March 5, 2025 • 15 mins
Reno, Nevada, is known for its dry climate, yet this episode reveals a hidden truth: homes in arid regions can still face significant mold and moisture challenges. Join Michael Church, founder of Crawl Space Ninja, as he uncovers the complexities of managing indoor air quality in unexpected conditions.
Check out Michael's book, "Crawl Space Repair Myths-Busted" now available on Amazon!
Schedule a consultation: https://buymeacoffee.com/csninja/extras
Need help: https://crawlspaceninja.com or https://diy.crawlspaceninja.com
We hear from a homeowner who shares her personal story about returning home after a year away due to water and mold damage. The journey is a candid exploration of missteps taken during the restoration process, highlighting the vital need for trustworthy contractors and effective solutions. Throughout our discussion, Michael breaks down the factors contributing to mold growth, emphasizing that no house is immune, regardless of the external weather conditions.
He offers valuable advice on preventative measures homeowners can take to keep their living environments safe and healthy. Learn about the importance of proper ventilation, landscaping considerations, and the role of humidity control in mitigating risks associated with mold.
This episode is a must-listen for all homeowners, especially those in areas where mold might seem like an unlikely threat. Are you facing unexpected moisture issues at home? Don't forget to subscribe for more insights, and share your questions or experiences with mold management!
Check out Michael's book, "Crawl Space Repair Myths-Busted" now available on Amazon!
Schedule a consultation: https://buymeacoffee.com/csninja/extras
Need help: https://crawlspaceninja.com or https://supply.crawlspaceninja.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey there, michael Church, founder of Crawl Space
Ninja.
Today we are going to betalking about a mold situation,
along with a moisture problem,from a homeowner in Reno Nevada.
So what we're going to bediscussing is they have an issue
with mold and moisture and it'svery interesting that a town
(00:21):
like Reno Nevada, whichtypically is dry, has a mold and
moisture problem.
They apparently have a crawlspace and they're concerned
about mold levels up in theliving space.
So we're going to dive intothat question here on the Ask a
Ninja program and if you allhave a question for me, I'm
going to put a link down belowfor the Ask a Ninja page.
(00:42):
That way you can contact me ifyou have a question about
foundation repair, basement,waterproofing, crawl space,
encapsulation, paddockinsulation and mold.
I certainly want to hear yourquestions and share them with
everyone on this program.
Also, I hope you'll check outmy book Crawl Space Repair Myths
Busted.
You can find that on Amazon.
(01:04):
We just released the audioversion of that book, so it is a
very good book.
If you have a crawl space or abasement, it's got some great
tips in there for both, as wellas if you're dealing with an
indoor air quality or a moldproblem.
Most people don't realize thathumidity is an indoor air
quality problem if it gets toohigh or too low.
(01:24):
I cover some great ways tocontrol humidity and mold and
proper process for addressingthose things.
So make sure you check out mybook Crawl Space Repair Myths
Busted.
If you would like anautographed version of the book,
you can find that on my Buy Mea Coffee page.
I'll put a link to that downbelow as well.
And a lot of people like doingone-on-one consultations with me
(01:46):
, so we have a paid consultationthat you can do.
It's also on the Buy Me ACoffee link.
If you have questions aboutyour own home, maybe you're a
DIYer wanting to fix your owncrawlspace, basement or attic,
or you got some mold questionsgoing on, or maybe a contractor
you're thinking about hiring youwant to make sure the scope of
work that they are proposing isgood for the problem at hand.
(02:09):
So we can certainly talk aboutall of those issues on a
one-on-one consultation.
Hope you'll take advantage ofthat as well.
So let's get started with ourquestion from Susan in Reno
Nevada.
As I mentioned earlier, renoNevada is a very arid part of
the country, so I find it veryinteresting that a homeowner has
(02:30):
a mold and moisture problem ina part of the country that
typically is dry and gets verylittle rain.
So here is what Susan wasasking about.
We just moved back into ourhouse after a year away due to
water and mold damage in ourcrawlspace.
We hired a water firerestoration company to remove
(02:51):
the mold and it passed anenvironmental testing
requirement for insurance.
After the cleanup andrestoration work, sump pumps and
vent fans were installed, alongwith a vapor barrier.
