Buy a home, you are a home owner you are also a property manager, unfortunately the home didn't come with an instruction manual.  Don't you wish a baby came with an instruction manual?

Your first or fifth home all hold similar responsibilities in property management and I have seen all sorts of mismanagement by new and veteran homeowners, simple because no one was trained on how to manage a home.   case in point maybe your neighbors yard looks better than yours, not because it is professionally done but rather your neighbor has more knowledge regarding lawn and yard care, hey its not rocket science but there is some science to it and when was the last time you took a science class?

Raise your Homeownership Property IQ

Chemical Storage  (Cleaners, paints, fuels, chemicals, pesticides, etc.)

Yes you own a home, so you own chemicals, more so than when you and I am not 100% talking about cleaning compounds, although Lysol and anything that kills Covid has an EPA registration number meaning there is some hazard.  You know that left over paint can with the dried paint?   Yes the paint can is not 100% air tight and will slowly release compounds in the air, as will many other chemical storage container.  (Had a guy getting sick in his basement office because it had 27 cans of paint, some mold as well but more about that later.  I am going to use chemical as a broad term to refer to anything you are not eating or using to do laundry, leaves a long list of things doesn't it.

Simple chemical storage solution  store chemicals together away from living area, garage or shed is best, this way you are not breathing anything that can off gas from the containers (gas cans should be stored outside the footprint of the home).  90% of homes we inspect do not follow this rule.

Take an inventory of your chemicals, including partially used paint cans, if you no longer use the color, get rid f it.  (latex paint cans can be opened and left to dry and disposed of by most municipal trash collection), household hazardous waste days are common and will accept most all chemicals homeowners want to disposal.  Longer you live in a home more chemical you collect, buy a home, well prior owner will leave a slew of items they didn't want but thought you would, go through it and get rid of what you don't need.    And yes most everything can have an expiration date so that pesticide you maybe saving has likely lost efficacy (the ability to produce a desired or intended result), dispose of it properly.

Water Management aka Preventing Mold

Mold can grow anywhere in your house if water is present and 60 to 70% of home we perform mold inspections at have mold, so how can you be the mold police?

On a rainy day (I mean a rain event of an hour or more), go outside and walk around your house.  If you see water pooling within a few feet or even next o the dwelling foundation you must adjust the outside grade because you don't want water by your foundation.    Water saturated soil can freeze in winter causing soils to heave and can crack your foundation (we see this all the time).   Also any water near your foundation can enter your home, which can burn out your sump pump, damage finished area and cause mold.  Know this a mold problem is a water problem.  Remember I said go outside after its been raining an hour?  Well if you see water by the foundation imagine what happens if it rains for 8 hours?

Take note of your gutters, if water is pouring out of the lengths, you likely have a clog or the gutter are undersized and can't mange the water, this is a situation where size does matter bigger is better.  I have seen new $850,000 homes with undersized gutters because the builder saw a way to save money and aside from us, most people don't look at gutters.

Exhaust Fans

100% of the time they must exhaust to the outside.  Cooking adds moisture to the air increasing humidity which can foster mold growth, many kitchen exhausts only recirculate air.   Bathroom fans if people use them often are exhausted to the attic fueling mold.   

Did you know you can install a humidistat controlled switch for your bathroom fan, click it on after you shower and it turns off when humidity drops, you will never get that naked chill again.

Pro Tip:

Turn on your bathroom fan and hold a paper towel up to it, if it clings to the fan, good fan, if it doesn't the fan sucks and not in the good way.  Yes bigger bathroom needs a bigger fan, 1 CFM per square foot of room. So a 50-79 sq. ft. bathroom would need a fan with a 50 to 80 CFM rating.

Attic:

Regarding mold, attics are one of the top three areas we find mold growth.    After we remediate (Average cost to remediate an attics is about $3,000.00 plus or minus, gain size matters) the remedy to prevent further growth is better air (humidity management).  Aside from venting the bathroom exhaust outside, ridge vents on the roof, humidistat controlled exhaust fans are huge lines of defense.  Even insulating the hatch to the attic helps because warm air during the heating season can migrate to the attic (heat rises) mixing with cold winter air which drops out moisture, fueling mold.

