Diagnostics · The advisory and building-science practice of Saniservice

One question. One measurement. One report.

Not every building needs a program. Sometimes the question is small and exact: what is in the air I breathe, is there mold in this room, why is this wall cold. Diagnostics answers questions of that size. Our investigations are organized in four layers, and you order the layer that answers your question, on its own, with its own report. When the question is the cause of a problem that keeps returning, the answer usually needs all four, and that is where Advisory begins.

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The four layersDIAG · v1.1
  1. iVisual and thermalwhere is it cold, where is it wet
  2. iiPhysicochemicalwhat is in the air and the water
  3. iiiMicrobiologicalwhat is growing, and where
  4. ivTechnicalis the system able to hold the room
One layer answers one question. All four answer why.Look · Sample · Culture · Test
Part IIThe investigations
The four layers

Four ways of looking at the same building.

The four layers are how we examine a building. They are not the same as the four elements, air, moisture, pressure and heat, which are what the building does; each layer reads several elements, and each element shows up in more than one layer. One is the examination, the other is the patient.

Layer i

Visual and thermal

Where a surface is cold, where a material is wet, and where the two meet.

What is done
A room-by-room inspection by an IAC2 Mold Certified inspector, following the IAC2 Mold Inspection Standards of Practice; a thermal camera pass over walls, ceilings, ducts and pipes to find the cold spots and the wet patches; moisture readings inside walls, floors and timber; surface temperatures where a cold surface is suspected; air temperature and humidity in each room, from which its dew point, the temperature at which the moisture in the air turns back into water, is computed.
What you receive
A marked-up plan of the cold and wet locations, the readings at each, thermal images with their visible-light pair, and a short statement of what the pattern indicates and what would confirm it.
Read against
The dew point of the room; Dubai Municipality TG 142 for humidity; the practice's own criteria, labeled as such.
Typical case
A wall that stays damp behind a wardrobe; a ceiling stain with no plumbing above it; condensation on a duct.
Layer ii

Physicochemical

What is in the air and the water, in numbers, against a named guideline.

What is done
Air sampling for particulates, carbon dioxide, total volatile organic compounds (TVOC, the gases given off by paints, furnishings, cleaning products and fuels) and formaldehyde, with temperature and humidity logged alongside; water sampling from the tank to the tap, analyzed by an independent, EIAC-accredited (ISO/IEC 17025) laboratory.
What you receive
Each parameter with its reading, the guideline it is read against and whether it is inside or outside it; a plain-language note on what an exceedance means and what usually causes it.
Read against
Dubai Municipality TG 119 (Indoor Air Quality for Healthy Life, DM-HSD-GU119-IAQ v4); ASHRAE 62.1-2025 / 62.2-2025 for ventilation and humidity. Water results are reported by the partner laboratory against the UAE drinking-water standard it is accredited to, cited by document and version on its certificate.
Typical case
A new fit-out that smells; headaches in a meeting room by mid-morning; a tenant or a school asking for a documented air-quality record.
Layer iii

Microbiological

Whether mold is present, which species, how much, and where it is concentrated.

What is done
Air sampling for mold spores, read against the Dubai Municipality guideline of 500 CFU/m³ (TG 119), a count of living mold per cubic meter of air; surface swabs and tape lifts where growth is visible or suspected; the Moldiness Profile, a surface-by-surface culture of settled dust that maps where growth is concentrated and where it is not; ERMI mold-DNA profiling where a whole-dwelling index is useful, alongside culture and never in place of it. Every culture sample is grown and read in the Saniservice Department of Microbiology; each species is identified under the microscope and reported location by location, with how much living mold there was and whether any of the species found are the ones that only grow where a material has been wet.
What you receive
A location-by-location laboratory report: species, count, water-damage indicators, the temperature and humidity at each sampling point, and the tier of laboratory that produced each result.
Read against
TG 119 for air counts; ANSI/IICRC S520-2024 for classifying each surface as normal, spore-settled or actual growth (its Conditions 1, 2 and 3; the standard sets no numerical limits); the practice's own criteria for the Moldiness Profile, labeled as such.
Typical case
A musty smell with nothing visible; a family asking whether the mold they cleaned is really gone; a landlord and a tenant who need the same independent number. How we identify mold
Layer iv

Technical

Whether the mechanical system can hold the room at its set temperature and humidity, and whether the building is ventilated, balanced and clean enough to do so.