It was poorly done so we arehiring another firm to redo the
work.
Isn't that a pain, where youhire someone that you trust to
(03:14):
redo the work and then they windup doing it incorrectly, and
not only are you out that money,but you've got to pay somebody
else to go in there and undowhat they did and then redo it.
We do a lot of that type ofwork here at Crawl Space Ninja.
I can't even tell you how manyhomes we've had to go in and
redo that work.
So you've got to find a trustedcontractor and that's when my
(03:37):
book might be able to help youout.
I wrote that book to contradicta lot of the myths out there
that a lot of these contractorswill tell homeowners about mold
and indoor air quality.
So again, make sure you checkout that book.
The downstairs the first floorwas clean.
The upstairs the second floorhad a high count of several
kinds of mold.
(03:57):
The upstairs has a smell to it.
That's one of the firstindications.
Is an odor inside of the houseor inside of a room?
That musty smell is your nosetelling you that there's a
problem?
So if you have that musty smell, don't discount it, don't
ignore it.
Do some research and see ifthere's some kind of mold or
(04:20):
moisture problem going on insidethe home.
So her question is how can Idetermine where the mold is
coming from on the second floor,so that way we can treat it All
right.
So apparently she did a DIYmold test kit and, by the way,
we have those DIY mold test kitsavailable on our DIY store it's
(04:41):
diycrawlspaceninjacom.
If you want to get a mold testkit, if you have a suspicious
circumstance where you'reconcerned about mold, you can do
a DIY mold test kit, and I justwant to say that that's not
necessarily the best way to go.
If there's a lot of mold in thehome, you might want to hire an
(05:03):
industrial hygienist or a moldinspector to do some research on
mold inside the home,especially in a second floor
situation like this.
But a DIY mold test kit is agreat first step to see if you
might have a mold issue.
So I want to share a little bit, before I answer her question,
exactly why I'm surprised thatshe's having an issue in Reno
(05:29):
Nevada.
Because Reno Nevada experiencesa semi-arid climate
characterized by hot summers andmoderately cold winters.
The city receives an averageannual precipitation of only
nine inches.
Can you imagine you only getnine inches of rain a year and
you're dealing with a mold andmoisture problem in the crawl
space?
The majority of the rain comesbetween October and April.
(05:52):
Snowfall averages around 22inches per year.
So basically, the averagetemperature in Reno Nevada the
high side is between 45 degreesand 90 degrees.
Obviously it's hotter in thesummer, where the cold
temperature is anywhere between25 degrees and 56 degrees, and
(06:14):
typically that happens inJanuary.
So humidity in Reno Nevada isalso different than what we
experience here in Knoxville,tennessee.
They're more humid in thewinter than in the summer.
So they see 60, 63% averagehumidity in the cold months.
Meanwhile in the hot months,arid summer, they're only
(06:38):
getting down to 27% relativehumidity outside.
So Reno's climate is generallydry, with an average humidity of
anywhere between 63% in thewinter and 27% in the summer,
and they only get rain about 50days out of the year.
Sunshine year round almost 252sunny days per year.
(07:01):
Overall, reno's climate ischaracterized by significant
temperature variations betweenseasons, low humidity, limited
precipitation and plentifulsunshine.
So, again, you wouldn't expect aplace like Reno, nevada, to
have a mold problem, but what weget is that no house is immune
(07:25):
to mold.
Okay, usually these mold issuesstem from some type of moisture
problem.
All right, so I wrote how dampis the soil in Reno, nevada?
Is the soil damp enough to makea home build above it to have
high humidity?
So the answer that I found isthat the soil levels in Reno is
(07:50):
pretty dry.
As I mentioned before, they'reonly getting seven to nine
inches of rain per year, so it'snot like they're taking on a
lot of flooding or having todeal with a high water table
like you would find in otherparts of the country.
Yet they still have more than15, that I counted mold
remediation companies in thearea.
(08:11):
Now, of course, many of thosemold remediation companies are
probably dealing with plumbingleaks and different things like
that.
But the point is is that yourhome is still subject to high
humidity and mold even in anarid climate.
And I just want to be clearabout that because you should
not ignore the crawl space justbecause you live in the desert.
