Don’t Let Hidden Mold Cause Disasters

A nail in a hot water line sprayed a new home’s crawl space for months. Andrew Bellamy of ServiceMaster by LOMROE shows the hidden mold it caused.

The house was only about a year and a half old. During construction, someone drove a nail into a PEX hot water line, and the pipe sprayed a fine mist of hot water into the crawl space for as long as a year and a half. The homeowners noticed high humidity and an odd smell, but nothing looked wrong.

Once Andrew’s crew removed the flooring, they found mold across the subfloor and through almost the entire crawl space. All of the crawl space insulation had to come out, and the mold had spread under the hardwood and vinyl flooring into the master bedroom, master bathroom, and walk-in closet.

His takeaway: a moisture meter held against the walls and floor would have shown elevated readings long before the damage spread. Before any demolition, his team uses a moisture meter to map how far the water traveled. For more warning signs, read how a moisture meter helps detect mold.