Do I need a humidifier?

If you have  basement, yes.    Because the soils outside your foundation hold moisture and moisture goes where it isn't.  Even if you have a finished basement with heating and cooling the area will never be the same temperature as upstairs.  Also basements without dehumidifiers invariably have mold.

Pro Tip:

Buy a dehumidifier that is sufficient for size of the room and use the supplied hose to drain it to a sump or sink.

*Remember there is a dust filter on the front of every dehumidifier, which you should remove and wash every 3 months.

HVAC The Lungs of the Home  aka how do I make my home healthier

Everyone is concerned about health, but no one thinks much about the HVAC system in a home.  The HVAC is managing the air you breath in the home and most HVAC systems are sub par in adding any real health benefits.  This topic could cover a whole article so I am just going to provide an overview.

1. Filters should be replaced every 3 to 6 months depending on the MERV rating.  No one remembers, so you should always write the date of last filter change on the filter and think about changing the filter when you pay your property taxes.
2. Operating a whole house humidifier on the HVAC System (forced hot air only) keeps optimal humidity in winter, viruses thrive in low humidity environments.
3. Increase the efficiency of your HVAC filter, most 1" filter catch the golf ball size particulate, look into having a MERV 16 filter installed.  What is MERV 16, think of it as installing an N95 Mask to your HVAC system.  Think about what that filters.

Home Energy Efficiency

You own a home, and your utility bill is likely higher than where you lived before.  Statistically we use less electricity today than 10 years ago due to lower energy demand of newer electronics and the availability of energy efficient products.  So lets start with the low lying fruit of home energy efficiency.

1. Replace high use lighting with LED which can be 80% more efficient that historic lighting.  What is high use areas?  Kitchen, front door light, primary bath lighting, bedrooms, home office, hallways.  All these are common left on when no one is in the room or home, so consider that when replacing bulbs.  really most every bulb could be replaced.
2. Smart Thermostats, they can save 10% annually on heating and cooling.
3. Water Heater Blanket, if your water heater does not have an extra insulation layer, you are losing energy

Pro Tip:

Consider an on demand hot water heater, they have come down significantly in price and consume less space than traditionally water heaters.  Think about it does your hot water need to be hot at 2 am, likely not so why spend money to heat it at that time of day 365 days out of the year.

*Go look on the serial number plate of your hot water heater, it will tell you year it was manufactured.  Know they last about 16 years on average, you may need t replace before you need to, plumbers make their money on emergency service and lack of hot water is an emergency. 

In real estate you have a three step process when evaluating environmental concerns during a property  transaction.  The three steps are summarized as follows:

Phase I:  Historical research

Phase II Testing for suspect issues found from the Phase II

Phase III, commonly called remediation or corrective action.

Between Phase I, II & II, phase II is the most commonly misunderstood part and many people think you can combine a Phase I & II, which you can't.  The reason being is you need to do the Phase I to draft a road map (navigate) more or less of issues with the property that you use the Phase II to actually quantify (quantitative data).

Let's have an example of a Phase II.

Phase I is performed of what the casual person would consider low risk.  Multi story building with retain on first floor and residential units on higher floor.  The Phase I review historical research (it is surprising what databases you can pull from for a property.  A Phase I historical research includes evaluating Sanborn historic fire insurance maps (if available for a site).  In a snippet from a Sandborn map for this site, the designation GT was noted.  GT = Gasoline Tank.

So you now compare the map with an overlay or aerial photographs to evaluate the location.

The Phase I consists of a walking inspection of a property, which you should not perform before you obtain and review your historical research.  So in this scenario you would have reviewed the Sanborn map band noted the historic gasoline tank.    Clearly when you do your walking inspection you evaluate this area as you have noted it through historical and current imagery.

You can see from the photo of the area that there are still visual clues of the gas tank being present.