What is done
A check of the air-conditioning system's performance on the day, its rated capacity from the equipment plate against what it is actually delivering: supply and return air temperatures and humidity, and how much moisture it is removing, inferred from supply and return humidity; a ventilation and pressure survey, how much fresh air the building takes in, how much it extracts, and the pressure of each room against its neighbors and against outdoors; an inspection of the duct system's condition and hygiene to NADCA ACR, The NADCA Standard 2025, including insulation, joints and the state of the internal surfaces.
What you receive
The system's rated and observed performance side by side; the ventilation and pressure map; the duct condition report with photographs; and a statement of whether the system, as found, holds the room at its set temperature and humidity, and if not, what the readings point to.
Read against
ASHRAE 55-2023 (thermal comfort) and 62.1-2025 / 62.2-2025 (ventilation); NADCA ACR 2025 for duct hygiene; the manufacturer's rated capacity for the equipment installed.
Typical case
Rooms that never reach the thermostat setting; humidity in the sixties with the AC running all day; a door that pulls shut on its own; a system that has been cleaned repeatedly and still smells.
Part IIIStandard of work
What every layer has in common

The same discipline, whatever the size of the question.

  • Named benchmarksEvery reading is reported against a guideline or standard cited by document and version; where the criterion is the practice's own, it says so.
  • Calibrated instrumentsAll instruments are calibrated on a documented schedule; calibration references are listed in the report. Locked calibration statement inserted verbatim at build.
  • Two laboratory tiersCulture and identification in the Saniservice Department of Microbiology; where a result must carry formal accreditation, the EIAC-accredited (ISO/IEC 17025) partner laboratory, and the report says which. Locked laboratory disclaimer inserted verbatim at build.
  • Honest gapsWhere something could not be measured on the visit, the report says so; nothing modelled is stated as measured.
  • A signed reportEvery report is signed by the scientist accountable for it, in the Indoor Sciences report format.
Part IVTwo ways in
From one layer to all four

A test is complete in itself. It is also the first page of something larger.

Most clients

One layer, one answer.

Most clients order one layer and get their answer: the air count, the wet wall, the chemical that was there. The report stands on its own, signed, against a named benchmark.

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When the answer raises the next question

All four, and the cause.

The air count is high, so where is it coming from; the wall is wet, so why. When the question becomes the cause, the four layers taken together are the whole-building baseline, Phase 01 of an Advisory engagement. Nothing already measured is repeated; the report you hold becomes the first document in the sequence.

The managed program: Advisory  ·  Why buildings on this coast grow mold
Part VQuestions
Frequently asked

What people ask before they order a test.

Can I order just one test?

Yes. Each layer is ordered on its own and reported on its own. Air sampling for mold spores, on its own, is the single most common request we receive.

I only want to know what chemicals are in the air. Which layer is that?

Layer ii, physicochemical: air sampling for particulates, CO₂, TVOC and formaldehyde, read against Dubai Municipality TG 119, reported parameter by parameter.

I think I have mold but I can't see any. Which layer?

Layer iii, microbiological: air sampling for mold spores, and if a location is suspected, surface samples or the Moldiness Profile. If the result is positive and you want to know why, that is the moment to add layer i, or to talk to us about all four.

How long does a single layer take?

The visit is typically two to four hours for one layer in a home of ordinary size; a whole-building baseline takes at least half a day for a three-bedroom home, longer for larger properties. Anything cultured needs several days of incubation and is reported within six working days of the visit; ERMI samples travel to a laboratory in Europe or the United States and their turnaround sets the minimum. Air-chemistry and thermal results are reported sooner; the proposal states the date.

Will you tell me what to do about it?

Every Diagnostics report ends with what the finding indicates and what would resolve or confirm it. The written corrective scope, the supervision of the work and the verification afterwards are Advisory.

What does it cost?

There is no list price, because the fee follows the layer, the scope and the size of the property. Tell us your question and the property, and the proposal states the fee before any visit is booked.

Confidential enquiry

Tell us the question.

Describe what you want to know, the property and what has already been tried. A building scientist will respond within one business day with the layer that answers it, or with a reason to look wider, and a fee before any visit is booked.

Enquiries are handled in confidence and uploaded files are used only to assess your enquiry. Privacy and data handling.

A building scientist responds within one business day. Urgent mold: 800-MOLDS, 24 hours · 04 321 5505.