Having mold in your home can be a major nightmare. It can spread like wildfire, from damp places like your basement, up through your kitchen and living area. It can also spread downward from the roof boards in your attic down to bedrooms and bathrooms. Before it’s too late, mold has infested your entire home.
That’s what happened in a Virginia townhome. The owners of the home ended up paying almost $500,000 in removing and rebuilding their home to get rid of black mold, the potentially dangerous fungi.
Black mold is nothing to mess around with. If inhaled, health problems like headaches, sneezing, and respiratory infections. With that being said, the McClean County townhome had to be basically stripped bare and rebuilt again. The process of this took five-years, and cost almost as much as the townhome.
William Fisk, a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, told Yahoo.com almost every home has a little mold, but about 47 percent of homes have more than a fair share of mold and dampness. He mentioned in the article people who are exposed to mold are 30 to 50 percent more at risk of asthma, coughing and wheezing.
Since the owners of the home lived in a townhome, they were in a tricky situation. Selling the home would be impossible because of the amount of mold in there, and they couldn’t knock down the home to rebuild. So renovating was the only way to go.
In Virginia, homeowners are legally required to disclose a mold problem, which leaves a problem for the problem up to the second owner.
Mold grows in dark, damp places, so making sure water can’t enter the home is of top priority. Although it rains a little more in Virginia than in Illinois, Champaign has had over 100 rainy days in each year this century. It’s important to get your home inspected for mold every few years to stop a potentially costly and unhealthy problem. Mold usually has stopping points, but if it grows and festers, sometimes the only stopping point is building a new home.
Make sure if you’re in the market for a new home in Champaign, Illinois, add a mold inspection as part of your home inspection. It could save you thousands in the long run, and even save your home.