(08:32):
If you're heating and air ductsare going through the crawl
space, if you're heating and airducts are going through the
attic, you got really cold airducts.
With warm temperatures you canstill run the risk of
condensation in those areas.
So in most cases, since theydon't get a lot of rain and it's
pretty dry out there, many ofthe time the cause of the
(08:57):
problem is irrigation orlandscaping issues.
The problem is irrigation orlandscaping issues.
So, just like in Tennessee, ifyou're dumping that nine inches
of rain that you're gettingright by the foundation of your
house all that water, the pathof least resistance is to go in
in most cases.
So you still need to make surethat your downspout extensions
(09:19):
are extended, that you got somekind of French drain or curtain
drain, that your landscapingisn't pooling water around the
home, because all of that cancreate a humidity problem inside
the house.
Remember, once the humidity getsin the home, it's kind of
trapped.
We make our homes so airtighttoday and so well insulated
(09:39):
today that once an air qualityproblem gets started, it tends
to grow and multiply due to howwe build our homes, and a lot of
the materials that we use areprone to absorbing moisture and
growing mold as well.
So not only are you dealingwith irrigation around the house
and all that, but somethingReno has a big issue with is a
(10:01):
lot of snowfall.
They get 22 inches of snow andthat snow can melt and create
more water intrusion into thefoundation as well, as you've
got the possibility of ice damsthat can form on the roof.
All right, poor drainage isalways a problem.
High water table usually is notthat big of a deal, from what I
(10:23):
can understand in Reno Nevada,but if you live in a
neighborhood perhaps wherethey've got some kind of pond or
water feature going on, thenyou could be suffering from the
effects of that pond or waterfeature if it's around your home
.
So some of the solutions toaddressing high humidity and
indoor air quality issues inReno Nevada obviously you could
(10:44):
still encapsulate the crawlspace, install vapor barriers,
do that proper drainage andgrading like I was talking about
, and then install dehumidifiersin the crawl space and possibly
even in the HVAC system as awhole home system.
So what I would recommend youdo is, if you're trying to
determine where the mold iscoming from inside your home and
(11:06):
you live in Reno, nevada, ifyou've got mold on the second
floor, that's a high level, butyou don't have high levels of
mold on the first floor, whichis where that crawl space is.
Remember she had the crawlspace addressed, sump pumps
installed and a vapor barrierinstalled and she got normal
levels of mold on the firstfloor but high levels of mold on
(11:28):
the second floor.
So here's what could havehappened.
I don't know if she tested themold on the second floor prior
to doing mold remediation in thehouse.
It would be nice to know that,because you could have already
had high levels of mold on thesecond floor, but perhaps the
mold remediation company didn'tsuspect the second floor as
(11:49):
having high levels of mold, sothey only address mold in the
crawl space and on the firstfloor, so that could be leftover
mold from the crawl spacecontamination that you had in
the past.
The second thing is, since youare prone to ice dams and to 9
to 12 inches of rain a year anda lot of snow, you could have
(12:12):
some moisture problems in theattic.
So the attic could also be thesource of the moisture for that
second floor, especially if youhave heating and air ducts going
through that attic.
So it's creating condensation.
It's perhaps picking upmoisture up in the attic and
then pushing it down into theliving space.
(12:32):
Perhaps you don't have properventilation installed in the
bathrooms upstairs.
A lot of times the second flooris where the bedrooms and the
majority of the bathrooms arelocated.
If you all like to take reallylong hot showers and you don't
turn on that ventilation fan, ormaybe the tile in the tub is
staying moist or you have a leakfrom the bathroom Perhaps I had
(12:58):
a shower that was leaking allthe time and all the tile around
that leak was growing mold andof course, once mold gets
growing in that bathroom then itcan expose the rest of the
living space as well.
So these are some of the thingsI would recommend you take a
look at.
Make sure you fix the plumbingissues if you have any in those
bathrooms.
Make sure your toilets aren'trunning.
(13:20):
Check the humidity coming out ofthe heating and air unit.
Check and make sure it's below50% Usually whenever the AC is
running, humidity coming out ofthe HVAC system, out of the
ductwork, should be between 40%and 50% relative humidity.
If it's coming out 60%, 65%,70%, either, the condensation
(13:41):
coils inside the heating and airunit could be clogged.
