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Tourmeister
07-29-2003, 03:39 PM
Howdy,

:tab Recently we noticed some mildew on the sheetrock right above the toilet in our master bath. I lightly pressed against the sheetrock and it was cold and soft :shock: Last night I got the razor knife and cutout the sheetrock to find a disaster inside the wall. Our air conditioner drains into a pipe that is inside the wall between our two bathrooms. This pipe comes down a few feet and then has a grease trap like you see under sinks. Then it feeds into the sewer vent pipe that goes up through the roof. Apparently, the grease trap has beel clogged for a long long time, since before we bought the house last May :|

:tab Needless to say, what I found inside the wall is disgusting. There is rotted framing wood, black mold, mildew, and fuzzy stuff about a half inch long! I fear the entire wall structure will have to be removed and replaced. The water made its way down to the base of the wall and appears to have run under the tile floor in both bathrooms and into several carpeted closets. It is likely we will have to remove all the tile in the bathrooms, replace the sink and counters, replace both shower/tubs, and all the sheetrock. We are hoping like crazy that this will be covered on our home owners insurance. If not, this is going to be mucho expensive. :(

:tab The really bad thing about this is that right before we bought the house, the previous owner had all the sheetrock in the house redone and repainted. There is no way in the world that they could have missed this mess when they were redoing everything. So I believe they knowingly covered up the mess hoping to just sell the house and make it someone else's problem. :angryfir: There was no mention of this in the required disclosure at the time of sale of the house to us. The inspectors did not find it either. But looking in both bathrooms we now see where they specifically made cosmetic repairs to hide the damage. I may see if the insurance company would like to pursue legal action against the previous owner. But I hate getting involved in law suits.

:tab So now we wait to hear from out adjuster, a mold specialist, and to get an estimate of the damage and cost of repair. Let the fun begin! :roll:

elliott_p
07-29-2003, 04:15 PM
Dang Scott. We had a similar situation in our place but not nearly to the extreme that you have. Ended up ripping out most of the bathroom and re-doing it. Not cheap but my mind is at ease at least.

hillcountry
07-29-2003, 04:55 PM
I have two words for you....Full Disclosure

I'm on my 5th house now and on the first one we were going to test for Radon and the realtor quickly told us that what we don't know we can't be held liable for (we didn't test). If they knew about it and didn't tell you then the previous seller (and potentially their agent) is liable for your damages. Mold remidiation is VERY expensive. I wish you the best of luck on this one!!

Bill

STCPO
07-29-2003, 05:03 PM
Good luck Scott, we had some friends up here that had black mold in their house and they had to move out for almost 4 months while it got cleaned up.

Pete

FLUFdriver
07-31-2003, 02:40 AM
If it truly is black mold I would reccomend getting out of the house for a while or asking the mold specialist what you can do to protect yourself from deadly exposure. A few years ago a coworker of mine died from black mold exposure. He was young ,strong and healthy and it took him out in two weeks. His lungs filled up with fluid and there was nothing the doctors could do to help him. :( Its a really bad way to go.
That stuff is nothing to fool with so be careful.

Robert

Tourmeister
07-31-2003, 04:50 PM
Howdy,

:tab Well, mold it is... :headbang: Insurance adjuster came by this morning to look over everything. We will be having to move out for about 2-3 months!! Both bathrooms will be gutted and renovated. The mold abatement folks will be here Tuesday morning to check things over and see what will be required. The good thing is that it is all covered by our insurance. :dude:

:tab The upside is that we were wanting to remodel the bathrooms anyway. Now we won't have to pay for it. Inconvenient to say the least, but a silver lining nonetheless :wink:

FLUFdriver
07-31-2003, 11:28 PM
Scott,
I'm glad to hear your insurance company is taking care of it. After the big mold price hike last year, my insurance co. changed my policy to limit my mold coverage to 5K max. Probably a lot less than what your bill will come to. 8)