Get rid of mold, once and for all

If you have been near Charlotte this year you will know that we have had more than our share of rain.  Heavy tropics like rain, all day rains, down pours, "where oh where have the Carolina Blue Skies gone?" rains.  Well that has caused some concerns with home inspections this summer for sure.

Recently a home inspection on a lovely home on the 15th hole of the Palisades was a shocker!  While we saw a beautifully clean crawl space, complete with a well laid vapor barrier we were shocked to find large wet areas on the OSB just about the cement blocks.   This was nearly a show stopper.  My client was very sensitive to MOLD!  Several houses had already been rejected due to mold issues, even the slightest hint of mold. 

(OK we didn't see anything this bad in any of the houses we looked at, but for someone who is concerned about mold, we don't want to deal with water damage that could turn into this!)

This was a brick house in immaculate condition!  How in the world was the water getting there?  The owner, the inspector, the buyers, and both agents stood scratching our heads.  How did the wall get wet behind the brick?  Was the deck above attached incorrectly allowing water to get behind the brick, or???? 

This looked like a job for a good contractor and one was called in.  After a lot more scratching of heads, it was declared to be a combination of items.

1. The gutters were full of pine needles, so rain was coming over the top of them and dumping at the base of the house
2. the downspouts, while they had those little cement pads at the base, just weren't long enough
3. the red clay around the house was just holding the moisture
4. JUST too much rain this year that just kept the soil too wet
5. the deck was not caulked against the brick so a lot of water was running down the wall right to the base of the house

Solution - clean the gutters, caulk the deck, dig the red clay out and add some drainage stone, add extensions to the down spouts.  And pray a lot!

Then September arrived and the news was saying record dry spell, no rain.... so was it fixed or not?   What to do, what to do?  Grab a hose and let it run for hours or???  I know how to fix this! I asked husband tomy level and seed a piece of our lawn that was uneven.....  The next day a HUGE down pour!  3" of pounding rain, thanks husband!  (well, we prayed for rain so we wouldn't have to water the new seed, but hmm the clouds opened up and washed it all out, but at least we could check the crawl space issue) This sure gave us the proof we needed to see if the solution had worked!  Sure enough!  The OSB walls were dry!  Ok a bit of rain had blown in one of the crawl space vents, but the wall stayed dry!  So problem solved ( I hope)  We did go back three more times just to make sure. 

Yesterday we closed, OSB dry!  Yippee!