TOXIC MOLD- SHOULD I BE SCARED?
I found a house that has been confirmed to have toxic mold in it. I am considering making an offer on it at a very low price. Is this a smart investment opportunity? Is toxic mold a no win in a rehab opportunity or is remediation possible?
Thanks in advance for your support.
remediation is no big deal if you know what your doing.
You pay a plumber $5 to turn the wrench and $95 to know where to put the wrench.
Get someone in the boat with you, call a contractor does this type of work and get an estimate from him for it even if it costs $100. Then your not guessing anymore you have a basis to work from on your offer.
Randall
In most cases mold is easy to get rid of, but you also need to get rid of the water source or the mold will come back.
Also, where there is mold on the surface, there is often mold inside the wall that needs to be addressed. Watch out for this.
Your local health department should have a list of contractors that do mold remediation and can give you an estimate for your situation.
What is the "toxic mold"? Some special kind? As far as I know, the mold is mold and the kind of fungi that cause pulmonary complications. Are we talking about the same kind?
It all depends on the infestation problem.
I have seen HUD homes listed with Mold that have a 2x4 foot piece of drywall removed to fix it, however, mold is mold, so the house is classified as mold.
However, Ed McMann (Johnny Carson side kick) just got a multi-million dollar settlement in regard to mold infestation of entire house.
Is the house got a small mold problem that can be fixed or is it a huge mold problem that can be fixed only by throwing tons of money and time at it, such as removing every inch of drywall, down to the studs, removing every bit of insullation?
So how would you know if mold is beyond the dry wall. I mean if you walk in and see mold on the dry wall what would be an easy way to tell if the mold problem is restricted to the drywall or if you'd need to do rip out the entire room? Only thing I can think of is to pick a particular moldy spot on the wall and cut out a section. The owner might not be too thrilled with that
It isn't very easy. That is just exactly what makes it so difficult to just say "Yep, do it!"
You can roll the dice, or do some intelligent sniffing and investigation work, using your head, looking for logical connections, discovering situations that will leed you in one direction or another. There are also kits and labs that will do analysis for a fee.
There is no simple answer, especially trying to wave your computer over the house so we can get a feel for it. Experience and being hands on the house are the only ways to even get an idea of what the house might or might not be.
I just ran across mold in a bathroom I was remodelling. I had to cut out some sections of the sub-floor in the bathroom in order to re-route some copper pipes, drains and vents. In the process I discovered that the original tub had been installed incorrectly some 20 years ago by the original plumber, the nut had been cracked by a few too many turns. It has been leaking a tiny bit for the last 20 years.
Sure enough, I pulled back some of the insullation between the floor joists and mold was on the wood.
This lead me to having to cut out more flooring running down the length of the two floor joists. I bleached the wood and left a cheap box fan running over night, blowing down into the space.
The next day no signs of the mold, I then had to cut out sub-floor on both sides of this infected joists to see if the mold had just been contained between these two joists or had gotten all under the entire bathroom floor. Luckily there were no signs anywhere else.
But that small mold issue cost me a few days worth of time, cutting the floor out, treating the mold, drying it out and replacing the floor.
The moral is you never know what you are going to find. There was no signs of that mold until I happened to rip up the sub-floor to move some plumbing. It also could have ended up that the entire 10 x 10 area could have been infected, causing me to have to rip out the entire floor to get to it, costing hundreds of dollars in materials and days of labor. Or it could have even ran down the studs into the floor below.
Mold is not just a simple issue you take care of by throwing a cup of bleach at it and counting your money you made on the sucker that sold you the house, some times you will eat the bear and sometimes the bear will eat you.
There are now mold inspecton specialist. My inspector is really good and twice has told me that a house had mold. Both times it was because of the grading. One house was low to the ground and on a slope. The second time a large oak tree had grown right up against the house wo water drained towards the house .
You definately need to find the cause. And you will have to disclose that there was a mold problem in the house. Many buyers will run the other way. Geez, I would even be scared of any possible liaibliity from pregnant women and children. If someone buys that house and gets sick and they get and the house tests positive for mold after you said it was cleaned ..... $$$$$. Definately get a CYA letter that they should have the house tested by their own mold expert and that you are making no guarantees.
Brenda