You are now moving forward with the Phase II as the gas tank may still be present or removed, it could be either.  Bear in mind the current owner has been interviewed and has no knowledge of a gas tank.

A common Phase II task is completed a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR Survey). Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a geophysical technology that uses radar pulses to image below grade (subsurface) objects. It is a non-intrusive and nondestructive method to look below the surface, so to speak. By using electromagnetic radiation in the microwave band, signals are sent into the ground and when the radar encounters a solid object (buried objects), the signal is reflected back to the antenna and interpreted.

The photo below shows a GPR unit accessing the area of the suspect tank.  

The image interpreted by the unit shows the reflection of a tank.

In this scenario, a mostly residential site had a Phase I performed, because performing a Phase I is SOP for commercial sites (the uninformed would believe a Phase I is not necessary).    No one was aware a gas tank was present.  The Phase I research pointed to a gas tank being present at one time.  Property owner believed if a tank was present it was removed, I mean why leave the tank in the ground.  A Phase II was performed (and no you don't commonly carry geophysical equipment when you walk a property doing a Phase I) and low and behold a gas tank was found.

To summarize, you do a Phase I to look for potential environmental issue.  You do a Phase II to see if potential issues in the Phase I are issues.  In this case the Phase II found a gas tank which will lead to a Phase III which would be tank removal.

Phase II Questions?

888-301-1050

Black mold, the most feared, most misunderstood mold that isn't even a mold.  People here this, there is no such thing as Black Mold.  There is no mold with a scientific name of "Black Mold" .  Molds have names that are much harder to pronounce than a color.    Black mold is a color of mold, there are 100's of molds that are black in color, but there are not 100's of "black" molds.

The media, lawyers and other mold companies will try and tie the mold Stachybotrys chartarum  to black mold, because that mold is a greenish-black mold.   This mold had the unfortunate timing of being found in a famous case on mold (it made the national news, there was a lawsuit and a 32 million dollar award for mold damage).  The media sensationalized the mold by labeling it the Black Mold.    Black mold you see is easier to pronounce than say Stachybotrys chartarum, acremonium, penicillium aspergillus, chaetomium etc, all scientific, hard to pronounce names that do not readily roll off the tongue.  

If there really was a black mold, wouldn't you also expect there to be a molds called white and grey which are also colors of mold?

Black mold was made up by the media to sensationalize mold.    People who do mold work use the term black mold to scare people into action, typically remediation.  Now, I am not saying if you have mold that is black in color like the photo below its not a problem.  Clearly it is and needs to be addressed, but trust me mold is not like a spider web  that pops up over night.    Mold takes time, right environment and moisture to grow. There are many different species of molds that can grow and cause health concerns. If you see what you think is mold or there is an odor, call a professional. 

At Curren Environmental, we are consultants and educators.  We provides classes, talks and seminars on environmental topics for a variety of professionals.   Prior to Covid-19, in person attendance was 100%, now, we are dealing with  a mixed of 100% remote classes and in person/live streaming to people who could not attend.

Did you know that education is something that people are willing to pay for and are willing to get nothing out of it?   It's the hand stamp mentality, and its a real statement, go do an internet search on it.

So where do we find that you will get the most out of a education?  Well assuming you want the knowledge provided, in person is hands down the winner.   I say this as I am actually trained and Arello certified to teach remotely, but I much prefer in person.   I compare in person to going to the movies vs watching a movie at home.   I will give a run down as to why in person hands down beats remoted hosted classes.

1.   As an instructor you read the group in front of you. You know who is and isn't engaged.   There are points where you can lose the whole group, as environmental talks can be boring for sure.  By knowing how the group is engaging, it's the instructors responsibility to bring people back into being interested and actually learning.   Yes, the instructor who is in front of the group can create engagement when the attendee engagement is lost.  Trust me - we know when you are listening when you are in front of us.  Hey does a bartender know you need a drink?  We see that you are going rogue, but when you are not in front of us? It is immensely harder  to read your interest level (Oh and not showing a live image of you is pretty much a slap in the face saying, I have other things I am doing that are more important).    So If I don't know your bored, I don't know how to bring you back to engagement.  A common practice in live classes is to toss in some humor, trust me if people in the group laugh, the uninterested perk up to see what they missed, I have seen it countless times.  You know when you go to the movies and the crowd erupts in some form of emotion?  Well that group reaction helps with engagement.

