Home Buyers Beware- Make Sure You Get A Good Mold Inspection


by Jim Corkern - Date: 2007-06-27 - Word Count: 441 Share This!

The home inspection is just one of the steps in the long list of things to be done in the process of purchasing a home. While visible mold will be noticed and reported by any home inspector worth his salt, home inspectors are not mold experts and general inspection does not include air sampling for elevated mold spore counts. Is this really necessary? What is all the fuss with mold anyway?

There are many and varied health symptoms and potentially serious health effects associated with mold. Often times, the patient is unaware of their exposure to mold, and therefore their illness is misdiagnosed and the source of their illness remains in place. Could you imagine being allergic to your own home? It sounds bizarre, but it is something happening with increasing frequency everyday.

Since it is not yet commonplace for mold inspections to be done as part of a typical buyers home inspection, it is recommended that buyers add a mold disclosure piece to their contract so that the sellers must disclose any history involving mold contamination within the property.

This disclosure should include, but not be limited to, full disclosure of previous water damage (including even minor water leaks), any moisture intrusion whatsoever, and any fungal contamination. If any of the above is disclosed by the seller then documentation of the water damage restoration, mold removal and or mold remediation should be obtained.

Mold inspections for the purposes of real estate deals are different than others because an in depth mold inspection involving opening walls or ceilings will not occur in this instance. What can be expected from a mold inspection done to support a real estate transaction, is an assessment of moisture in the home, visual inspections and sampling of areas available without intrusion, and a review of documents from previous mold remediation.

If the results are not what you were hoping for, there is no need to immediately walk away from the deal. At this point, the sellers may agree to a more in depth inspection to determine the cause and extent. Complete mold remediation is still possible.

If mold removal and mold remediation take place, and the source of the moisture is located and remedied, then it is very likely that this problem will not recur. In addition, there are steps that every homeowner can take to prevent mold growth.

There are many ways to reduce the overall moisture in your home, and they include proper ventilation, the use of exhaust fans and air conditioning and dehumidification.

Hopefully, disclosures associated with mold will become standard practice due to increased awareness of the issue itself and of the deleterious effects it has.


Related Tags: mold removal, water damage, mold remediation, water damage restoration

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality flood and water damage cleanup and water damage restoration> companies across the united states.

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