Wasn't sure on the best place to post this. This is a spinoff of my thread on the home improvement board. shower mold issue
tl;dr, what started as cleanup of a small mold issue in the shower led to me disassembling the glass and tearing out the pony wall and shower surround. Pics in the above thread. Two problem areas were found:
One, water has been seeping in at the point where the pony wall meets the back surround. This moisture led to mold formation on the pony wall lumber, and evident on the inside of the pony wall.
Two, moisture has been getting trapped at the base of the shower pan flange, where the surround meets the shower pan. Water couldn't escape, so mold formed there.
Fortunately, almost all of the drywall was fine. None of the insulation appears to have any mold or evidence of moisture.
Question: we bought this home new in 2008 from a national builder. I think the pony wall and surround were installed incorrectly based on what I found. Is there any recourse with them to:
A) Getting the shower rebuilt correctly.
B) (Actually more important) remediating the mold issue. I've essentially "cleaned" up what I found, BUT we did have a test done on one of our air filters in January that found slightly elevated levels of a couple of mold species. So I'm not 100% sure that the shower is/was the only source. Therefore, we are having a company come out and do a full house inspection (they guarantee they will find the source).
I'm not looking for a payday or anything. Just not sure where the line between defective work and homeowner maintenance is. And based on the test we did, I just want to make sure my family is healthy (another whole thread in itself).
tl;dr, what started as cleanup of a small mold issue in the shower led to me disassembling the glass and tearing out the pony wall and shower surround. Pics in the above thread. Two problem areas were found:
One, water has been seeping in at the point where the pony wall meets the back surround. This moisture led to mold formation on the pony wall lumber, and evident on the inside of the pony wall.
Two, moisture has been getting trapped at the base of the shower pan flange, where the surround meets the shower pan. Water couldn't escape, so mold formed there.
Fortunately, almost all of the drywall was fine. None of the insulation appears to have any mold or evidence of moisture.
Question: we bought this home new in 2008 from a national builder. I think the pony wall and surround were installed incorrectly based on what I found. Is there any recourse with them to:
A) Getting the shower rebuilt correctly.
B) (Actually more important) remediating the mold issue. I've essentially "cleaned" up what I found, BUT we did have a test done on one of our air filters in January that found slightly elevated levels of a couple of mold species. So I'm not 100% sure that the shower is/was the only source. Therefore, we are having a company come out and do a full house inspection (they guarantee they will find the source).
I'm not looking for a payday or anything. Just not sure where the line between defective work and homeowner maintenance is. And based on the test we did, I just want to make sure my family is healthy (another whole thread in itself).