2.    In person also allows an instructor to pull a group together so knowledge is actually absorbed.  Case in point, at times the blank look on people faces tells you they missed what you said.  At that point you propose a question to the group which re-engages attendees.  Trust me it's nearly impossible to perceive this in remote learning situations, in short, you all look like zombies.  Just go look at the person next to you watching television, do they look enlightened?  That is your look as you stare at your computer screen.

3.   Reading a group is easier in person.  Think about looking at your computer monitor with 40 little faces of attendees  to periodically scan to evaluate engagement, it is hard and distracting -  oh and larger groups are absurdly small to view and to read faces.

4.  I took a public speaking class some 30 years ago (actually longer, but I don't want to age myself) and a facet of speaking was to spread your view slowly across the class, from right to left and then back again.   The point being looking at people engages people, also when you move your brain is tricked into following the motion and thus engagement.

5.  When you instruct you want questions from attendees. The reason being if you have a question on a topic that we thought was clearly discussed and explained, as instructor we have to do a self evaluation that perhaps we were not that clear and the presentation needs to be tweaked.  We do this constantly and maybe as simple of a slide or photo not being clear.     We gauge how many questions we get and the amount for remote learning is about 60% less than in person.  Nearly 100% of the time for in person classes, at the end of the class stragglers will pose a one on one question.  Typically it relates to them personally or they just wanted to be polite and pose the question which can be slightly off topic and not burden the group with it.   Clearly we don't see this with remote learning.   

6.  You cannot discount group interaction.    Questions commonly get asked during presentations.    These questions may represent a group question but only one person is bold enough to pose the question.   Answering questions in real time helps bind the information to the attendee.  Sometimes the question posed is responded to by saying "that question will be answered in about 10 minutes".  I say this because we get the same question over multiple seminar, we make sure that information is clearly integrated in future classes.  Remote classes are handicapped by  a dearth of question which limits future improvement of the presentation.

Clearly remote learning has a practical aspect relative to both travel and a pandemic.   Not to tout the advantages of a pandemic but the pandemic has made great strides in increasing the functionality of distance learning.    From an instructor standpoint where you want attendees to absorb the material, in person instruction continues to be the clear winner.

What type of format class would you rather be in? 

Home inspections are a normal step in the purchase of a home (buyers), but being proactive on the inspection can be a wise move when made by the sellers. 

Why would a home seller want to have their own home inspection?  

Even brand new homes have issues that home inspections will detect.   An older home will have issues as well, and as a home seller you want to maintain positive control over the transaction.

Timing of Repairs

Addressing buyer requests in a timely fashion is a good faith effort to keep the transaction moving forward.  Mortgage commitments don't last forever and locking in a low interest rate can cost money every week settlement is delayed. So even if you are committed to doing the work requested it may not be an easy task.    Ever think your mechanic has taken advantage of you?    Horror stories from contractors are all the more common.

Don't be naïve, qualified licensed, contractors are busy and some work requires permits (permits can take weeks to get).  So  a seller tasked with making repairs with a small window of time is hard, and more costly than people realize.   If you can call someone and they can show up in a few days to make repairs, how good is the company?   Better companies are weeks if not months out on taking on new jobs.  Sure people can squeeze you in, but you are going to pay a premium for sure.  Think you will be able to get three quotes? Good luck getting one.

Honesty is Refreshing

Picture this you are buying a home, and getting ready to make an offer.  Seller provides you their recent home inspection which had 12 To Do Items, owner states they have done 5 but not all 12.  There are receipts and invoices from contractors for the work. Do you sharpen your pencil on your offer after reading the inspection report?   Maybe you see about getting costs for the 7 items that were not performed (This puts you weeks ahead of the game).   Did I mention the sellers are not saying don't do your own inspection, they just wanted you to know what they knew.  Honesty is refreshing and it prevents surprises. 

