Home Mold Spot Check Sheet

Overview

Use this skill when a user notices a musty smell, stains, damp corners, recent leaks, condensation, or suspicious spots and wants a clear observation sheet they can use for household tracking, landlord communication, insurance notes, or a professional inspection conversation.

This is a prompt-only documentation and triage skill. It helps organize observations, photos, moisture clues, locations, dates, severity ratings, and next-action flags. It does not diagnose health conditions, identify mold species, certify safety, provide remediation instructions, or replace a qualified mold, building, maintenance, medical, or environmental professional.

Trigger

Use this skill when the user asks to:

• Build a room-by-room mold or moisture observation checklist.
• Turn photos, odor notes, leak notes, or humidity notes into a structured sheet.
• Prepare evidence for a landlord, property manager, contractor, inspector, or maintenance team.
• Track where suspicious spots are spreading, recurring, or linked to leaks.
• Decide whether a concern is small enough to monitor or should be escalated to professional help.

Do not use this skill to provide medical diagnosis, exposure diagnosis, mold species identification, lab interpretation, legal claims, insurance claim strategy, or do-it-yourself remediation instructions.

Intake

Ask for practical observation details:

• Rooms or areas involved, such as bathroom, kitchen, basement, closet, window, ceiling, HVAC area, attic access, or wall corner.
• What the user noticed: stain, fuzzy growth, discoloration, musty odor, dampness, peeling paint, condensation, warped material, soft drywall, or recent leak.
• Approximate size of each visible area, using plain comparisons or user measurements.
• Date first noticed and whether it is spreading, recurring, or changing.
• Recent water events: roof leak, plumbing leak, flood, spill, humidity spike, condensation, appliance leak, or blocked ventilation.
• Photo list or filenames if the user has them, without requiring uploads.
• Household constraints: renter or owner, children, pets, respiratory concerns, limited ventilation, or urgency.
• Desired output: quick spot check, full room-by-room sheet, landlord-ready summary, or professional-inspection prep.

If the user mentions symptoms, do not interpret cause. Suggest contacting a clinician for health concerns and a qualified professional for building or mold assessment.

Workflow

1. Set safety boundary. Remind the user to avoid disturbing suspicious material, wear appropriate protective gear for observation, and keep vulnerable people away from affected areas when practical.
2. Map locations. Create one row per room, surface, or item. Record exact location, nearby water sources, ventilation, and access limits.
3. Record observations. Capture visible clues, odors, dampness, photo references, dates, approximate size, and whether the area is active, spreading, or recurring.
4. Rate documentation severity. Use observation-only labels such as monitor, document and fix moisture source, or professional help recommended. Do not diagnose species or health risk.
5. Flag escalation. Recommend professional help for large areas, widespread or recurring growth, hidden moisture, contaminated water, HVAC involvement, structural damage, vulnerable occupants, or uncertainty.
6. Separate facts from assumptions. Keep direct observations, user history, and interpretation in distinct fields.
7. Build next-action list. Focus on documentation, limiting disturbance, improving ventilation if safe, preventing water intrusion, contacting maintenance or a qualified professional, and preserving records.
8. Produce the sheet. Make the output easy to print, send, or update after new photos or visits.

Safety Boundaries

• Recommend protective gear for observation, such as gloves, eye protection, and a well-fitting mask or respirator appropriate to the situation, especially if the user must be near suspicious material.
• Advise the user not to scrape, sand, dry-brush, cut, bleach, paint over, or otherwise disturb suspicious growth as part of this skill.
• Recommend professional help for large areas, recurring growth, hidden moisture, HVAC involvement, contaminated water, structural damage, or uncertainty.
• Do not provide remediation instructions, chemical recipes, containment steps, demolition steps, drying protocols, or mold-removal procedures.
• Do not identify mold species from photos or guarantee that an area is safe.
• Do not diagnose medical symptoms or link symptoms to mold exposure. For health concerns, recommend a qualified clinician.
• Do not make legal, landlord-liability, insurance-coverage, or habitability claims. Present documentation as observations only.

Observation Labels

Use conservative documentation labels:

• Monitor: Small, dry-looking mark with no known active moisture and no spread, but still worth photographing and rechecking.
• Moisture source likely: Visible dampness, leak history, condensation, or recurring odor suggests the moisture source should be addressed.
• Professional help recommended: Large area, repeated return, hidden cavity concern, HVAC concern, contaminated water, vulnerable occupants, structural damage, or user uncertainty.
• Keep away and escalate: Extensive growth, sewage or floodwater history, crumbling material, heavy odor, or symptoms mentioned by occupants.

These labels are for organizing next steps only. They are not diagnoses, safety certifications, or remediation plans.

Output Format

Return these sections:

1. Spot Check Snapshot: property label, date, source basis, rooms checked, observer, and privacy notes.
2. Room-by-Room Observation Sheet: room, exact location, surface or material, visible clue, odor or dampness, approximate size, date first noticed, photo reference, moisture clue, change over time, and documentation label.
3. Photo and Evidence Checklist: wide photo, close photo, ruler or common object for scale, leak source photo, humidity or moisture note, and filename or folder label.
4. Moisture Clues to Track: leaks, condensation, humidity, ventilation, plumbing, roof, appliances, exterior drainage, or recurring dampness.
5. Professional Help Flags: large area, hidden moisture, recurring growth, HVAC involvement, contaminated water, structural damage, vulnerable occupants, uncertainty, or health concerns.
6. Landlord or Pro Summary: concise facts only, separated from assumptions, with dates and photo references.
7. Next Documentation Steps: recheck date, photos to add, people to contact, maintenance questions, and records to preserve.
8. Scope Notes: observation only; protective gear; professional help for large areas; no medical diagnosis, mold species identification, legal claims, or remediation instructions.

For urgent concerns, start with Professional Help Flags, Keep Away and Escalate notes, and the Landlord or Pro Summary.

Acceptance Criteria

1. Produces a room-by-room mold and moisture observation sheet from user-provided locations, photos, humidity notes, leak history, and visible clues.
2. Separates facts, user history, and interpretation so the output is useful for landlords, property managers, contractors, inspectors, or maintenance teams.
3. Includes protective-gear reminders and advises minimizing disturbance during observation.
4. Recommends professional help for large, recurring, hidden, HVAC-related, contaminated-water, structural, vulnerable-occupant, or uncertain situations.
5. Avoids medical diagnosis, health-cause claims, mold species identification, safety certification, legal claims, insurance claims, and remediation instructions.
6. Requires no code execution, credentials, API access, network access, package files, executable files, or extra bundled files.

Example Prompts

• "Help me make a mold spot check sheet for my bathroom and closet."
• "Turn these leak photos and musty smell notes into a landlord-ready observation summary."
• "I found dark spots near a window. Help me document what to check without giving cleanup instructions."
• "Make a room-by-room sheet for tracking damp corners after a roof leak."
• "What facts should I collect before calling a mold inspector?"