Commonwealth Inspection Services is a Massachusetts-based independent testing company — asbestos and mold inspections, plus moisture mapping.
We're building a talent pool of people we can call on for fieldwork — on-site sample collection, documentation, and getting samples to the lab. It's a particularly good fit for firefighters: you're already comfortable working in occupied buildings, moving carefully around an active site, and following a strict procedure exactly — and it works well alongside a shift-based schedule, since jobs are typically a few hours, scheduled ahead of time. Below is what each service involves and what a typical day looks like, so you know what you'd actually be doing before you tell us you're interested.
We collect small physical pieces of a suspect material — flooring, plaster, siding, insulation, whatever's about to be disturbed by a renovation or demolition. There are a few flavors of this:
Each sample gets bagged, labeled with a field code, and logged on a chain of custody form (more on that below) before it goes to the lab, which tests it under a microscope for asbestos fibers.
This side of the work does require a license — asbestos inspection is EPA-regulated. Getting there means a 3-day (24-hour) “Asbestos Inspector” course — we use the Institute for Environmental Education (IEE) in Wilmington, MA — covering building records review, visual inspection procedures, bulk sampling protocols, PPE, and report writing, followed by a short annual refresher to keep the credential current. We can talk through timing and cost as part of getting you started.
No license required for this one in Massachusetts — it's a more accessible starting point than asbestos.
There are three ways we sample for mold, and a job might use one or all three:
Same as asbestos — everything gets logged and shipped to the lab, which identifies and counts what's actually present under a microscope.
A lot of this work is real, everyday homeowner situations — a basement floods, a pipe bursts, or there's water/smoke damage after a fire, and mold shows up in the aftermath. The final report isn't just paperwork: it's what insurance companies require to process a claim, and often what the town building department requires before repair or renovation work can move forward.
This one's different — no samples, no lab. We use a handheld moisture meter, passed over walls, ceilings, and floors, starting at the wettest point and working outward until the reading returns to normal. We mark that boundary with blue painter's tape and photograph it, room by room. It's a same-day, non-destructive way to document how far water damage has actually spread.
This is usually the same kind of call as mold — a flooded basement or a burst pipe — just earlier in the process, right after the water event. Same deal on the report: it's what insurance and the building department end up relying on.
This is the part that has to be done exactly right every time — it's what makes the lab results legally defensible. Every sample gets:
The lab turns results around, we write up the report, and it goes out to the contractor, property manager, or homeowner who requested it. That whole process — collection through report — is what a field technician here is actually responsible for.
Jobs are scheduled ahead of time, usually a few hours each, so it fits around a rotating schedule. A typical day might look like:
You won't be dropped into a job cold. We'll put in real training time on sampling technique, chain of custody, and how to move through a site — plus walk through actual past reports together so you can see exactly what the finished product looks like and what it takes to get there before you're out on your own.
Some background if you want to read more before you join: