Presence of Mold after a Severe Weather Event In South Carolina
Presence of Mold after a Severe Weather Event:
- Excess moisture and standing water contribute to the growth of mold in homes and other buildings.
- Steps can be taken to prevent mold growth if wet items are cleaned and dried within 24 to 48 hours. Make sure you only enter your home once it is safe.
Signs of Mold:
- Mold can be recognized by sight or smell or present no signs at all (hidden behind walls or under floors)
- Sight (Mold growth often appears on walls and ceilings, looks like spots and can be many different colors)
- Smell (You may smell a strong unpleasant musty, earthy odor)
People at Greatest Risk for Health Effects from Mold:
- If you are allergic to mold, or you have asthma, allergies, or other breathing conditions, being around mold may make your condition worse.
- If you have a chronic lung condition or a weak immune system (such as people with HIV infection, cancer patients taking chemotherapy, and people who have received an organ transplant), you could be more susceptible to mold infections in your lungs.
Possible Health Effects of Mold Exposure:
- People who are sensitive to mold may have a stuffy nose, irritated eyes, wheezing, or skin irritation.
- People who are allergic to mold may have difficulty breathing or have shortness of breath.
- People with weakened immune systems or chronic lung diseases may develop mold infections in their lungs.
Cleaning Wet or Moldy Items after a Severe Weather Event:
- When your home is safe to enter, dry out your home as quickly as possible to minimize mold problems and perhaps even prevent the growth of mold at all.
- Water damage specialists or mold remediation companies have experience with cleanups of flooded homes and can provide you the peace of mind of knowing mold problems will be properly taken care of. At a minimum, a maintenance or service professional that is experienced in mold clean up should check and clean your home heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) system before you turn it on. If the HVAC system was flooded with water, turning on the system may spread mold throughout the house.
- If you choose to perform clean up yourself, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers the following information:
- To protect yourself from potential exposure to mold, buy an N-95 or N-100 mask at your local home supply store and wear it while cleaning your home (an ordinary dust mask or handkerchief will not protect you from the mold)
- Hard-surfaced, non-porous items which do not absorb water can be cleaned using soap and water and disinfected with a bleach solution of no more than 1/2 cup of bleach in 1 gallon of water. (Never mix bleach with other household cleaners. Mixing bleach and ammonia can produce dangerous toxic fumes ). Nonporous materials include tile floors, countertops, showers, tubs, metal objects, plastic, glass, and other hard nonabsorbent materials and surfaces.
- Porous materials soak up water like a sponge. Items that cannot be dried thoroughly within 24-48 hours of getting wet are much more difficult to disinfect and may need to be replaced to prevent mold growth. Porous items include wood, drywall, carpet, mattresses, fabrics, and furniture made of particle board.
- Ensure that wood studs are completely dry prior to re-installing wallboard. If the wood is not completely dry, more mold can start growing behind the new wallboard.
- Use plastic to shield areas adjacent to where you are working so that spores disturbed by the clean-up don’t become reattached to a new substrate and grow. This includes sealing off nearby HVAC ducts, which often have sources of moisture and food for spores to grow.
Lawsuits: Mold, ventilation problems and structural issues at new townhomes in Mount Pleasant
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) – What should have been a new chapter in their lives has turned into a nightmare for some Mount Pleasant homeowners. Mold, ventilation problems and structural issues are just some of the complaints listed in lawsuits filed against the builder and HVAC contractor.
The Midtown Townhomes by Lennar are one of the newer builds in Mount Pleasant. It’s located off of Hungry Neck Boulevard and they’re listed as luxury townhomes. From the outside, many would think it’s true but neighbors say things have gone wrong.
“I started looking around, I mean opening closets, and I was just like ‘Oh my God,’” Kim Conway, who bought her townhome in 2020, says.
Conway says she was gone last summer for about six weeks. But when she came back, there was mold on every floor.
“My furniture, my bed, my mattress… everything was damp when I came home,” Conway says. “Like my sheets were wet. Everything was wet. And I lived in here for four days like this. And my furniture, these chairs… they had to come in and clean every piece of furniture. Everything. There was nothing left in this house.”
Conway says she had to move into a hotel while Lennar cleaned it up. According to documents from her attorney, it cost about $14,000.
She’s not the only one dealing with issues.
“I need to have the air conditioner work properly so that there’s not too much humidity in the house and it won’t blow constantly,” Karen Tinsley, who bought her townhome in 2021, says. “I think the unit is not the correct type of unit. I have a sink in the kitchen that’s cracked from the factory. I have a water heater that I’ve replaced because the plumber said that it was too small for my unit.”
Tinsley says she’s had problems since day one.
“My oven didn’t work properly. I have a gas stove and it was flickering so they had to go in the attic and make a bigger line for that. And I’ve had cracking of brick on the outside. There’s all kinds of wall problems upstairs. I have a bowed out floorboard and someone came in and said, ‘well we’re going to have to take out the wall because the plate and the wall isn’t attached to the sheetrock.’ So that means they’re going to have to come in and tear out the wall and fix that.
Tinsley says of the laundry list of items she has sent to Lennar to fix only about 25 percent has been done. And she’s wary if they’re actually done correctly. She says the most concerning thing to her, though, is the cracking bricks.
“I have these dreams where that my entire house is falling down from the outside and everything inside is all going to just fall down,” Tinsley says. “It’s like how scary is that? That’s what I’m stressed out about.”
All in all – neighbors just want their new homes fixed and for Lennar and the other companies to own up to the problems. That’s why they filed the lawsuits.
As of Thursday, the lawsuit against the HVAC company, Fogel Services, is pending in Charleston County. A federal court dismissed the lawsuit against Lennar for procedural reasons, but a motion for reconsideration of that dismissal is currently pending. Neither company has responded for a request for comment as of Thursday.
“I think Lennar should accept what they’ve done and they know they’ve messed up these buildings,” Conway adds. “They should fix them. They should be responsible and just fix them. And learn how to build.”
They’re also offering some advice to home buyers.
“I would say don’t rush into buying anything get an inspector,” Tinsley says. “Maybe get two inspectors. Get some advice from other people to go in and look at the history of the place. Don’t rush into a brand new construction because they’re taking shortcuts these days to sell.”
This isn’t the first lawsuit against Lennar. There are more than a dozen listed in Charleston County alone listed on the court’s website dating back more than a decade alleging similar problems.