-> Unexpected Expense: We Discovered Mold In Our Basement

The discovery

I was in the basement on the computer a few days ago and my wife came down the stairs behind me and said, “What is that?”. Normally when she says something like that there is a spider running across the floor that she wants me to kill. This time I wasn’t sure what it was she was pointing to either. There was a big black spot on our wooden baseboards.

Closer inspection

Upon further inspection we realized that the baseboard was damaged to some degree, and probably had been wet. The board (which is pressed wood with an oak veneer) was bulging out slightly and also to the right of that spot was a small amount of mold growing behind the baseboard just to the right of the spot.

At this point we realized that we have a problem. Our house is only a year and a half old, so you wouldn’t expect to see problems like this in a house so new. But we are.

We called the home builder to come out and look at the damage, and figure out what to do. Upon arrival they promptly told us that our house was out of the 1-year warranty period, and that we were basically on our own. After inspecting the damage he said that his guess was that there was not proper drainage away from the house, and that water was collecting next to our house, and getting in because of that. Our only option was to fix the drainage problem in a few spots. That should resolve the problem.

So now we’re not sure if we should pursue this further with the builder to fix the damage inside the house (since the house is so new), whether we should approach our homeowner’s association to fix the drainage problem, and/or if we should get the insurance company involved. What a pain!

Has anyone else had to deal with similar issues, and what did you do in your situation?

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