good morning all. I bought a house in Richmond a little over a year ago, so our one year warranty just expired a few weeks ago. our neighbors found mold in their house, so now my wife is convinced that there's mold in our house, and she swears our daughter's room smells like mold. I cant smell anything, but my sniffer aint all that great to begin with, so she might be right. this is the first home I've owned, so I'm not exactly sure what I should do, and being that my warranty just expired, I'd also like to avoid getting raked over the coals for money. any advice is appreciated.

I assume there is no visible sign in the room from your description, so the first thing I would do is get in the attic and check for a roof leak. Second check the exterior wall around the room for places that water could get in. (Poorly graded lawn that allows water to flow towards the house and into the weep holes in the brick or up against the siding)

The vent in the bedroom black or dirty?

I'll check the vent and the attic when I get home. It's a second floor bedroom, so cant be the lawn. What should I look for in the attic? Anything besides obvious signs of water?

Yeah, it should be pretty obvious I suspect. After all this rain this year there should be staining if not water still there. Also take a look around the duct work for the AC. There could be a moisture build up problem, but I doubt it. Also check around the AC unit itself in the attic/closet. Mold needs water/moisture.

It's probably nothing, in the end.

Did your neighbors figure out their cause?

I haven't heard conclusively, but one of them told my wife they had mold. Who knows for sure. Hopefully it's the AC and no the roof, since I work for a mechanical contractor

Actually, hopefully it's just my paranoid wife smelling things that aren't there.

In addition to water/moisture, mold needs an organic substrate to grow on (wood, paper, etc). If you see something on a plastic or metal surface like AC vents and ducts, it is mildew not mold. They both have that same wet musty smell.

I crawled around in the attic and investigated best i could, and I didn't see anything. I don't think there's anything there.

how old's the carpet? maybe a good steam clean will make the room smell better.

brand new home, so barely over a year

Even though one year warranty is through, if it's a roof issue, I imagine your builder will still take care of it. Mine has come out several times and it's now 3 years later.

ah ok.

i'd get some better info from the people that actually had a problem, instead of just from the hens clucking and spreading news around

if their home was new and did have a water leak of some sort or something that caused actual mold, then maybe i'd investigate your own house a bit further because if they built their home a certain way there's a chance yours was built by the same workers the same way.

does your daughters room share a wall with a bathroom?

yes

is it possible that the shower/tub/sink/toilet isnt sealed properly and leaking into the shared wall?

One thing about mold. It's EVERYWHERE. If someone wants to find it, they will. I'm firmly of the opinion that most of the hysteria about mold is just that, hysteria. Sure if you've got enough of it in a small enough area you're bound to get some health issues. I'd try to stay away from any type of "official" "mold" claim or diagnosis. I've heard it just turns out to be a costly headache for either nothing or for people in space suits to come spray a dab of bleach solution.

Keep in mind, on the off chance you do have mold, it doesn't automatically equal instant death. Garden variety mold may irritate allergies, but very few cases are true Stacky B or toxic. And as pointed out, there is mold and then there is mildew. Poke at all the walls of the bathroom and bedroom and see if any are damp or soft.

Spray the room with ozium, wait a few days, and see if she still smells it.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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I'm firmly of the opinion that most of the hysteria about mold is just that, hysteria.

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Thanks Obama. Uh, I mean, thanks Farmers Insurance.

agree with above posters. We had a leak in our shower that trickled down the wall in our kitchen (directly below our master bath). It made water lines, which we sprayed with a mold/mildew cleaner, and repainted (fixed the leak too). Never had mold from it.