Surfactant molecules (SDS) adsorbed on polystyrene microspheres are usually used as stabilizing agents. Nevertheless these molecules could modify the structure of clusters and the growth kinetics in aggregation processes. In this article we present an experimental study in which direct information on the structure of the aggregates and the aggregation mechanisms are assessed by two independent methods. Static light scattering (SLS) was used to measure the fractal dimension for clusters and dynamic light scattering (DLS) was used to determine the time evolution of the cluster mass. The cluster structure and the aggregation kinetics were identified by determining the fractal dimension and the homogeneity exponent appearing in the reaction kernels. The obtained results indicate that the salt concentration alters the cluster structure and the aggregation mechanism, whereas the surfactant molecules are responsible only for the cluster structure, probably by a restructuring process within the clusters. Osmotic and elastic-steric interactions are taken into account for supporting the idea of a rearrangement process once clusters are formed. The repulsive barrier appearing at short distances (twice the surfactant layer thickness) forces the particles to be located at a certain distance, just at the minimum of the potential curve, where attractive van der Waals forces are weaker than when particles are able to keep in direct contact.