Good afternoon fellow inspectors. I recently inspected a house with a subfloor that had all sorts of indicators of water damage on it. Here are just a couple pictures from the very saturated sub floor and joists. I called this out in my inspection report and since I’m in Florida I also put it as an indicator of an active leak in the four point form. Now…..the seller of this home agreed to make repairs to the home and for this specific issue I received an email from the guy that did the work stating he had sealed around the bath tub with caulk that was causing this water damage and sprayed the whole underside of the crawlspace with anti fungal and anti mold spray……..One more piece to the story is my moisture meter (not the point one but the klein surface one) read OL in multiple areas near this (even after the supposed fix). It is my understanding that once wood has been this saturated and has this level of discoloration the
re is no stopping the wood decay because the moisture has penetrated too deeply into the surface especially considering the meter still reads OL. Before I hit back that the repair is inadequate I wanted to see if anyone disagreed with me and could articulate why. Thanks for the help in advance.
Is it your job to supervise the repair? If not, then why have a response of any kind? And what kind of response do you make based on just what a handyman said?
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dcossar1
(Douglas Cossar, Life time member CMI. NHI)
6
Hummmm. Why in the world would an HI “sign off “ on anything. The responsibility lies with the contractor doing the repair, or not doing it properly? That seems like a major repair.
Its in reference to the 4-point report, it needs to be cleared (by the inspector that wrote it), or the client will need to get a new “clean” 4-point report from someone else; both options work.
I’m not sure I agree with that. Wood can dry out and be perfectly fine. Depends on a number of factors, but I wouldn’t say all the stained wood needs to be replaced. I would poke around with my screwdriver to get a sense of the wood condition, in this case.
I agree with Ryan. It depends on what type of fungus is causing the wood to discolor. If its a mold/mildew or a staining fungus that is causing the wood to discolor then it will dry out and most likely be ok. If however the staining is caused by a rot fungus then the wood is damaged. Probing the wood, seeing if it breaks or tears, will give you a better idea. However, if it is still wet then there is still an issue and I would state “that concealed damage is possible” in any case.
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dcossar1
(Douglas Cossar, Life time member CMI. NHI)
16
Oops did not know that was something to do with the 4 point. Cheers
Not supervise, just to clear the four point so that insurance can be bound in Florida. So they completed a repair and are hoping I will determine it’s adequate enough to take it off the 4 point as a potential plumbing issue. The contractor did agree to provide a 1 year guarantee on work to the homeowner who seems appeased by that and I’ll include that letter and remidation in the 4 point while still showing evidence of a prior leak.
That helps, overall the wood itself was relatively solid, didn’t break with a probe from my screwdriver. The long term concern is essentially that it’s at the beginning stages of rot and it’s just not visible yet. The contractor did end up agreeing to provide a 1 year guarantee on the work to the homeowner
