I am close to closing on a 5 year old house in SC, and have already done a CL100 termite/moisture inspection, and a general home inspection. Both revealed only minor potential moisture problems with the floor specific to one area (around the back door). This spot has some rot/black stuff as seen from the crawl space, but the inspectors said gutters should keep pooling on the deck from occurring and that spot should dry out.
I had some hardwood/disaster repair type guys come in yesterday though and they were the first ones that I saw test the floor and air with moisture meters. They kicked this little meter around on the floor testing random spots around, and got readings of about 10-15 at around about half the spots, but in many spots (I'm talking a dozen or so) in three different rooms spread out in the 2000 square foot house, found readings of 25-30 on the meter. It actually pegged the meter out, and that thing was just beeping like crazy.
They also checked the crawlspace, which was at about 35% relative humidity, compared to about 21% outside yesterday. They said that also was a bad sign.
They used a probe type meter too that they stuck into the walls, to reveal an acceptable range at every placed checked (8-12).
This is my first house, and I don’t know anything about moisture readings. I was pretty much trusting my inspectors, but now an starting to have my doubts... True that these guys have a vested interest in selling me a product... but on the other hand, they are the experts, and are the only ones that use the equipment that I saw.
To make things worse, we only have next week to finish up inspections, and I hate to walk away form this house, if the problems are minor. We plan to ask for an extended inspection period, but don’t know if they will accept.
My question is, what do you guys think? Is there a potential problem big enough that it could be tens of thousands of dollars of repair work? Would you walk away with this info, not be concerned at all, etc.? any advice would be great... I am really starting to feel like I am in over my head being so inexperienced with moisture problems.
Background: It’s a foreclosure and has been vacant and unairconditioned all summer long.
Thanks a lot.
I had some hardwood/disaster repair type guys come in yesterday though and they were the first ones that I saw test the floor and air with moisture meters. They kicked this little meter around on the floor testing random spots around, and got readings of about 10-15 at around about half the spots, but in many spots (I'm talking a dozen or so) in three different rooms spread out in the 2000 square foot house, found readings of 25-30 on the meter. It actually pegged the meter out, and that thing was just beeping like crazy.
They also checked the crawlspace, which was at about 35% relative humidity, compared to about 21% outside yesterday. They said that also was a bad sign.
They used a probe type meter too that they stuck into the walls, to reveal an acceptable range at every placed checked (8-12).
This is my first house, and I don’t know anything about moisture readings. I was pretty much trusting my inspectors, but now an starting to have my doubts... True that these guys have a vested interest in selling me a product... but on the other hand, they are the experts, and are the only ones that use the equipment that I saw.
To make things worse, we only have next week to finish up inspections, and I hate to walk away form this house, if the problems are minor. We plan to ask for an extended inspection period, but don’t know if they will accept.
My question is, what do you guys think? Is there a potential problem big enough that it could be tens of thousands of dollars of repair work? Would you walk away with this info, not be concerned at all, etc.? any advice would be great... I am really starting to feel like I am in over my head being so inexperienced with moisture problems.
Background: It’s a foreclosure and has been vacant and unairconditioned all summer long.
Thanks a lot.