Buying a previously owned home in Florida, whether it’s your first or your third, can be a risky undertaking. Even the most seasoned home inspectors can miss the telltale signs of mold that can lead to headaches for the new owners if they’re not looking specifically for them. This is the case of home buyers remorse, just over a year into his purchase.
Dwelling: Single Family
Category: Mold
Location: Office
The unsuspecting victims in our case purchased their home a little more than a year ago and for the past few months, have been plagued by persistent coughs, sneezing and other symptoms resembling asthma. Add to that the wood flooring in their office seemed soft and had too much give.
After doing a little bit of research online, they decided to call Integrity Mold Inspections on suspicions that they had mold.
Testing revealed elevated counts of Aspergillus, Cladosporium and Chaetomium in their home office.The results weren’t surprising due to the issues mentioned previously since moving into the house, but were surprising based on the fact that they had not seen any evidence of water damage anywhere.
Enter Mammoth Restoration.
Nate, the owner of Mammoth, and a true detective when it comes to piecing together the mystery of identifying the source(s) of mold, was the specialist on the case. Having the hygienists’ report certainly makes things easier when it comes to finding mold, but often does little to help identify the source.
It took no time to pop off the baseboard under the window in the office (pictured above) and find visual confirmation of what the air quality test already told us. Nate and his apprentice, Derrick, set to work inspecting the wall under the window. None of the usual signs of a leaking window were present. Nate decided to cut a small hole in the drywall surrounding the duct system above and to the right of the window and use his borescope to inspect the drywall and insulation between the floors. He had a theory that perhaps the second floor window above the office was the culprit.
While he was doing this, Derrick was on a trail of his own by further inspecting the dry rotted wood flooring. He noticed that the damage seemed to be just as bad near the entry to the room, opposite where Nate was doing his investigation between the floors. Like a blood hound in pursuit of an escaped convict, Derrick followed his nose through the door way and around the corner to the laundry room – left adjacent to wall shared by the book case whose back wall was infested with mold.
He peered behind the washer and dryer, noticing a slight separation of the baseboards under the water lines for the washing machine. He also noticed a very sloppy paint job that only went part way to the floor near the corner where the office and laundry room shared a wall.
He inquired about the paint job, to which the victims replied they had done no painting in the laundry room since moving in. On a hunch, Derrick took a small rubber ball like the ones you used to be able to buy for a quarter at any grocery store vending machine and walked back towards the office. He set the ball down on the floor, careful not to give it a push at all. His hunch proved correct. The floor was slightly uneven and tilted towards Nate as he was stepping down from his ladder.
“The drwyall between floors is clean. I can’t see any evidence of water damage coming from the window on the second floor either”, Nate exclaimed.
With a slight smile Derrick said, “I think I found the source, boss.”
Summary: It seems as if there had been a pretty significant leak prior to the house being sold, either from the water pipes behind the wall or from the washing machine itself. As is often the case, the previous owners seem to have made a good faith effort to remedy the problem on their own, going so far as to remove some wet drywall and repainting. However, the lack of proper drying added to the sloping floor that allowed water to flow into the next room unnoticed, has left these new homeowners with possibly tens of thousands of dollars in mold removal and reconstruction expenses.