Has Mold Invaded Your Home or Workplace?
By William G. Christopher, Esq. - In Florida, mold is everywhere – in the air we breathe, in the ground we walk on, in some food that we eat. Why, then, does mold become a problem for some of us in our homes or work places? The answer lies in three areas. (1) The type of mold – some mold affects us more than others; (2) The concentration or density of the mold spores – left unchecked, mold grows rapidly; and (3) Some of us are more sensitive – even allergic – to mold than others.
How does mold become a problem in our homes or work places? Mold needs two things to grow rapidly: water and food. Unfortunately, most building materials provide food for mold. The biggest culprits are wall board, ceiling tile and wood. Therefore, food for mold is found throughout our homes and work places. Thus, when water is introduced into this mix, we have mold growth – lots of mold growth. Left alone, (with food and water), mold grows in colonies and becomes concentrated in certain areas. This is when sensitive humans begin suffering. Sometimes we must move out of the home or office. Our personal possessions must be cleaned of mold.
What can be done about this? This may sound simplistic, but the first step is to stop the water from entering the interior of the home or work place. After you have stopped the water, then you may also have to remove walls and ceilings if they are damaged, and to treat wood surfaces with appropriate paint. There are commercial companies that "remediate" mold in homes or buildings – they remove food sources for mold and clean out the mold. But these remediation specialists are not general contractors, as a rule, and are not well equipped to stop the water (step one). You do not want to spend money remediating the food source if you do not have the water intrusion stopped.
There are other specialists who attempt to find the water source. The most common water source is the roof system. The second most common source is windows and doors, and/or the installation areas around windows and doors. Water can also come through cracks in stucco and through a slab floor (which can curl a good wood floor). Obviously, there can be multiple sources. Often, the only way to find the sources is through water tests.
Of special interest in evaluating mold problems are the HVAC system (heating, venting and air conditioning) and the attic area which usually houses one or more air handlers, the duct system and a piping system which services the air handlers. One of the functions of the HVAC system is to control the moisture level in the home and, thus, to inhibit mold growth in the home. Sometimes, the HVAC system is not properly designed or balanced, and it contributes to the problem rather than resolves it.
Vented attics (until recently, required by Code) exacerbate the problem by becoming super heated and causing excess condensation on duct and pipes in the attic – a source of water in and of itself. Often, there are many "holes" between the hot attic and the conditioned living space (such as through light fixtures) through which hot, mold-filled, outside air can be sucked into the living space by a negative pressure. All of these problems must be addressed by the appropriate specialist.
All of this can cost a lot of money depending on how severe the problem and how big the home or office complex – anywhere from $30,000.00 to well over $100,000.00 or more. Who will pay for this work? This is where a construction lawyer experienced in mold problems can help you.
First, you must put the contractor who built the home/office building "on notice" of the problem. Ask them to notify their insurance company. Also, notify your own insurance company. Next, hire your own expert to investigate the problem and recommend what steps to take to resolve the problem. I try to sit down with the contractor and agree on what must be done. Then we decide on who will do the "fixes", so to speak. The contractor will want to have the same subcontractor, the roofer for example who built the defective roof, come back and repair it. I resist that. The repair job is usually no better than the original installation. Also, with roofs, some of the problems are difficult to locate until you take the roof off and look at the sheathing from above. Depending on the facts, I argue for a complete roof replacement, by another company, inspected along the way by my roofing expert.
Ater the roof is replaced, I urge my clients to condition the attic space by covering the vents and applying "Zip Foam", a foam-type material, to the underside of the roof sheathing and to all attic walls. (The old insulation must be removed.) This is technically an "upgrade" which your contractor will not pay for, but it is cheap and well worth the money. At the same time, you will want an expert to re-calculate (or check existing calculations) loads of your HVAC system, and to check the "balancing" of the system. Humidistats should be installed if you do not have them (this may be another upgrade, but well worth the money).
Water tests of representative windows and doors should follow. Water stains on the inside wood around windows and doors are a good indicator of which ones leak and need to be tested. Often, it is not the glazing that leaks (which can be re-caulked), but faulty installation of the windows and doors that are the culprits. Parts are sometimes left out in the installation process, like pans at the bottom of windows. Bad construction techniques outside of doors sometime contribute to leaks. Exterior patios should slope away from sliding glass doors. The door’s track should sit on top of a 1 to 1.5 inch lip above the exterior patio surface.
After all of these problems are solved, do another round of water tests to make sure. Do not skimp on testing. Throughout this period, keep the HVAC system on. It should easily keep the humidity level at or under 65%, which is the threshold for mold growth.
When you are satisfied that the water intrusion has been stopped, then you can remove and replace the mold’s food. In fact, you probably will have removed the wall board before the water tests so that you could observe the walls from the inside. Wood that fostered mold growth should be treated with a coating that kills the mold (this is true in the attic as well). Then the new wall board can be installed, the molding replaced and everything painted.
What is the lawyer’s role in all this? I have been through this so many times that I know the right way and the wrong way to do it. I know what experts must be hired to do it the right way. I know how it must be documented and photographed. I know how to keep the contractors informed. You want others to pay for this in the end. I will bring a lawsuit while the remediation effort is on-going against those who should reimburse you.
Insurance is an important element of the recovery. Contractors and subcontractors are much more prone to settle these claims if they can use the insurance money. However, insurance companies resist paying these claims. For example, a contractor’s policy will have an exclusion for damages to the contractor’s own work. However, there are ways to avoid these exclusions, and I have successfully done this.
The bottom line is that you may not get the job done right and you may not recover your money without an experienced construction lawyer guiding you every step of the way.
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William G. Christopher heads the Maglio Christopher & Toale Law Firm Construction Law and Litigation Department. He is certified by The Florida Bar in both Construction Law and Business Litigation Law. He is also certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy in Civil Trial Advocacy. He is an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association and certified by the Florida Supreme Court as a Circuit/Civil Mediator. Prior to becoming an attorney Mr. Christopher achieved the rank of Captain during his service in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1962 to 1967.