I'm surprised by some of the negative reviews here. My guess is they are realtors who were frustrated by how thorough Rich was in his inspection. From the homeowner's perspective I would 100% recommend him. He was on the side of truth in his inspection and also available to help us understand the severity of his findings in sequence of what was most crucial to remediate or further investigate and how vs not. read more

Reading all of this hate about CA Microbial is certainly interesting. Maybe it's inspector-dependent? We had Scott Ko as our inspector and all I can say is he takes his job very seriously, is super thorough, and is extremely knowledgeable. I'd recommend Scott a thousand times over! read more

Richard Valdez can see trough walls and detect mold by starring at the walls. I have his reports.

Avoid this company. They are alarmists and word their report to the extent of scaring people. The report also took a very long time to get. I personally after 40 years of working with inspectors would never recommend this firm. read more

Great start, terrible finish! We had a deadline of Late Friday where we had to remove our contingencies for a new home buy. They came out, seemed to do a nice job BUT, we reached out multiple times to ask about the timing of the report and nothing! We still have not received the report and had to remove contingencies without having a write-up. ABSOLUTELY do not use these guys. It is not how you start but how you finish and they left us high and dry with no written report to present to our broker and sellers. No responses...could not be more disappointed after not hearing back and lack of professionalism on their part! Especially Rich! read more

I have mixed feelings about working with Rich and his team because he seemed like a nice competent inspector at first. We hired him in September 2022 when we were buying our home. He came highly recommended by our broker. Initially and during the inspection, Rich seemed knowledgeable and answered questions in a pretty straightforward way. There were a couple of things that he pointed out that were not deal breakers but we appreciated it (at first). 1. Possible mold behind the baseboard of our entryway by front door. 2. In our back house, possible pet or dog pee on the subfloor from the floor bowing in one part. We went ahead and hired floor team to replace the floors & repair person to look into possible mold. During their inspection they had a number of questions for Rich because we wanted work to be done before we moved in. I left message after message with his assistant Ann Beasley, on his cel phone and got zero reply. After 3 weeks, I finally reached out to my broker, his asst Ann sent me an apology email saying he would reply and only then did he finally send a perfunctory voicemail that answered nothing. There was no sense of urgency with his "possible mold" review as were trying to get it handled. See attached photos of our email communication. We went ahead with the work because we were concerned by his report and turns out there was NO MOLD in either place. Not under the floor on the sub-floor which was clean as a whistle or by the entryway of the main house. Both vendors said, who told you there was mold? Well Rich did. The vibe I got is that California Microbial likes doing inspections at $650-700 per visit but when you dig deeper into potential issues and have your vendors try and get to the bottom of things, Rich will stall and delay or give zero answers saying "he's so busy, he's out in the field". For this I cannot recommend Rich Valdez. To me a professional mold inspector should be able to follow up and follow through. Your office hours should include inspection days and administrative office hours or at least delegate to your team a report they can reply back with especially when making these repairs and remediations are costly and need to be done right. My review is almost 2 years delayed because I never got around to it but I was recently reviewing work done to our property and I felt I needed to share my experience for potential customers. In the end we got a costly "show and tell" report, whether we actually got a true microbial study, I feel it was questionable. I would further add that it actually made me wonder if the state of California licenses these inspectors correctly. How they are certified? Does California provide a state-published mold checklist of what inspectors should look for because the whole process seems arbitrary based on what any inspector tells you. Their mistake/delays costs the homeowners and they can easily talk their way out of things with caveats, waivers or no real tangible explanations. read more

California Microbial Inspections - Apology reply from his office 11/9/22 - Home Inspectors Near Me

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Wow! I should have come to Yelp before I hired this company. I went off a recommendation from my local mom's FB group, but after being "ghosted" after my initial inspection I got a bag feeling and came to Yelp. Sure enough, I've had the same issues as others have explained. I paid for an initial inspection, $250. Rich seemed knowledgeable and even called another coworker out to take a look during the appointment. Then crickets. I called Anne, who answers the phone and makes appointments but she just said "I'll get back to you". A week later and still nothing. read more

Very disappointed. The inspection was extremely basic and did not include swabs or detailed testing in the areas with visible and odor-based mold concerns. The report felt incomplete and did not match the real conditions in the home. If you need a serious mold evaluation, I suggest using a more thorough and independent inspector. read more

Rich Valdez is the best. I've been using him at California Microbial for my real estate clients for over 25 years. Today I used him for my own home. He's truly impressive. read more