To be fair any home inspection company will tell you that you have to prioritize the list of requested repairs, being thoughtful that at what point would you say the buying is being excessive (jerky, because you are not selling a new house). 

We work for sellers all the time with environmental issues before they list a property for sale, because they want a fast transaction and want to limit surprises.  We do tank sweeps for sellers to ensure no tank is present.  Sellers also call us to remove long out of service oil tanks because they know that tanks will be an issue.    Well a home inspection report with a To Do List, will also affect the sale. 

Sale Falls out of contract

Every seller wants a buyer.  Every buyer needs a seller.  So buyers and sellers are a match made in heaven, until something goes wrong.  Perhaps there is a serious defect or repair that is requested maybe its even needed to get a CO (Certificate of Occupancy) or a mortgage.  The more expensive and longer the repair takes the transaction falls on shaky ground, buyers have options to back out of a deal, they may even find a better home.   Your home looks worse the longer its on the market and any time it falls out of contract, people assume something is wrong if the home doesn't sell quickly.    Buyers can also smell blood if your house sits on the market too long, expect buyers to make low ball offers thinking you are a desperate sellers.  The buyer doesn't know that the contractor is 4 weeks out on parts and labor to fix what the buyers is requesting and then the buyer walked and the home looks worse now than if it was never under contract.

Control the flow of repair costs

Fact, a buyer's home inspection will find issues with your home and want some repairs completed.   You will pay more on those repairs than if you had more time to get quotes and vet contracts to fix them.

Full Disclosure

Get a home inspection months before you list your home and make the repairs you believe are most pressing.  Disclosure what you fixed and the items you did not and let buyers know you are pricing your home on this information.  Honesty is refreshing.   Trust me buyers are still going to refinish floors, replace rugs, change the paint color, but replacing a 20 year old Hot water heater, replacing missing gutters, repair rotted wood, likely not a repair they wanted to undertake. 

Quick story, we do thousands of tank sweeps, and find many, many tanks.  Invariably, when we find a tank the better part of 50% of the time, the owner admits they knew the tank was there and even have paperwork.  The buyer's response, "What else are they not telling me?"

Buying a home the single biggest purchase, wouldn't you want to feel that the seller is being totally aboveboard with you?

Lets flip the coin, what would be the negatives of the seller completing a home inspection.

1.  Any seller that performs a home inspection is looking to find issues to either address or disclose.   There is not much grey area here.
2. Maybe the seller hired an incompetent home inspector, I mean it can happen, you also could hire a real hack.    Being provided a home inspection report doesn't mean you have to rely upon it, but it's worth a read to see what was found.   Hire your own inspector, let them read your report for feedback.  Home inspectors are not like attorney, its a much smaller pool of people.  Your inspector may know the other inspector, but no matter what you can have your expect review their experts report, in the industry its called a peer review.  
3. Maybe the report has some items that were not addressed and are deal breakers for you.  Better to know that at the start rather than finding out after you do your own inspections.  
4. Maybe the report is old?   I have seen people do their own home inspection a year ago and now the property is listed for sale.  Well any number of things could have gone wrong in the last year so an updated report is fine.  Do your own inspection. 

Pro Tip

We recently polled a group of home inspectors regarding was it a god or bad idea for the buyer to arrange all the different inspections on the same day?   Slightly better than 50% of the group thought it was a good idea to have the inspections on the same day, because you can share information.   The next question would you want to read an inspection report that the seller paid for, the overwhelming answer was yes.  More information is better.

At Curren we don't do home inspections, but we do mold inspections, tank sweeps, tank testing and a number of other environmental related evaluations and testing.  

