Is there another problem that needs to be located or this is possibly the root of the problem?
Oh yea.
The first thing you must understand, is what causes mold to exist.
All of these factors must be present for mold to exist and spread.
- Temperature
- Air (O2)
- Moisture
- Organic material
Different molds require different parameters, so one recipe will not fit all. But in science class, we put our petri dish in an incubator to grow stuff like molds. There we have warm air, O2, Moisture, and the organic material we put in the dish.
An attic or crawlspace is exterior of the living space of the house. The source of the above, must be inside the house. Your attic leak must be affecting the interior. What you’re describing does not seem to indicate this. But insufficient data.
When you have mold, you will find all four of the above.
Your next observation should be how are those four requirements are coming together inside the living space.
Temperature: You can’t control for all mold. It can exist outdoors in the Yucon as well as southern Florida.
Air: Air is everywhere. If there is no air we can not exist, nor can the mold. If it can, who cares, we’re nowhere around.
Moisture: The source of moisture is generally in the air, or comes with the air. So we are concerned with what is the source location and how it moves around.
Organic Material: A lot of materials are not organic, but mold exists on them. So what is on there.
As Inspectors, what are we responsible to report. The lab does the “what is this”. The house is organic. Air Flow and moisture flow around together. Moisture in the air is actually latent heat, which is a requirement to be present. So we look for water stains and leaks. Sources of air leakage, which is associated with several concerns in the building. Sources of cold spots allow condensation, which keeps the moisture around longer. High moisture wants to migrate to areas of lower moisture, so ventilation comes to play, but can be a good or bad thing.
You do not need to be concentrating on mold. Some of the issues that cause mold to happen are in your scope. If you see what might be mold, look for the causes that fall under your scope of inspection. Those are the things you do. Other people are responsible for the rest.
I put a walk in shower for my wife. She is a fanatic about getting the moisture off the shower surfaces. But on occasion, after wiping everything dry, she leaves the towel on the floor of the shower because it is so wet. So here we have the shower interior that is non-organic, but a bath towel we dried our body with. Are we not massive organic sources?! 