White mold from lack of maintenance in crawlspace

I won’t say where this place of business is located; all I can tell you is that it is a donut shop. Yes, that’s right; people eat donuts no more than 4 feet above the floor in these pictures. The owner had plans to demolish the building and build a new retail operation. He was hoping he could use and abuse the building for as long as he could until this opportunity came to fruition. This attitude towards the current structure resulted in a lack of proper crawlspace maintenance for years. The crawlspace would flood, no pumping would occur. The duct work would rust and leak, drafting odors from the crawl into the eating area and the kitchen. White mold started growing, no proactive or reactive measure was taken. The floor structure started to rot and then started sinking and settling, no reinforcement was added.

One area in the kitchen started to rot through the sub floor so bad you could see the mold in the crawlspace, AND THEN we get the call. Every floor joist, sill plate, center beam, rim joist, band board, etc had to be removed and replaced. Proper moisture control techniques were taken to make up for the lack of maintenance for years. It was not easy or cheap.
The moral of the story is to maintain your crawlspace or structure even if you have other plans. The mold problems in your crawlspace will not go away even if you have different future plans than staying in that building. The problem can escalate sooner than you might think. It would have been 1/6 the cost to maintain this crawlspace versus rebuilding the entire floor structure. Even if you think your crawlspace has no problem, we can set you up on a yearly maintenance plan. We will come out and inspect your crawlspace thoroughly, check sump pump operation, and give you an inspection analysis. Call us today to properly maintain your crawlspace. Toll FREE 877-409-2837. Sign up for a free estimate or yearly inspection at our website www.americanbasementsolutions.com.

Thanks for reading the rambling thoughts of a crawlspace inspector
Larry Ralph Jr.

White mold from lack of maintenance in crawlspace