Did you know that Mosquitoes, like all insects, are cold-blooded creatures? Because of this, mosquitoes are incapable of regulating their body heat and their temperature is essentially the same as their surroundings. Mosquitoes will function best at 80 degrees F, then becoming lethargic at 60 degrees F. Mosquitoes cannot function below 50 degrees F. In most tropical areas, mosquitoes are active year-round. In temperate climates, adult mosquitoes of some species become inactive with the onset of cool weather and enter hibernation to live through the winter.

I don't care if you are a 1st time homebuyer, or have owned multiple homes over the years, here are 7 tips you should do as part of the home buying process and post purchase.

1.   Pay for all the inspections that are necessary to complete your Due Diligence.  Due diligence is what a prudent buyer does to evaluate real estate prior to purchase.   You can think of it as a health check on a property.  If the house has a pool, have a pool inspection, pool repairs are expensive.   Same goes for termite inspection.  Get a home inspection, which inspects a variety of components of a home, you can find out the roof has little life left, HVAC system is old, or perhaps there are numerous building code violations that need to be fixed do to a DIY handyperson.

2.  Circling back to inspections, and your repair requests.  In short, maybe you find 10 issues and request 5 to be fixed.  If the 5 items get fixed ask for receipts to verify the repair and who did it.  Why?  Don't you want an electrician to fix electrical issues?  Short story, couple bought a home and one of the items that required repair was a new cap on a chimney.   About a year after ownership they noticed water coming into the chimney, the newly installed cap ($600) was defective.  They had to track down the sellers and get the paperwork for the company that did the cap, as it was under warranty.   It was a total PIA to track the paperwork down and it would have been so much easier if they had the receipts prior to settlement.    Second story,  sellers were supposed to address  basement water issue (water was coming into basement on one side),  sellers said they installed a membrane to the exterior basement wall.  Well water was still an issue, new owners had the wall dug up ($$$) and found no membrane.  Buyers had no documentation that the work was done, threatened to sue sellers who conceded (they forgot to do it) and paid for the work 9 months after they sold the work.   Seeing is believing.

Bottom line if you request a repair, get paperwork and warranty from the sellers for your records, and protection.

3. Do a little historical research on the home by contacting the local municipality and request records for permits of work performed.  Home improvement shows have enticed homeowners to do work themselves where permits were required but may not have been obtained.   Hey if you find a roof was installed 5 years ago, its likely under warranty for another 15 years, maybe you want to request the warranty?    Maybe the new hot water heater (the tag on it will tell you the year of manufacture) was not installed by a licensed plumber.    Short story,  owner was finishing their basement (Covid Remodel),  they had a heating oil Aboveground Storage Tank (AST) in the basement they wanted removed because the remodeling contractor couldn't do that (contractor thought the tank was empty but it was 1/2 full).  When we informed the homeowner that the local inspector would have to go in the basement when the tank is removed, she said it wasn't possible, because they didn't get any permits for the remodel.   (I mean this was a floor to ceiling remodel, bat, bathroom, many trade services were needed and permits were absolutely required.)  Imagine you buy the home, how do you know the work was done correctly.

4.  Save permits for work performed.  Meaning when you buy the home ask for copies of permits and after you buy the home save permits.  You can conveniently save these documents by the HVAC unit, there is always a holder on the unit for instructions and you can save the permits there. 

5. Death, taxes and utility bills will always be present in your life.  Taxes and utility bills will always increase.  Get copies of a year of utility bills before you buy the home, too many people buy the bigger home and are shocked by the monthly utility cost.

6. If you have air ducts in the home, get them cleaned.  The HVAC system is the Lungs of the Home and we have had to remove ducts during mold remediation and they are typically pretty disgusting inside.   You are breather air from dirty ducts and have n idea.  70% of homes we inspector have never had the ducts cleaned.  Oh and when you do, document the date on the duct (duct cleaning company actually cuts ports into the duct to clean them so having such a cut out tells you the duct was cleaned at least once.  