You might need to get some kindof maintenance on that HVAC
system to address that.
So those are just some of thetips that I would recommend, and
then, of course, if you can'tfigure all this out, I recommend
that you call someone locallyperhaps call the HVAC contractor
, a plumber or, like I mentioned, an industrial hygienist or a
(14:03):
mold inspector to do a fullinspection of the home and to
make sure all those things areaddressed properly.
You can also buy a humiditymeter and just go around the
house and see if you see changesin humidity from room to room,
and then that room might be theindication of where you're
having some issues.
Some other things I wouldrecommend, as I mentioned check
plumbing leaks.
(14:23):
Make sure your ventilation isworking in your bathrooms, as I
mentioned before.
Check the irrigation and thelandscaping.
Check for ice dams and roofleaks.
Get the roofer up there, makesure the roof decking is in good
shape, make sure there's noleaks coming through and then
check for condensation issues,especially in the wintertime,
cold outdoor temperaturescombined with heated indoor air
(14:45):
can lead to condensation onwindows, walls inside poorly
insulated attics and crawlspaces that, over time, can
contribute to these moistureissues.
Also, it sounds like you'regetting the crawl space taken
care of.
You want to make sure youaddress those.
And then, of course, any typeof flooding.
If the kids are splashingaround in the tub, make sure
(15:06):
you're cleaning all that up veryquickly before the humidity
spikes up too high in the house.
So these are some advice that Iwould give you if you live in
Reno, nevada and you're lookingto take care of that moisture
problem and that mold problemthat you might have in an arid
area like Reno Nevada, and, ofcourse, no matter what part of
the country you live in.
(15:26):
And don't forget, if you have aquestion for me, I have the Ask
a Ninja link in the descriptionof this episode so that way you
can send me pictures andquestions on anything you have.
And I'm Michael Church withCrawl Space Ninja, and I hope
you make it a happy and blessedday and we'll
Hey there, michael Church, founder of Crawl Space
Ninja.
Today we are going to betalking about a mold situation,
along with a moisture problem,from a homeowner in Reno Nevada.
So what we're going to bediscussing is they have an issue
with mold and moisture and it'svery interesting that a town
(00:21):
like Reno Nevada, whichtypically is dry, has a mold and
moisture problem.
They apparently have a crawlspace and they're concerned
about mold levels up in theliving space.
So we're going to dive intothat question here on the Ask a
Ninja program and if you allhave a question for me, I'm
going to put a link down belowfor the Ask a Ninja page.
(00:42):
That way you can contact me ifyou have a question about
foundation repair, basement,waterproofing, crawl space,
encapsulation, paddockinsulation and mold.
I certainly want to hear yourquestions and share them with
everyone on this program.
Also, I hope you'll check outmy book Crawl Space Repair Myths
Busted.
You can find that on Amazon.
(01:04):
We just released the audioversion of that book, so it is a
very good book.
If you have a crawl space or abasement, it's got some great
tips in there for both, as wellas if you're dealing with an
indoor air quality or a moldproblem.
Most people don't realize thathumidity is an indoor air
quality problem if it gets toohigh or too low.
(01:24):
I cover some great ways tocontrol humidity and mold and
proper process for addressingthose things.
So make sure you check out mybook Crawl Space Repair Myths
Busted.
If you would like anautographed version of the book,
you can find that on my Buy Mea Coffee page.
I'll put a link to that downbelow as well.
And a lot of people like doingone-on-one consultations with me
(01:46):
, so we have a paid consultationthat you can do.
It's also on the Buy Me ACoffee link.
If you have questions aboutyour own home, maybe you're a
DIYer wanting to fix your owncrawlspace, basement or attic,
or you got some mold questionsgoing on, or maybe a contractor
you're thinking about hiring youwant to make sure the scope of
work that they are proposing isgood for the problem at hand.
(02:09):
So we can certainly talk aboutall of those issues on a
one-on-one consultation.
Hope you'll take advantage ofthat as well.
So let's get started with ourquestion from Susan in Reno
Nevada.
As I mentioned earlier, renoNevada is a very arid part of
the country, so I find it veryinteresting that a homeowner has
(02:30):
a mold and moisture problem ina part of the country that
typically is dry and gets verylittle rain.