Amazing amazing. Highly recommend! Professional. Friendly. Super Informative. Don't cut corners when it comes to mold. Go for the best. That's this company. read more

I don't trust this company or Rich Valdez. My landlord hired him to do the pre and post remediation inspection for extensive black mold found in the subterranean portion of our home. The pre-remediation report was completely insufficient and had obvious problems, even to an untrained eye. Worse still, the post remediation report cleared the area as safe even though all of our belongings in the garage (adjacent to the remediation site) were clearly covered in construction dust (the absence of construction dust is listed a requirement for passing in his own report!). Because of the obvious, visible issues, I had another company swab surfaces in my garage to confirm they were safe and uncontaminated and lo and behold, they came back positive for gypsum dust + fiberglass (respiratory irritants) and Chaetomium black mold spores. At this point I had blood work showing mold toxicity in my body and Rich had the audacity to ask me to look at my blood test results (my personal medical records) to "help me interpret them" and then gaslight me by saying that the raw count of Chaetomium spores on my stuff wasn't that high. IYKYK but Chaetomium is a black mold caused my water damage and it does not naturally occur on surfaces in homes. The non zero presence of Chaetomium on our belongings next to the remediation site point to a containment issue with the remediation that Rich attempted to gloss over and then cover up and mansplain away to me like it wasn't an issue when my family and I are dealing with elevated mycotoxins in our bodies and related serious illnesses. This guy sucks. He's totally irresponsible. Don't trust him. read more

DO NOT HIRE! Never did I get the courtesy of a reply to my prior reviews or a refund of the thousands of dollars because Rich wrote a report telling my home buyer a red wine spot on a floor underneath a WINE COOLER had to be tested for mold. Do not believe any positive review my experience with this company was a nightmare. read more

They are fabulous. Rich was so kind and capable. He also protected me as a home buyer and ensured that I got a home I was buying remediated. Ana in the office was always caring and responsible. They both went above and beyond! read more

I am the pickiest of the picky people and can find fault in just about anything. But Rich Valdez is a class act. He's an actual microbiologist. He was double masked and he wore gloves & shoe booties, which showed respect for my home. He was very careful not to track in any dirt from our crawl space. He explained everything as he went, showed us photos, and made sure we understood everything he was telling us. He found some mold, suggested that we remediate soon but told us not to panic. Because the molded pieces of the walls need to be torn out anyway, he advised against lab tests. He doesn't do remediation work but agreed to help us identify a few qualified vendors in our area. The inspection was $495. I was very impressed with his honesty and expertise. read more

California Microbial Inspections - Home Inspectors Near Me

Rich performed the mold inspection for a condo we were thinking of buying. He was very thorough and found several evidences of water damage- 2 areas on the kitchen, both bathtubs had been leaking, and hvac leak. He found evidence of mold and due to the widespread leaks found, said that it was likely for the mold remediation to be very expensive. He gave us really good honest, impartial advice. We backed out of the purchase and I am so thankful for Rich's honest advice and help!!! read more

Rich Valdez @ California Microbial was amazing. I had a bad experience with a competitive mold inspector, and my realtor then called Rich (based on some internal recommendations from her colleagues) on a Friday morning, and he was able to make it out to the condo that I was in escrow on, literally, only hours later. Which was impressive, especially since he lived two cities away. Rich was on time, incredibly intelligent, patient with my questions, performed extensive air and visual tests (we didn't need a tape sample as the prior mold inspector had conducted one...though it had debris on it), and Rich's report (which arrived when he said it would) was very well written, quantitative...and not just qualitative, and incredibly helpful in identifying and hiring a mold remediation company. I would absolutely use him again, have already sent his contact info out twice, and know that my realtor will be using him again too. If you want to hear more, I'm happy to have you reach out to me directly via yelp. He's an impressive guy, having formerly worked as a UCLA health inspector, and then launched this company (I think) 13'ish years ago. read more

I received very professional and knowledgeable service from Rich Valdez, President of this microbiological company that does mold inspections. His report was very clear, as were his recommendations. I would absolutely recommend him to anyone needing this kind of inspection. read more

Rich was quick to respond to our request for a mold inspection in a house we're trying to buy. He was thorough, professional and friendly. He was able to find and concisely explain multiple instances of mold growth as well as a couple instances of hidden moisture, identifying leaks which could have otherwise gone unnoticed and caused further damage. It took a few days to get our report, but said report was detailed and well written. read more