7. Double Circle back to the inspections you completed.  A home inspection could find a To Do List 20 items deep.  The problem is, unless your buying a brand new home (yes even brand new homes will have issues home inspectors will find, but 100% of them get corrected because its a new house), you can't get every item addressed, your not buying a new home.  Well after you move in you need to circle back to the items you didn't get addressed?  You paid for a professional inspection so why ignore the advice?

New Jersey has joined other states in taking a more proactive approach to managing lead.  A three prong bill has been passed to help reduce lead exposure.

Bill S-829  signed 11/08/2021

The property condition disclosure statement will now include a question concerning the presence of lead plumbing in a property being sold.  The question relates to the home seller’s awareness about the presence of lead plumbing and lead service lines onto the property.   This is meant to act as a step in education of home buyers regarding lead. 

How does Bill A5343 affect  Public Water Supply Lines?

The goal is to remove lead from drinking water. As part of a three-bill package signed by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, Bill A5343 that water companies in New Jersey will replace all  lead water pipes within the next 10 years. The bill is meant to   comprehensively address the longstanding health hazard of lead in the water supply system.  Water companies will be allowed  to raise rates on property owners to pay for the pipe replacements.  Although monies could be drawn from President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan, which  explicitly calls for removing lead pipes nationwide. 

Will All Rental Properties be Subject to the Regulations?

Currently many properties will qualify for exemption. The regulations will NOT apply to:

1. Buildings, dwelling units, or common areas that have been certified to be Lead-Free in accordance with N.J.A.C. 5:17; or
2. A building or dwelling unit that has been certified as having a Lead-Free
   Interior in accordance with N.J.A.C. 5:17. Lead-Free Interior does not
   exempt the entire building; only the dwelling units or common areas
   identified on the certificate as lead free are exempt.
3. A seasonal rental unit that is rented for less than six months’ duration each
   year; or
4.  An owner-occupied unit.

 

When is mold not mold? Aka why Black Mold isn’t bad

 Mold, the 4 letter word, gets blamed for many things such as ill health, odors, why people don’t use exercise equipment. Ok the last one I made up.   But seriously mold is a common suspect when people think something is wrong.   A few thousand mold inspections later, we can say with a high degree of certainty that:

• Not all discoloration is mold
• Not every smell is mold
• And there is no mold called black mold.

 Two case studies where mold was suspected but was not present.

If you are living somewhere and you are having health issues or smell a weird odor, you will finger point that the problem is mold. For sure anyone can have a reaction when exposed to mold, but a common denominator is mold or should I say active mold growth is the musty odor associated with mold. The musty odor is the off gassing of active mold growth.

Case Study 1 Bathroom odor and mold is suspected.

Last Spring we did a remodel on our 2^nd bathroom  (new flooring, vanity and sink, and vent) and a short time later, there started to be a weird smell at times, which seemed to be coming from the sink water. It’s not all the time, but sometimes the smell is stronger than at other times. And sometimes it smells like rotten eggs.

Pro Tip

Rotten eggs is a sulfur related smell not mold.

This prompted me to call a plumber. They spent 1 ½ hours trying to recreate the smell, and ended up spraying mold spray in both the sink and shower overflows. The smell then went away for a couple of weeks, but the smell has since returned. My older daughter, when home from college, seems to notice it more and says that she has started to get headaches now when she’s home.

Pro Tip

Mold is a musty odor, and the fact that odor went away after a disinfectant was applied to the drain lines indicates that there was something happening in the piping, not behind a wall.

A DIY investigation of a sulfur odor source can take the following approach:

Confirm smell is from the water or the drain. Test this by fill a glass with water from the cold tap and take it outside to smell it. Repeat with hot water. . If there is odor in both samples, there is a high chance that the contamination is in the water supply. If the smell is only present in the hot water, the hot water heater maybe the source. If there is no smell in either sample, the likely source is the drain

A sewer vent blockage can interfering with the drain water flow (drainage from the toilet, sink or bath shower drain) creating pressure that pushes sewer gas through the sink trap. (if you note gurgling sounds and slow draining. The blockage may be caused by an obstruction in the waste line). You could also have a blockage from the vent stack opening on the roof, this is a little harder to inspect so always start with the easier approach.

