Don’t let a bad inspection scare you.
A homeowner who puts his home on the market or is buying a new home must do various things to get the home ready to be sold or purchase. The most important aspect of selling and buying a home is passing the inspection. Always get your own inspection company that is not affiliated with anyone but you. A homeowner’s worst nightmare is getting that inspection report back, and learning not only is your home currently unsellable, but there is a lot of mold and moisture. Mold is a horrifying word for any homeowner.
Sunlight Contractors helps thousands of homeowners, we recently helped Sean F. a homeowner from New Orleans, LA realize that this was a nightmare that he could wake up from. Before calling Sunlight Contractors Sean quickly retracted his home’s listing and weighed his options. Eager to sell his home he did not want to waste time going through contractor after contractor, and one failed inspection after another. Sean recognized that this needed to be done the right way the first time.
Sean reached out to his family and friends with his problem and decided to see if they knew any contractors that did a great job for their home. Great results are the best marketing tool for any company. Sean’s dad George was the one who told Sean about Sunlight Contractors and his high praises made Sean call us. A day later Sean met up with our inspectors and we both realized that we had a huge job on our hands. Sean’s A/C handler and the high humidity in the home was just a couple reasons why the mold had gone airborne throughout the home.
First things first, we value our customer’s safety, and health. So, Sean had to move out of his home for about a month for this specific project. Airborne mold is not good for anyone’s health. We brought in 4 HEPA air scrubbers and placed them strategically throughout the home to filter and capture anything in the air. Three negative air pressure systems to create negative airflow throughout the home and change over the contaminated air as we worked.
We used cold foggers, 2 HEPA vacuums, EPA certified mold killing agents, and EPA certified disinfectant to remove the mold through the entire house including the A/C coils. We wiped down the walls, ceilings, scrubbed the floors, used HEPA air scrubbers and cleaned the carpets thoroughly over several times with a professional carpet cleaning company under Sunlight’s supervision. We prepped each room as we worked our way throughout the home cordoning off each room with zippered commercial plastic in each doorway to avoid contamination. Once we removed the mold, we were able to move freely throughout Sean’s home.
Don’t hire a good Mold and Moisture remediation contractor, hire a GREAT contractor.
Any good contractor fixes the problem you currently have. A great contractor like Sunlight Contractors fixes the problem from the root and guarantees this problem will never occur again for the lifetime of the home as long as the homeowner follows simple instructions. During Sean’s stay in the home, he attempted to take preventative measures and spared no expense with his insulation by installing only the best. Batt insulation and cellulose does not give you an air barrier or superiority that spray foam achieves.
Unfortunately, the contractor Sean hired did not do a great job. The attic had hundreds of breaks in the spray foam insulation which made the spray foam nonfunctional. For spray foam to work properly it needs to be spread across the attic at least 5.5”-6” forming a monolithic seal. Many homes may need to accompany the spray foam with a whole-house dehumidifier. This would keep any home at a comfortable humidity level which would result in low moisture and the unlikeliness of mold.
When Sean elected us to do the job, we explored the home using thermal imaging and we created cut-outs throughout the home in areas that we knew were connected to exterior walls that should have been spray foamed. Any portion of your home that is parallel to the exterior needs to be insulated to decrease solar heat gain. These spots that should have been filled by the previous contractor was completely bare.
So, we filled them with open cell spray foam insulation out to the studs, reinstalled sheetrock over 850 sq, feet of existing sheet rock which had to be done perfectly in Sean’s beautiful home and mud, taped floated, textured and repainted which was a big task. We had to cover everything like a paint booth with plastic so we could perform a proper job.
Even though closed-cell spray foam insulation has the highest spray foam R-Value, it should never be used for the under side of a roof since any future leaks would become impossible to detect.
Never fail a house inspection, again.
Once the house was ready, we spray foamed over the existing, insufficient 2”-3” open cell spray foam in the attic. This created an even application across the rafters measuring 8”/ R-30. Now Sean had a home he can sell with a great insulation system intact done by professionals. Prospective buyers can buy a home that will keep them warm in the winter, cool in the summer with no mold or moisture issues. Thanks to Sunlight Contractors Sean now had even more great features to share about his home.
For every homeowner’s nightmare, Sunlight Contractors has the solution to make it a dream home.