It makes sense to know what mould testing costs before you book anything, so here are our fees. There are two answers, because there are two different services: a laboratory test on a sample you take yourself, and a professional assessment where a hygienist comes to the property. All prices are plus GST and current as at September 2026.
The short answer
| Service | Price | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| Post-in tape lift you take yourself, with ordinary clear household tape, following our instruction sheet | $150 + GST first sample, $100 + GST each additional sample | Microscopy by a McCrone-certified analyst, genus identification, quantified count, plain-English report in 3 business days |
| Posted test kit: three Bio-Tape slides | $250 + GST | Kit posted to you, analysis of all three slides included at a bundled rate, same report and turnaround |
| On-site mould assessment, typical residential property | $800 to $1,200 + GST | Visit by a senior occupational hygienist and mycologist, air and surface sampling with an outdoor reference, moisture mapping, laboratory analysis, full written report with IICRC S520 condition ratings |
| Larger or complex investigations (insurance claims, tenancy disputes, legal matters, mycotoxin exposure assessments) | Scoped individually | Sampling plan and report structured around what the investigation has to establish |
| Faster laboratory turnaround | Surcharge, on request | Call the laboratory before you send the sample |
For most households the decision is between posting a sample and booking a visit, and the right one depends on the question. "What is this patch?" is a $150 question. "Why does the bedroom smell musty and is it making the kids cough?" is an assessment, because the answer is not on a surface you can press tape onto.
The five things that move the price
- How many samples. Laboratory analysis is priced per sample, and each sample is a separate slide read under the microscope. A single patch needs one. A house with three affected rooms, an outdoor reference and a post-clean check is a different job.
- Air or surface. A surface sample can be taken by anyone with clear tape and the instruction sheet. Air sampling needs a calibrated pump, spore-trap cassettes and a same-day outdoor reference sample, which is why it comes bundled into an assessment rather than sold as a kit.
- Travel and property size. Our own team covers the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Auckland directly; elsewhere we coordinate an assessor from our network. A one-bedroom unit and a five-bedroom house with a subfloor are not the same visit.
- Turnaround. Standard laboratory turnaround is three business days. Faster is possible for a surcharge, and worth asking about if you are working to a settlement date or another deadline.
- The report you need. A plain-English summary is enough to decide whether to clean a bathroom ceiling. An insurer, a property manager or the Tenancy Tribunal will expect condition ratings against a recognised standard, method references and a chain of custody. That is the difference between a test and an assessment, and it is most of the price difference too.
Where petri dish kits fit
Petri dish kits from a hardware store are cheap and easy to find, and it is natural to start with one. The catch is that a dish will always grow something, because every building has airborne spores and the dish collects whatever lands on it. It cannot give a concentration or compare your indoor air with the air outside, so it cannot tell you whether the house has a problem. We have written separately on what each type of kit can and cannot tell you.
What the fee covers
Whichever route you take, you are paying for an answer you can act on. From a post-in sample that means the genera present, a quantified count, and an analyst's notes on what the growth looked like under the microscope. From an assessment it means each area of the property rated against the ANSI/IICRC S520 conditions, the indoor air compared with the outdoor air on the day, moisture readings that point to the source, and recommendations a remediator can price and work to. Reports are written so you can pass them straight to an insurer, a property manager or a remediator. If you would like to see one first, we have walked through a real Scaada report, field by field.
Keeping the cost down without losing the answer
- If there is a single visible patch, take a tape lift with your own clear tape and post it in; it is the cheapest test we offer. Follow the instruction sheet so we can read the sample: label the bag, use clear tape only, one sample per bag. If there are three spots to check, the three-slide kit works out cheaper than three separate lifts.
- If the mould keeps returning, there is a smell without a patch, someone is unwell, or an insurer is involved, an assessment is the better place to start, because a surface sample cannot answer those questions.
- Tell us what the report needs to do. A sampling plan built around the question is cheaper than one built around the house.