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I'm new here,
I have just rented out a brand new small house about two months ago. See all the pictures attached.
One month after move-in, the tenant reported a water leak when the shower was on. When I came the next day, this leak incident was not able to be replicated even all the water faucets in the house were on (hot and cold). But we found that the aluminum threshold was loose and leaky. That and also the way the clothes were laid on the floor in the picture led to our belief that the water leak was from the shower area. It's a pre-manufacturered shower base/walls bought from Home Depot with a drain hole in the center. The tenant installed another drain screen on top of our drain screen so maybe it slowed down the water run-off.
Two months after move-in (still no water leaks on the floor), the tenant sent us a picture showing some spring bugs at the bathroom entry door's wall footing. Now the management company suggest to hire a mold professional to do some test. We now compare the picture with the bugs to the picture when the water leak happened. We then discover some similarities between the two pictures at the bathroom entry door's wall footing.
Per our as-built plans, there's no water pipes AT that wall footing area. We don't know if the tenant was a scam artist or there was actually a water leak inside the wall. FYI, I response to the tenant right away every time she asks anything. Also fix minor stuff the next day to please her so I don't know if I'm feeding the pigeons here. If the mold test report showed there was mold then that wall area needs to be opened for diagnosed and repaired.
So please tell me which of the actions to be taken:
- Hire the mold professional to do the test. Fix the wall if there's mold.
- Have the contractor (who originally built the house) opened up the wall in that area, fix if needed and save $350 to hire a mold tech. The down side is if later there was mold again in the same area, the tenant could sue me for only fix the area but not hiring the mold tech in the fist place.
- Don't open up walls yet. From the outside, remove the molding and the affected area to show to the tenant that the off-colored parts just happened on the outside (because if there was a leak from inside the wall, the plywood would have mold from inside out).
Or please feel free to tell me what's best I should do to resolve the problem. Thank you so much.
Mold or not, there shouldn't be water leaking anywhere...contact the builder. Ideally before any warranties end.
The tenant reported the leak on the floor happened when the shower was on. The builder came, turn on ALL the fixtures, no water leaks at all. He asked me what do I want him to do when there's no leak after he has turned on everything to replicate the situation per the tenant's description. The builder, the tenant and I were paying attention to the leak on the floor, but not the 'mold' area. I mean once there's no water on the floor, everybody moved on.
What I don't understand until today is: unlike the tenant's picture suggested, we have turned full on all the water fixtures in the house but still no water leak on the floor even the aluminum threshold was still loose (meaning we didn't see water go under the threshold)? Did the tenant make a mess of herself with water visibly all over the floor as shown in the picture?
From the second picture it looks like the shower door is leaking.
My last unit had a stand in shower with a glass door that leaked. The water hit the door, ran down the door, and out to the floor. The landlord replaced the rubber gasket but it still leaked. What i had to do was halfway close the door and run my finger under the gasket to ‘bring it inside’ and it wouldn’t leak. What a pain in the ass to do everytime i showered..I just put a towel down when i bathed.. no mold, no damage.
You need to fix the leak before anything else. Contact a plumber and get it repaired ASAP.
You may need remediation, that requires replacing the old damaged materials with new ones. If you're in California or NY, remediation can get costly, if done by the book because lots of red tape requiring people to wear protective equipment.
Could be that when someone is showering, water deflecting off their body is leaking under door. Bring a bathing suit and get in shower.
Also consider that if no one is in the shower while the water's on there's less weight distorting the pan. The floor, pan, or walls might not leak unless something 150+ pounds is standing on it.
You need to fix the leak before anything else. Contact a plumber and get it repaired ASAP.
You may need remediation, that requires replacing the old damaged materials with new ones. If you're in California or NY, remediation can get costly, if done by the book because lots of red tape requiring people to wear protective equipment.
Goodluck OP! Let us know how it goes.
I'm in California. Should I have the builder open up walls/floor at the area of concern once the mold guy took the sample this Wednesday OR wait for the mold report (1 day turn around) to come out and follow the management company's official guideline (with costly remediation) how to treat mold? We don't have much money at all with all the debts to build the house. We have to pay the mold guy $500. I mean either way the leak must be fixed. But timing is important. What's your thoughts?
If this is a new build and you have a warranty through the builder, call them first. They should fix it, especially if you mention that there's mold growing.
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