Its worth a couple of hundred bucks to ensure it is not a major issue. I would higher a mold professional and take his report back to the bargaining table.
-----Original Message----- From: Jim Davis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2006 2:36 PM To: CF-Community Subject: Mold in my house Inspection (was Mortgage Suggestions?) Well... we just got our inspection report back. The house was built in the 60's so there's a lot of known issues (many outlets should be GFCI and many are two prong - but some of the them have been updated to grounded outlets). There are several other minor electrical issues, but nothing that can't be fixed easily. An air-conditioning duct is disconnected (probably vibrations from the system) but it looks easy to fix. He mentions that the roofing (shingles) look to be 15-20 years old and that we might expect to replace them within the next five years. Several shingles are missing from the roof that will need to patched but there are no leaks. He mentions that the hot water heater is about 8 years old will probably need to be replaced in the next 1-4 years. All of that is okay - it's an older house and this is expected. None of it was alarming or surprising (or am I being naive?) The thing that did raise an eyebrow was that in the three finished basement rooms (all carpeted with wood planking walls) he found small patches of mold on the wooden walls near the floor and at least a coupla water stains. There's no evidence of actual flooding... but of course he couldn't see behind the paneling or under the carpet. If anybody's interested I uploaded the reports here (they're the PDF files): ftp://ftp.depressedpress.com/ The file "Davis Photos 06-1488.pdf" has some decent pictures of where he found the mold. The current owner had a dehumidifier down there but we're not sure if he just put it in (having found the mold himself when packing up) or if it's been there a while and just not helping much. So... what do you guys think? Is mold a fact of life that has to be dealt with in Basement rooms or is this a reason to run and run fast from this house? My biggest fear right now is that the mold we see is just the tip of the iceberg and that all of those wooden walls are coated from top to bottom on the backside. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:191155 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
