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That's a good point....whether it was an inspector or appraiser. You say the house was inspected 4 months ago. And you say you bought the house 4 months ago.
The [I]appraisal[/i] would have been pretty soon before closing.
The home inspection would have been after your contract where you have a certain time to inspect and a certain time to renegotiate before the contract is in full force. Then it can take a month or two for you to wait for the loan work to continue, then inspection, with closing generally fairly close behind unless a problem is suddenly encountered.
My friend that had the barrier system put down also has that ultraviolet system mentioned because of allergies. This ultra violet system was done by Dusty Ducts.
Funny thing is, they have contracts and service their systems twice a year, etc. But no one ever mentioned the vapor barrier to them and the contractors who put in a small addition never put down the vapor barrier. Well, at least now it's all done.
mtg 24, as far as not going in your crawl space to check for a vapor barrier because its terrifying.....
Wherever the access is, can't you just open it and look in with a flash light? You don't have to go in. You can look from an outside or basement small door into it. Some actually have a string hanging down by that small door that turns on a light. Or just shine a flashlight. You can tell if there is at least a vapor barrier over the soil by the reflection....without touching.
There might not be any cause to go after the home inspector. If you have a high water table and there has been a recent hard or prolonged rain, the damp will rise from the subsurface and make the crawlspace damp as well. When I first bought my house in 2002, I had a wonderful home inspector. He noted that the crawlspace was quite dry. However, we were also in the middle of a 2-year drought here in VA. In 2004, when it started raining a lot again, the crawlspace showed standing puddles of water and had all kinds of nasties living in it. Since my house is so old, I spent the bucks for a full encapsulation and have never regretted it yet. Several structural engineers have told me that it saved the house for another 90 years.
BTW, of you're looking for an excellent dehumidifier, I cannot recommend ones from Santa Fe enough. Since my crawlspace is so low (2 ft. high - I have to get skinny inspectors!) I am using a Santa Fe Advance 2 dehumidifier and it works fantastically well. Even when we have had a hurricane and my sump pumps were working overtime, the humidity hasn't risen above 45%. That unit also works well below the stated temperature limits as well, so it operates most all of the winter if necessary. Of course, since the crawlspace is sealed off, it doesn't get as cold as it might otherwise.
Some lenders require the appraiser to check on something like a vapor barrier.
Also, as far as home inspectors, there is sometimes a clause about not holding them liable.
Also, there are a number of things inspectors inspect or don't inspect and, unfortunately, buyers don't always think of asking if those things are going to be looked at....attics, crawl spaces, regular kitchen appliances, flushing, etc.
One of my favorite houses was an older one. We lovingly restored it.
We had a guy help us in the basement. I told him not to set up the metal and wood shelves yet. I left, somehow he got confused and set up on shelf unit, I returned next day and there was white soft fuzzy stuff on the wood shelves in that short a time.
I was familiar with this from basements in my past. At least this turned out to be a basement issue and not a crawl space issue.
What happens is over time the moisture, as someone has mentioned already I think, makes its way from the outside underground, through the basement walls, to the inside wall of the basement brick. The moisture eats away at the mortar and damages the facing of the brick inside the house...efflorescence and eventually the basement walls can be moist and the air full of moisture. That can make for mold and mildew and fungus.
So the mortar needed to be redone (repointed) and the brick was scrubbed and sealed. As was the whole basement.
Then we put in a dehumidifier that was running all the time that summer with a hose in...fortunately...a good drain already in the floor.
I really REALLY need help with his one because its starting to get really bad... So I just bought a split level home recently and I have this musty smell in the hosue that won't go away. I have dehumidifier working for days, but its only collecting little amount of water and that's not really helping that musty smell go away.
I have a crawl space right under the living room and kitchen. However, when I go downstairs to basement (this is where I'd go crawl space from because its half Basement and half crawl space) its not the same smell. Crawl space smells like strong wet wood but living room and kitchen (basically most of the house) smells musty and humid. I know the previous owner had an issue with HVAC but they actually fixed it before I move in
My question is, how can I get rid of this weird smell? Who should I contact? I really don't know as I'm a first home buyer.
I bet there's mold growing under the floor and on the joists, and that's what you're smelling. Like others have said, a vapor barrier is needed, and possibly a dehumidifier too. Short term, you could use something like Concrobium, Shockwave, or Vital Oxide in a pump up sprayer to treat the mold, but it will eventually come back if the humidity isn't corrected.
I had this problem in my house, so I had someone come in and spray closed cell foam under the floor, and so far so good. What usually happens here in the South is warm humid air enters the crawlspace, but the underside of the floor is cool due to cooler air in the house, this causes condensation and mold growth.
Radon mitigation can remove a basement smell as an added side effect just by removing stale air from the crawlspace.
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