So here is what Susan wasasking about.
We just moved back into ourhouse after a year away due to
water and mold damage in ourcrawlspace.
We hired a water firerestoration company to remove
(02:51):
the mold and it passed anenvironmental testing
requirement for insurance.
After the cleanup andrestoration work, sump pumps and
vent fans were installed, alongwith a vapor barrier.
It was poorly done so we arehiring another firm to redo the
work.
Isn't that a pain, where youhire someone that you trust to
(03:14):
redo the work and then they windup doing it incorrectly, and
not only are you out that money,but you've got to pay somebody
else to go in there and undowhat they did and then redo it.
We do a lot of that type ofwork here at Crawl Space Ninja.
I can't even tell you how manyhomes we've had to go in and
redo that work.
So you've got to find a trustedcontractor and that's when my
(03:37):
book might be able to help youout.
I wrote that book to contradicta lot of the myths out there
that a lot of these contractorswill tell homeowners about mold
and indoor air quality.
So again, make sure you checkout that book.
The downstairs the first floorwas clean.
The upstairs the second floorhad a high count of several
kinds of mold.
(03:57):
The upstairs has a smell to it.
That's one of the firstindications.
Is an odor inside of the houseor inside of a room?
That musty smell is your nosetelling you that there's a
problem?
So if you have that musty smell, don't discount it, don't
ignore it.
Do some research and see ifthere's some kind of mold or
(04:20):
moisture problem going on insidethe home.
So her question is how can Idetermine where the mold is
coming from on the second floor,so that way we can treat it All
right.
So apparently she did a DIYmold test kit and, by the way,
we have those DIY mold test kitsavailable on our DIY store it's
(04:41):
diycrawlspaceninjacom.
If you want to get a mold testkit, if you have a suspicious
circumstance where you'reconcerned about mold, you can do
a DIY mold test kit, and I justwant to say that that's not
necessarily the best way to go.
If there's a lot of mold in thehome, you might want to hire an
(05:03):
industrial hygienist or a moldinspector to do some research on
mold inside the home,especially in a second floor
situation like this.
But a DIY mold test kit is agreat first step to see if you
might have a mold issue.
So I want to share a little bit, before I answer her question,
exactly why I'm surprised thatshe's having an issue in Reno
(05:29):
Nevada.
Because Reno Nevada experiencesa semi-arid climate
characterized by hot summers andmoderately cold winters.
The city receives an averageannual precipitation of only
nine inches.
Can you imagine you only getnine inches of rain a year and
you're dealing with a mold andmoisture problem in the crawl
space?
The majority of the rain comesbetween October and April.
(05:52):
Snowfall averages around 22inches per year.
So basically, the averagetemperature in Reno Nevada the
high side is between 45 degreesand 90 degrees.
Obviously it's hotter in thesummer, where the cold
temperature is anywhere between25 degrees and 56 degrees, and
(06:14):
typically that happens inJanuary.
So humidity in Reno Nevada isalso different than what we
experience here in Knoxville,tennessee.
They're more humid in thewinter than in the summer.
So they see 60, 63% averagehumidity in the cold months.
Meanwhile in the hot months,arid summer, they're only
(06:38):
getting down to 27% relativehumidity outside.
So Reno's climate is generallydry, with an average humidity of
anywhere between 63% in thewinter and 27% in the summer,
and they only get rain about 50days out of the year.
Sunshine year round almost 252sunny days per year.
(07:01):
Overall, reno's climate ischaracterized by significant
temperature variations betweenseasons, low humidity, limited
precipitation and plentifulsunshine.
So, again, you wouldn't expect aplace like Reno, nevada, to
have a mold problem, but what weget is that no house is immune
(07:25):
to mold.
Okay, usually these mold issuesstem from some type of moisture
problem.
All right, so I wrote how dampis the soil in Reno, nevada?
Is the soil damp enough to makea home build above it to have
high humidity?
So the answer that I found isthat the soil levels in Reno is
(07:50):
pretty dry.
As I mentioned before, they'reonly getting seven to nine
inches of rain per year, so it'snot like they're taking on a
lot of flooding or having todeal with a high water table
like you would find in otherparts of the country.
Yet they still have more than15, that I counted mold
remediation companies in thearea.
