Home Inspections and Mold

Part of our function as your Realtor in selling you Durango real estate is to make sure that you get the property you are buying well inspected prior to being fully committed to the transaction. Home inspections are a contingency in the contract. In the last 3 to 7 years we've heard a lot more about mold when it comes to homeownership. What is mold? Is all mold bad? Can it be repaired? Can we test for mold? These are typical questions that many buyers have. Clearly, as Realtors, we are not scientists, but we do try to connect you with inspectors who have expertise. If you are a person who already knows you have allergies to mold, then you would certainly want to have the air tests performed in the home to determine the presence of mold. If mold is present, that indicates that there is also moisture in the home because mold cannot live without moisture. In the Durango area where many homes are built on top of a crawlspace, that crawlspace area can often times be damp and wet… a breeding ground for mold. Good drainage around the house with the use of French drains certainly helps to keep the crawlspace area dry. Where does this moisture come from? Often times it could be a leak that drips into the crawlspace area, a bathtub or toilet that overflowed, or one of the worst things that you can do is to close up the crawlspace vents.
Mold spores are everywhere; some are good and some are bad. It would be impossible to eliminate all mold and you wouldn't want to. When you collect yard clippings and leaves and put them in a compost pile for instance, it is mold that turns that stuff into the nice rich topsoil that you like to use in your garden.
If mold is found by your inspector and it is determined to be bad, then two things need to occur. The mold itself needs to get cleaned up and the source(s) of water that allowed the mold to grow, needs to be eliminated. Only cleaning up the mold and not fixing the source of water will only lead to the mold coming back again. The terms for these activities are remediation and mitigation. You always want to think of those two processes together.
Buying Durango real estate or real estate in any part of the country for that matter is a serious endeavor. Having the proper inspections performed is a very important step in that process. If you would like more information on mold, here is a link to the mold handbook prepared by the EPA. MOLD HANDBOOK.
If you would like additional information on how our buyer agents deal with inspection items please feel free to give me a call and I would be happy to discuss those items with you in greater detail. 970-375-7007.