How Could My Inspector possibly Have missed a mold problem?

 This Article Was Contributed By Burgess Inspection Company, one of our preferred inspection companies

Homes develop “lifestyles” the same as automobiles and other structural or mechanical equipment such as plumbing, appliances, HVAC and electrical.

For example, take a house that a seller has lived in for many, many years; the children are all grown and have now moved out.  All while the children were home, the shower they used was in use constantly.  Now that particular shower is not used.  Maybe the shower had leaked in the past, but since there has been no recent activity in the shower the sub floor and areas around the leak dry out so the wood is stained but not wet.

Then the home is sold and the home is inspected.  No mold or wood decay was present at the time of the inspection.  The shower tiles need grouting but the shower did not show evidence of leaking when the inspector was under the house.  The inspector saw the stains on the sub floor but it was dry and solid wood with no evidence of any decay.

The new owners move into the house in early summer.  They started using that bathroom and shower at least twice a day, about three months later they have a service man go under the house for something and he observes the mold hanging from the floor joists and the sub floor and the sub floor is rotting.

The new owners blame the inspector for not reporting the mold and rotting sub floor.  Service people, that have little to no knowledge about mold and wood, state that the inspector should have seen it when in fact it wasn’t there or at least it was not visible at the time.

Mold and wood decay need moisture and warm temperatures.  When humid air is present mold and wood decay will be visible in a matter of days.

It was evident that the shower had leaked from the water stain, but because it had not be used, it had dried up and it did not have the moisture to feed it; it went dormant.  When the shower was being used again, the moisture returned.  It was warm and humid and the mold appeared along with the wood decay.  The only way to prevent mold and wood decay is to remove the conditions that are required for mold to grow which are the moisture and humidity source.

I used a shower as an example, but appliances can fail because of the change in lifestyle as well.  For example, a dishwasher that the previous owner operated only once or twice a week and that is now being operated once or twice a day has the potential to fail because of increased usage.

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