Mold Problems

Home Builder and Flooded House Mold Questions
and Answers

        Q. We are in the process of building a new home and on two separate occasions the house has been flooded. The first time there were fans through out the house. The water came into the house from incomplete plumbing in the master bath. The second time the flooding water came through the den because the dry wall worker had put a screw through the pipe in the master bath shower. When they turned on the water to the new plumbing, the house was flooded again. What can we do to assure we have no water damage or mold? [Jan. 25, 2003]

          A. You should hire a Certified Mold Inspector to completely inspect your new home under construction for hidden water problems and mold problems. One important inspection point is to drill one-half inch inspection holes in several areas along each wall, ceiling, and [wooden] floor area that was actually flooded to insert a fiber optics inspection tool to look for water damage and mold growth inside the walls, ceiling, and floor. Next the inspector should test the air in the various rooms, basement, crawl space, and attic, plus the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning [ hvac] equipment and ducts, to determine if there are elevated levels of dangerous airborne mold spores. It is very likely that your home has a serious mold infestation problem, but only thorough inspection and testing can establish whether or not your home has become a sick house because of mold contamination. If you want to do your own mold inspection and testing, please follow the directions provided in mold expert Phillip Fry's book Do-It-Best-Yourself Mold Prevention, Inspection, Remediation, and Testing Guide. You may want to consider hiring a mold attorney to pursue any legal rights you have for damages from the home builder and/or contractors that have put your home into mold jeopardy. For help in pursuing a home builder mold liability claim, look for environmental attorneys in the lawyer reference book Martindale Hubbell Directory of Attorneys, often available in the reference department of large public libraries.

          Q. I live in Hudson, NH. Recently we found out that a few houses in our neighborhood had to undergo mold remediation (all built by the same builder--we know there are several others in similar circumstances as we are right now as well, all built by the same builder). Once we heard them describe the mold in their attics, we immediately realized we had the same problem, but had dismissed it as it appeared like 'dirt' on our attic roof. A friend of ours is a local mold expert went up in our attic to check it out. Without performing any testing, he felt that it indeed was a problem and should be taken care of. It looked just like the mold in the home of one of our neighbor's for whom he did take samples for testing. We called our insurance company to put in a claim and an adjuster came out to look at it and take pictures. That's as far as we have gone thus far. The adjuster asked us to provide them with a 'statement of origin' from our mold expert. We are currently waiting for this statement and should receive it this week. The mold expert says that he feels the mold is due to moisture seeping in from the roof. There is only 'black tar paper' around the perimeter of our roof, not all over it underneath the shingles. Due to a few bad winters 3-4 years ago, he feels that there were ice dams that caused the problem and without this barrier, it seeped into the wood. We have no known sources of moisture in our attic from any other source as we have checked bathroom fans, etc. To support this, the mold is more prevalent on the outer parts of the roof, versus where the fan ducts are located. Also, the mold is only on the back side of the house. The front side of the house that gets sun all day long is free from mold. The back side is in the shade most of the day. I don't have a good feeling about the insurance company's honoring our claim, but I guess we'll have to wait to see how things go once we provide them with a statement of origin. Should we wait to be denied by the insurance company to go to a lawyer, or should we find one now? I'm very disturbed by the cost estimates I'm hearing to tear off our roof and redo it (those we've heard from neighbors that have done this recently). Without insurance monies, there is no way that we can do this ourselves. [May 20, 2002]

           A. Not having black tar paper underneath all of the shingles might possible be a construction defect that a lawyer could pursue against the builder if the statute of limitations for suing has not already expired. To avoid ice dams backing up water underneath shingles, roofs in cold climates should have something better than black roofing paper---a thick rubber-like waterproof membrane underneath the shingles to make absolutely sure that water doesn't penetrate the roof decking into the attic area to cause mold growth. As far as collecting from an insurance company, the damage must be something specifically covered in your insurance policy, and be sudden and accidental and related to a specific occurrence date. You must also file a claim with a policy-provided time period [usually very short from the date of occurrence].

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Mold Problems

Home Builder and Flooded House Mold Questions
and Answers