ilovealaskainthesummer asked:
I am buying an older home and looking for ways to rule out black mold. The roof was replaced last year and the ceiling freshly painted. The crawl space is not accessable at this time. If there is a new roof, new paint, and no signs of new mold than is there still concerns? The owners say it was a rental….so they can not say if there was ever any black mold. The property disclosure indicates “surface mold”… Is there a differance?
Minnie
I am buying an older home and looking for ways to rule out black mold. The roof was replaced last year and the ceiling freshly painted. The crawl space is not accessable at this time. If there is a new roof, new paint, and no signs of new mold than is there still concerns? The owners say it was a rental….so they can not say if there was ever any black mold. The property disclosure indicates “surface mold”… Is there a differance?
Minnie
{ 6 comments }
When you get it inspected, the inspector will look for problems like this.
Have a mold test done by an inspection company, then you will have proof its either there or not.
you need to hire a professional to evaluate the property.
You really need to get in the crawl space, not just for mold, but for other problems like termites.
Black is a color. Just because there’s black mold, doesn’t mean it’s the TOXIC kind. Mold grows in MOST houses, and MOST of the time, it’s harmless (well, if you don’t have allergies).
If you’re worried that this might be the toxic kind, hire a mold specialist to go out and get some samples to test. There’s no insurance that will cover it, so you’re better off paying BEFORE you buy the house.
We found mold in our home this summer, and I can tell you from experience that where there’s a little mold there’s a lot of mold. Mold is alive, and the only way to get rid of it is to kill it and then treat the areas where it was with a preventative. This can only be done by professionals, and if the job doesn’t get done right, the mold will grow back. Surface mold is mold is black mold, it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t buy the house, and I wouldn’t even bother with an inspection. With the subprime mortgage market collapse, you can find plenty of good rental properties that are in fine condition. There’s no need to buy a money pit.
In our home we saw just a little bit of mold on one wall, but the mold itself was all over our first floor and had started growing up to the second floor. When we tore out the drywall, it was wet and moldy through the walls, under the carpet, under the cabinets and under the tile floor in the kitchen. Our insurance adjustor told us that it appeared that the mold had been growing for about six weeks, and it had already done that much damage, but we didn’t even know it.
Our insurance company spent a lot of money and a lot of time and did a great job of fixing our home, but like I said, I would never even think about a home where there had been a mold issue that was not properly remediated.
Get a home inspection by a certified home inspector if you can. They check for dampness which is what black mold loves. If their is no visible signs of it I think thats all that you should be concerned about. Make sure you check the bathrooms though. Around the tub and in the subflooring if there is any signs of water seepege this can create black mold. It is unhealthy to breath but it doesnt sound like you are going to be doing any rehabing so you should be fine. Get the home inspection.
Comments on this entry are closed.