Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NOkQ93XlFM
Hello, this is Marko Vovk from http://
www.houseinvestigaions.com.” >www.houseinvestigaions.com.
Two home buyers were in the process of buying a twenty-year old home. Their home inspector indicated that all the basement cupper plumbing, gas piping, metal ductwork, and structural metal fasteners were all rusting and corroding. They were not sure if it was radon gas, a prior methamphetamine laboratory, a prior moonshine distillery, corrosive air, corrosive water, or other that might be causing this anomaly so they hired a residential forensic investigator. This inspector immediately suspected that this appeared some type of a moisture problem. He suspected this when he saw the poorly installed south west facing moisture absorbent Cultured Stone Cladding. He knew that most early Cultured Stone installations in residential homes might not have had the “Rain Screen” installation. A rain screen would have included a gap behind this manmade material to allow water to drain down and would have included a sealed membrane behind the Cultured Stone that would not let water enter into the wall cavity. He also noticed that the home had two large entrance columns structures that commonly have hidden unknown foundation conditions. He knows that this type of entrance column design may have hidden foundations moisture problems. Furthermore, he smelled musty odors when entering the home at the front door that was located between these two entrance columns. The residential investigator went down to basement and removed some of the insulation that was hiding these two column foundation cavities. He stuck his camera into these hidden structural cavities and took photos. The photos showed that these areas were cold, moist and condensation was occurring permitting musty odor, mold and deterioration joists, and timbers. He knew condensation was occurring because the temperatures in these two hidden cavities were much colder then other basement areas. He placed several humidity data loggers at these two hidden column foundation locations and he placed data loggers at other locations in the home for comparison. He wanted to see if moist air is was coming from these two hidden column foundation cavities. He turned on the HVAC fan and inspected the basement cold air return ductwork. He found out that the basement cold air return ducts were not 100% sealed and were sucking air from the basement. He found out that the basement was under negative pressure and moist air came out of the two hidden column foundation cavities. Furthermore, his humidity probes results proved that these two hidden column areas had higher humidity and that more grains of moisture existed in the hidden column cavity air than the air in the basement. He found out that even with the HVAC system being off, the hidden column foundation with high humidity had higher vapor pressure than the large basement area and that this high vapor pressure would travel to the lower vapor pressure that existed in the larger basement. He concluded that the hidden front column foundation cavities were significant moisture generators and that these grains of moisture traveled into the basement through negative pressure caused by the HVAC cold air returns that were not 100% sealed. Additionally, moist air is lighter than dry air and moist air will rise up. This is why it rains. These grains of moisture rose up into the ceiling joist pockets. The humidity was higher in the ceiling joists then on the basement floor. This conditions along with the summer air conditioning cold supply ductwork that was also located in the upper basement cavities made the basement air in the upper cavities cooler and dew point condensation occurred on all meal causing corrosion, stains and rust. He told the clients they needed to dry out the hidden cavities and waterproof these hidden foundations areas. He told the clients to run a basement dehumidifier to lower the basement humidity. He also told the clients to and seal the basement cold air returns to minimize the cold air return duct leakage and open several supply registers to help slightly pressurized the basement. Finally, he told the clients that the exterior Cultured Stone Cladding that existed on the front of the house might need to be removed and properly installed with a proper rain screen installation at some future date. Thank You, this has been short stories by Marko at http://
www.housinverstigations.com.” >www.housinverstigations.com.
You can email Marko at Clevelandmold@aol.com
. You can also reach Marko on face book or his Youtube channel ClevelandMarko.