee, come out and do a thorough inspection – if they find mold, if they don’t find mold, it’s one fee, no gimmicks or tricks – and that they don’t do the remediation process. Just the inspection. Most of the horror stories we heard from our close friends and also read in online reviews of companies – the place would come out and then would “find” tons of mold that they, then, were happy to remove. After thousands, in some cases tens of thousands, of dollars, they’d say “Yep! We got it all!” and that was that. Many of the reviews said the mold came back. Or that they found out there really wasn’t anything dangerous there in the first place. OR that the company just hacked into the wall and spread everything around.

This place is the real deal. Robert really knows his stuff! And the funny thing is one of the areas that I was most worried about behind our furnace took him all of a few minutes to inspect and say, “Well the good news is that’s just dust”. Haha. This is why I did not do my own inspection! And also why a professional should come in, and one who doesn’t have any other interest besides an honest inspection.  He charges a set inspection fee, and he simply does the inspection – either there is mold or there isn’t. He was very nice and super professional, and gave us detailed information on everything he found – both from air samples and mold inspection. He not only sent us the report from the lab, but also called in person to explain it in terms I could understand and answered all of my questions.

When we were in the process of buying a house, we didn’t fail to call him again to come do a mold inspection of the property, especially since there had been an issue with mold in the past in the house. The seller’s RE Agent was horribly rude to all of our inspectors, but really over the top embarrassingly rude to Robert. She was so offended that we had even suggested a mold inspection. He was nothing but professional and courteous even though she was seriously in his face the entire time, but he still managed to do this thing – did all of the air samples, mold inspections –  and found a small area of mold around the water heater.

We called a remediation company (recommended by a friend) to come in and remove it, and when they asked who our hygienist was and we told them, he was like “Oh man! Robert is really a stickler! He makes sure it’s really clean” Excellent! He was there when they were setting up their equipment to do the removal, and he also came back and did an inspection after they were done (that’s how it’s supposed to work, separate inspection and remediation companies. The final inspection ensures that the remediation was done completely and you won’t end up with another mold problem some months/years down the road). Also, thanks to his spotting the mold, they found that the roof had a tiny leak above the water heater so they were able to fix that instead of us finding that nice little suprise a few years down the road when it would have been a major problem instead of this tiny one.

We called him a 3rd time after we purchased the house and owned it – this time we could let him cut small holes into the drywall to really look inside there (I am very persnickety since we had such major issues in our previous residence. I just wanted to be 100% sure). And when I say small holes,I mean smaller than an electrical outlet. He was able to poke around in there with tools and such, and smell the air coming out from between the walls. I asked him to check several walls, and he really just gave us peace of mind. He also gave us a ton of information on how to stop our stucco from sucking up so much water in the back patio and how to fix some areas around the house where water was pooling when it would rain. It made all the difference in the world and was something we were able to easily do ourselves with some time and effort (and a few trips to home depot :P).

All in all, really a professional and kind, honest guy. I would (and have) recommend Fun Guy to anyone and everyone.   Shelly E, Thousand Oaks, CA