I have worked with California microbial on multiple occasions and have found Rich to be very professional. He is willing to put in extra effort in determining issues at hand without trying to sales pitch. I would recommend this company for their ethics and attention to detail. read more

I had a great experience with Rich. It was an awful, awful situation to find undisclosed mold in our new dream house, but Rich helped keep us sane and made sure the mold was appropriately remediated. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him to others. read more

We booked a mold inspector and found that because of traffic he would be 2 hours late. So we rescheduled. Then at the new arranged time we were left waiting another hour. The inspector finally arrived and did a quick 30 minute inspection of our buyers house and asked for 500 dollars. Definitely would not recommend this company. Totally unprofessional and late for our clients who were buying the property. No apology was offered. We used Same Day Mold Inspection and got a refund for the original inspection. Daryl was great and a lot less expensive. read more

Do NOT use this company. I had a horrible experience with them and have even sued the company. Rich Valdez was hired by a potential buyer (we were selling our house). Rich was to only do a VISUAL inspection of the mold. Rich pulled our carpet back and scraped at the mold to test it for the buyers WITHOUT our knowledge or permission. Toxic mold spores contaminated our ENTIRE HOUSE causing my family (including 2 young kids) to get really ill with several hospitals. We decided to get the air tested by another company and found EXTREMELY HIGH LEVELS of toxic mold spores in our air due to Rich disturbing the mold WITHOUT our permission. He didn't even bother informing us that he put us in danger when mold is his area of expertise. read more

Well, I guess I better update my review, so I don't get sued. I had a really awesome experience with California Microbial. Check out what someone wrote to me on Yelp, after discovering my review. Anyhow, I take back everything I said on 10/10/2010. This company is awesome and you should hire them. I am the owner of california microbial and have just been made aware of this negative review on yelp. You are claiming professional misconduct on our part in a public forum and imply that we have issued an "improper" clearance. You claim that you have sent numerous letters and had your "attorney" place calls to us regarding this matter. Nobody hung up on you and nobody told you "what you have is good enough." You know these actions did not take place and are false. Your implications are serious. YOU HAVE COMMITTED LIBEL AGAINST MY COMPANY. Who is this "attorney"? WIll this attorney testify under oath that he called our company numerous times? Do you have copies of these letters? I demand that this review be permanently removed within 72 hours. We are in process of researching your identity through our internal records. We also have enlisted the cooperation of your remediation company. We will a file a supoena to yelp corporate to find out who you are, if necessary. Failure to comply will result in a lawsuit filed against you for LIBEL, upon confirmation of your identity. We will sue you to protect our business interests. We will seek monetary and punitive damages. If you choose this "battle", I strongly advise you to seek counsel regarding the legal consequences of your actions. I have no problems about truthfully testifying about a genuine negative experience, however, when you make false statements regarding my company, there will be consequences. read more

I am a Realtor and have had nothing but good experiences with this company. They are professional and thorough. I will continue to hire them. read more

This company cannot be trusted. I am cautious and had a mold inspection done in Malibu before purchasing a home. There was no mold in this fairly new house in a very dry canyon about 900 feet above sea level (a generally very hot and dry hill) and any decent inspector would have known this immediately. Several people told me that I did not need a mold inspection, but since the house was a big purchase for me, I conducted every inspection available. This company showed me a dried water spot on a piece of wood below the sink and scared me into spending over $6000.00 in mold "remediation" and re-finishing walls that were torn into unnecessarily, I later learned. There was never any mold in the house, and surely Valdez knew this. When I confronted him with this, he replied, "my job is to FIND mold," but there was no mold, his report ultimately confirmed this, and yet his dishonesty caused me to spend a lot of money for no reason. There is no excuse for what Valdez did, and I suspect he will be sued over and over again until he is out of business. This company is a testament to all that is wrong with America today. read more

I've recommended California Microbial numerous times to clients with excellent results. There are a lot of choices out there, and this company has provided excellent response to my clients - both timely and professional. Rich is conscientious and intelligent. He is very calm and reasonable in his approach to the information - helping everyone involved to understand the situation and how best to remedy. The only way to squash libelous postings is to use a forceful response...I don't take that as a hair-trigger reaction...but as a way to shut down an idiotic ploy to tarnish a good company's reputation. I will continue to recommend Cal Microbial to my clients and for my own personal use. You want someone in this capacity to be fair and objective - able to communicate the results in a way you can understand. That's Rich! read more