In this circumstance, the owner had renovation performed in the bathroom, so since no odor was present prior to this work, the cause is likely tied to the work.   Sometimes when plumbing is renovated a pipe that was no longer necessary may have been capped off, allowing anaerobic bacteria to thrive, which can produce a sulfur smell or technically a hydrogen sulfide gas. You see if no water is flowing through the capped off pipe, anaerobic bacteria can flourish since water is unable to flow through the dead pipe.  The solution is to cut the dead leg out of the plumbing.

Bottom line a sulfur smell is not a mold smell and some DIY research and a competent plumber, the problem can be addressed.

 Case Study 2 - Residents have health issue, allergies generally. They did mention research on causes of allergies and finds that mold is a cause so they wanted a mold inspection with testing.

In this situation there were five people in the home that complained of allergies.   There were no specific areas of the house where the allergies were more severe and there were no must odors noted in the house by any of the residents.

We take health concerns seriously and without a specific area of the home, we evaluated the entire home and acquired nine air samples throughout the home. Air testing is performed where people live, so bedrooms, family room & entertainment areas.

Our inspection found no visible mold growth, no musty odors or evidence of water damage. Now we observed many other things, but nothing that would be a mold trigger. The air tests came up clean relative to mold (basically normal fungal ecology) but all samples had a higher debris rating than would be considered usual.  

The home was about 3500 sq. ft. and about 10 years old.   We observed while the home was not falling apart, there were visible layers of dust throughout the house on flat surfaces. The home had multiple cats and each bedroom had a cat bed and some form of scratching post. The air filters for the HVAC system were all in need of replacement (there were two units) and none had a date of last replacement. The home also had many candles they burn as well as scented vaporizers. Both can affect indoor air quality and not in a good way.

Our conclusions were that dust and airborne compounds and particulate can be an irritant and people can develop allergies to cats. The recommendation was a new cleaning service and thorough cleaning of the dwelling, replacing air filters every 3 months and removing cats beds from the bedrooms.  Shocker, the allergy complaints went away.

Examples of dirty. dusty ducts work. 

So not every mold compliant is actually a mold problem. 

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Why Remove a Heating Oil AST (Aboveground Storage Tank)?

When you convert from oil to gas, you will spend thousands of dollars.   What you may not spend money on is removing the now obsolete heating oil Aboveground Storage Tank (AST).    Unless there is a local ordinance there are no state regulations for homeowners to decommission the AST.   Because of the lack of regulations and money issues, people leave these rusting metal tanks.  Properties will often be bought and sold with the AST still being present.

There are real hazards associated with leaving heating oil ASTs. 

Metal rusts inside and out. Low sulfur heating oil actually causes corrosion inside a tank, so don't think the oil is lubricating the tank.

Water gets in the tank through condensation causing corrosion.  ASTs are never 100% empty and banging on even a 1/2 full tank gives a false empty sound. Go push a 5 gallon bucket of water over, soo how far it spreads.

Quick story, couple buys a home with gas heat, basement has an AST that is not being used nor planned to be used.  Fast forward 15 years, strong smell of oil in the basement.  Call fire department, who pumps 160 gallons from the empty tank in the basement.  Oil has spread across the basement floor flowing into the sump (Fortunately the sub pump was broken) .  Oil hit boxes that are placed throughout the basement,  some cardboard boxes some Rubbermaid (Sound like your basement?)

Smell of oil in house is so strong, people have to move to a hotel.   Now the basement has to be cleaned up, the tank decommissioned and a hotel paid for.   Thousands of dollars spent.  Could have been avoided.

This house was bought and sold twice with an AST in the basement, even had a sign on it saying the tank was empty.  Curren removed approximately 200 gallons from the tank.   Caught this one before it leaked. 

Why did dad, the old owner, whoever leave the tank to rust? Because to do anything would cost $$.

Buying a house with an out of service AST, get owner to remove it. Selling a home with an out of service AST?  Remove it because the buyer is going to ask.