Mold on Trusses in Attic (drywall, floor, things to do)

[Carlingtonian]

ILD, I would be very leery. Mold is not a common issue in attics here. I'm pretty sure that's a sign there's a leak somewhere and/or the attic is too tightly sealed up. (Counterintuitive as it sounds, heremetically sealing an attic is not a good thing. In fact, I used to leave our window open in the unfinished attic of our old house--no mold, ever.) It could also mean the attic isn't insulated properly--but then again, I think if the attic is well ventilated, that too won't matter. (Our old attic had no insulation other than between the joists for the ceiling of the house below.)

Originally Posted by Jlyles

Quite frankly, you can find mold in your toilet and icemaker. Your Realtor is trying to bring some reality and experience into the transaction. I assume that you aren't selling a home with flaws of any kind?

You may have to bring new construction into the picture, since your standards are quite high.

Bad advice! A lack of mold is not a high standard. And BTW, mold in the toilet or icemaker is also rare and a sign of something wrong. Any realturd who wants you to buy a house with mold does not have your interests at heart and just wants their commission ASAP.

Just read the rest of the info about this house. ILD, I think you should run--not walk--from this house. It sounds like a nightmare.

Hope this helps; good luck.

[ACWhite]

When I sold a house in another city, the inspector found mold in the attic. This was caused by a tenant who had blocked the air vents by storing their stuff too closely to them. I did research at the time and found that it IS true that practically any house has some mold somewhere. However, ascertaining the extent and type of the mold, and the cause, are what is important. In my case, I was lucky in that it was easy to find and fix the cause, and testing revealed that the mold was not the toxic type that causes health problems. It cost less than a thousand $ to inspect, test, and remediate. Today a similar problem might cost twice that. A different problem (where the mold is in the walls, in every room, etc., with a cause that is hard to detect and fix, and/or with toxic mold) would be much more expensive and the solution might not be permanent.

So my advice would be that if you want to proceed with the sale, insist that it be tested by a qualified mold specialist, and then get a truer picture of how extensive and expensive the issue is.

7 figures makes no difference vs. 6. It's unrealistic to expect any home to be flawless--what you should expect is that the price match the true market value of the home with the flaws factored in. For example, if the house would be worth $1.2 mill. without mold problems, and it costs $2000 to permanently fix the problem, but the seller is willing to sell it to you for $1.1 mill., you are getting a deal. If instead it would cost $50K to remediate, you're not sure that this will be a complete and permanent fix, and the seller wants $1.175 and refuses to credit the $50K, then it is NOT a deal.

[Margery]

The original post was 3 months ago, just after the home inspection was done, so I would imagine this issue has been resolved. I wish the OP had come back to tell us what happened, I would be interested in knowing the final story.

[ACWhite]

True, Margery, but this is a common issue, and the OP is reflecting the same opinions/fears I've heard others express.

I would also be interested in hearing the resolution of the OP's specific transaction.

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Originally Posted by mmyk72

the mold problem sounds like there is a cause (like inadeqate ventilation or bathroom vent blowing into the attic, etc.)... just 'remediating' the mold may work for awhile till it comes back if the issue causing it to be there still exists.

Forget what the realtor said... they are there to sell and move on... not live in the house with you.

Well, the sellers spent a few thousand dollars to remediate the mold in the attic.

Some weeks after I moved in, I was up in the attic and found that an air duct from the bathroom was torn. I am hoping that was the reason why there was mold in the attic. I taped the duct back together with a metalic HVAC tape. We'll see.

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Thank you all for the helpful comments, by the way.

[ACWhite]

ILD, the duct leak hypothesis makes sense, especially if the mold was concentrated in a nearby area. Thanks for updating us and glad everything seemed to work out well.

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Originally Posted by ACWhite

ILD, the duct leak hypothesis makes sense, especially if the mold was concentrated in a nearby area. Thanks for updating us and glad everything seemed to work out well.

Well, I'm hoping that was the cause, but am not optimistic entirely on that line of hypothesis because the mold was spread sporadically on many trusses and was not in any way concentrated nearby that torn duct.

By the way, the reason I was up in the attic in the first place was that the roof leaked. There was a hairline leak in the ridge vent, some water trickled in during the storms and pooled above my bathroom (thus staining the ceiling above the bathroom).

Some folks seem to think that I should rip that ceiling out, take out the insulation, dry the area and then have new drywall put in. Others seem to be of the opinion that I should just paint over the water stain on the ceiling surface. What say you?

[Movingwesttoeast]

I have an attic mold story...with a happy ending. When we were selling our house in the pacific northwest, the inspector for the relocation company found mold on our attic trusses (some on many trusses). They ordered a full mold inspection. The mold inspectors came to our house with their Q-tips and hazmat suits. A couple of weeks later we got the results -- benign "lumber mold" (of course is has a scientific name)...it is very common in homes built in rainy climates. The mold specialists said no mold treatment was needed. We did not have to do anything. They passed the info on to the eventual buyers who were quite unfazed. Not all mold is the same...

[Movingwesttoeast]

Have you had the mold tested to see what strain it is?

If the area that leaked is dry, and there is no evidence that mold grew in that area, I would just paint over it. It takes at least 24 hours for mold to start to form. If it dried quickly, even on multiple ocassions, it is unlikely that mold formed. If there is evident of mold, you could replace the spot.