Here are a couple of photos I took of an extreme case of excessive moisture and mold in a vacant HUD home I visited last year.

On a recent home inspection the inspector climbed down from the attic and informed us he detected what appeared to be “Bio growth” under the wood framing of the roof. That was his way of not saying he thinks he saw MOLD. Not being a mold specialist he could not determine if it was mold or not…just that he suspected seeing what appears to be “MOLD”.  How the mold grew in the attic…the inspector suspected the lack of proper ventilation in the attic and the over use of the whole house humidifier cause moisture to form and get trapped in the attic. That sounds reasonable…but now we had to prove the theory and get it corrected.

Mold has become a four letter word in the home inspection, home buying and selling industry. Lets face it. Mold is everywhere and there are literally thousands of types of mold. It’s the bad mold that is dangerous but all mold should be properly assessed by the proper authorities.

Who is the proper authorities you ask? Well it is good to know your facts. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  is a great place to start. Then there is the ever popular U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They have a lot of information about Mold and it’s effects on you, your property and the air we breath.  It boils down to the effects of excessive uncontrolled moisture in a home.

What did we do after the findings by the home inspector?  We called in the expert mold inspector Mike Hesterberg who determined that we did have mold in the attic. The solution? We then brought in the mold remediation expert Barry McFall from Healthy Indoor Air Services and they gave my buyer an estimate to clean up mold in the attic. Buyers and sellers compromised by each paying half of the cost for the clean up and then the seller agreed to pay half towards installing additional roofing vents to provide more air circulation in the attic to avoid from future mold growth.

It was determined that the mold was not the dangerous type but it was still a form of mold and the buyer felt more comfortable having it removed. I’m glad the buyers and sellers worked together for a solution. As it turned out everyone is satisfied with the outcome and I got a good lesson on Mold.

God bless you and pray for our troops.