Wet Basements and Mold

Those of us who have basements in our homes see it as either a curse or a blessing, depending on the condition of it. You can leave the drywall and carpet out of the basement and use it for storage like many homeowners do or you can put it in and use it for an extra bedroom, family room, or an area to entertain guests. The bad thing about using the basement sometimes, though, is that if it is not properly waterproofed, you can have some moisture and humidity issues to deal with later on if you are not dealing with them already. No one wants to stay in a humid, smelly basement for long and this will turn off any guests that you might want to have over in that area.

Take care of any indoor water issues first. This can include bursting water pipes, hot water heater (that really should be in the basement and nowhere else) or if you use a portion of the basement as a laundry room, it can be a malfunctioning clothes washer. Make sure that your dryer has a vent so that the excess humidity will be directed to the outside of the house. It is also a good idea to never hang clothes up to dry in the basement, unless it is just a single article or two. Water evaporates from the clothing and settles into the air, creating humidity. Clothes should also be dried in the electric dryer as soon as they are done washing to help reduce this problem.

Another thing you should do, especially if you use the basement for a laundry room or if you have an extra bathroom in it, is install an exhaust vent. You can do this in more than one spot if you need to, depending on the size of your basement. This will displace some of the humidity to the outside of the house and not allow it to be soaked up by the ceiling.

Another thing to worry about when you have a humid basement is mold. Mold loves to grow on any dead organic material and once it starts growing, you will be hard pressed to get rid of it without removing the source of the water first. If you have water issues in the basement, make sure these are taken care of before putting any carpet down, since carpet that becomes molded is hard to clean and any padding underneath it that becomes contaminated will have to be torn up and thrown away.

Not All Molds Are Dangerous

No one wants to find mold in their home, but sometimes finding it is the first of our worries. There are a lot of questions that need to be asked after that and most of the time, when a person goes looking for mold in their home, they do not realize this. The questions have to do with what kind of mold it is, what caused it, how to get rid of it, how long it will take, and how much it will cost. This is a lot of headache to deal with, as you can imagine, and while you are dealing with it, the company that you hire to get rid of the mold problem may try to take you for a ride.

What is meant by this? Well, the mold problem that you discover might not be that big of an issue, after all. Cosmetic molds like Ceratocystis can grow in homes and not be a threat to you or the structure of your home at all and yet, some dishonest mold remediation companies will try to convince you that you need a full scale removal done and that this mold is dangerous. This is unfortunate and people get scammed out of thousands of dollars because they simply do not know that cosmetic molds exist.

Ceratocystis is a mold that is a blue-ish color and it will appear on the wooden components of your home and sometimes will even be built into the home itself. This is not a good thing, but it is not enough of a bad thing that you need to worry extensively about how you are going to get rid of it. It will not do any damage to the wood over time and it is not going to harm your health, so why worry?

The only real drawback of this mold in your house is that it is unsightly if it appears in a visible area of your home. If it is outside, you can remove it with sandblasting or pressure washing, but these methods are not recommended for indoors, since they can be pretty messy. You can wash it off indoor surfaces with a scrub brush and a mixture of water and borax detergent. After you finish this, you should remove the water or humidity problem in the area that the mold was found in, if you can, to help slow its return.

Mold, Water Damage, and Condos

If you have just moved into your first home, you may not realize just how much work and effort it takes to keep up a house, even if it only has one bedroom in it. People who live in condominiums and have homeowner’s association fees do not generally have to deal with the maintenance of the building’s structure, but those who have houses are responsible for the entire thing from the ground up. Living in a condo can have its benefits and its downfalls, but if you do not want to have to take care of the structure of the building (if it is an apartment-style complex), then having one of these instead of a house may be for you.

If you are considering renovating a condominium inside a larger apartment-style complex, then you should realize that there are things that you can do and things that you cannot. For instance, replacing the tub and tile in the bathroom is acceptable, but moving the plumbing around to suit your new design is probably not. Structural changes to the inside of a condo are generally something that you need to have approved first. Changing the location of a light in the room also should be inquired about, since this will involve having electrical work done.

Mold growth and water damage in the condominium, though, will be your responsibility. Everything inside the walls of the condo belongs to you and you can do as you wish with most of it, but any mold growth and water damage that occurs inside it will also be your responsibility, especially if it is your fault that it is there. If you have allowed the bath tub to overflow or the dishwasher malfunctions, then that would make it your responsibility to have the problem fixed. If it is due to bad plumbing in the complex, though, you may have a claim.

The condo that you are purchasing should come with exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathroom and if it does not, look around for a window in both these areas. The kitchen and bathroom are areas that are prone to mold growth and water damage if the humidity stays too high. As with any home, you do not want to have appliances that use a lot of water and malfunction on a regular basis. You will be better off purchasing new ones in the long run.

The exception of mold growth being your responsibility is only if the mold spread into your condo from another part of the building. If the entire complex has a problem, then you are not liable. Have a clause on mold inserted into your purchase agreement to protect yourself from mold damage that already exists in the condo.