How it works
Three ways. Same sampling rules.
A kit, a guided call, or a tester at the property. What you must not do beforehand is the same in every case: leave the place alone.
Before anyone samples
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.
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. Either way you have paid for a number that does not describe the building.
1. Kit
You order, you sample, you read it
Buy the box
Screen, multi-room, or lab mail-back. Posted Australia-wide. No call required.
Sample without cleaning first
Follow the sheet. One wipe on a clean kitchen is not a house. That is why the multi-room kit exists.
Read it, or post it
Presumptive kits give you an indication on the spot. Mail-back goes to a NATA-accredited laboratory after you have sampled.
Know the limit
You are the sampler. Nobody else has to accept the result. If that is a problem, you bought the wrong product.
2. Guided call
Same kit, someone on the line
Book a slot for sampling day
Not before the kit arrives. Not a free chat before add-to-cart. A paid, prescheduled call.
They tell you where to swab
Surfaces, area, what to skip, when one room is enough. You still hold the swab.
They will send you elsewhere if they should
Tribunal, insurer, solicitor, or you are in SEQ and need a person at the property — the call can end with “book a tester.”
3. On-site
A certified tester attends
South East Queensland only, until we list a tester in another city. Google Maps is the usual way in.
Beyond leaving the property alone, 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.
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.
The report (laboratory work)
Laboratory results come back in three to five business days, and you get a written report the same day we receive them. On-site sampling states what was sampled, where, by what method, what the laboratory found, and the investigation level the findings are measured against. A mail-back kit report describes what you sent in — not a tester's walk-through.
What a result does and does not mean
A result under the investigation level
The surfaces sampled, on the day they were sampled, 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.
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.
We test. We do not write remediation plans and we do not carry out clean-ups, so a positive result earns us nothing further.
Start with a kit, or ring if you need a tester
Most people order a box. If you already know you need someone in SEQ, call 1800 638 483.