(08:11):
Now, of course, many of thosemold remediation companies are
probably dealing with plumbingleaks and different things like
that.
But the point is is that yourhome is still subject to high
humidity and mold even in anarid climate.
And I just want to be clearabout that because you should
not ignore the crawl space justbecause you live in the desert.
(08:32):
If you're heating and air ductsare going through the crawl
space, if you're heating and airducts are going through the
attic, you got really cold airducts.
With warm temperatures you canstill run the risk of
condensation in those areas.
So in most cases, since theydon't get a lot of rain and it's
pretty dry out there, many ofthe time the cause of the
(08:57):
problem is irrigation orlandscaping issues.
The problem is irrigation orlandscaping issues.
So, just like in Tennessee, ifyou're dumping that nine inches
of rain that you're gettingright by the foundation of your
house all that water, the pathof least resistance is to go in
in most cases.
So you still need to make surethat your downspout extensions
(09:19):
are extended, that you got somekind of French drain or curtain
drain, that your landscapingisn't pooling water around the
home, because all of that cancreate a humidity problem inside
the house.
Remember, once the humidity getsin the home, it's kind of
trapped.
We make our homes so airtighttoday and so well insulated
(09:39):
today that once an air qualityproblem gets started, it tends
to grow and multiply due to howwe build our homes, and a lot of
the materials that we use areprone to absorbing moisture and
growing mold as well.
So not only are you dealingwith irrigation around the house
and all that, but somethingReno has a big issue with is a
(10:01):
lot of snowfall.
They get 22 inches of snow andthat snow can melt and create
more water intrusion into thefoundation as well, as you've
got the possibility of ice damsthat can form on the roof.
All right, poor drainage isalways a problem.
High water table usually is notthat big of a deal, from what I
(10:23):
can understand in Reno Nevada,but if you live in a
neighborhood perhaps wherethey've got some kind of pond or
water feature going on, thenyou could be suffering from the
effects of that pond or waterfeature if it's around your home
.
So some of the solutions toaddressing high humidity and
indoor air quality issues inReno Nevada obviously you could
(10:44):
still encapsulate the crawlspace, install vapor barriers,
do that proper drainage andgrading like I was talking about
, and then install dehumidifiersin the crawl space and possibly
even in the HVAC system as awhole home system.
So what I would recommend youdo is, if you're trying to
determine where the mold iscoming from inside your home and
(11:06):
you live in Reno, nevada, ifyou've got mold on the second
floor, that's a high level, butyou don't have high levels of
mold on the first floor, whichis where that crawl space is.
Remember she had the crawlspace addressed, sump pumps
installed and a vapor barrierinstalled and she got normal
levels of mold on the firstfloor but high levels of mold on
(11:28):
the second floor.
So here's what could havehappened.
I don't know if she tested themold on the second floor prior
to doing mold remediation in thehouse.
It would be nice to know that,because you could have already
had high levels of mold on thesecond floor, but perhaps the
mold remediation company didn'tsuspect the second floor as
(11:49):
having high levels of mold, sothey only address mold in the
crawl space and on the firstfloor, so that could be leftover
mold from the crawl spacecontamination that you had in
the past.
The second thing is, since youare prone to ice dams and to 9
to 12 inches of rain a year anda lot of snow, you could have
(12:12):
some moisture problems in theattic.
So the attic could also be thesource of the moisture for that
second floor, especially if youhave heating and air ducts going
through that attic.
So it's creating condensation.
It's perhaps picking upmoisture up in the attic and
then pushing it down into theliving space.
(12:32):
Perhaps you don't have properventilation installed in the
bathrooms upstairs.
A lot of times the second flooris where the bedrooms and the
majority of the bathrooms arelocated.
If you all like to take reallylong hot showers and you don't
turn on that ventilation fan, ormaybe the tile in the tub is
staying moist or you have a leakfrom the bathroom Perhaps I had
(12:58):
a shower that was leaking allthe time and all the tile around
that leak was growing mold andof course, once mold gets
growing in that bathroom then itcan expose the rest of the
living space as well.
So these are some of the thingsI would recommend you take a
look at.
Make sure you fix the plumbingissues if you have any in those
bathrooms.
Make sure your toilets aren'trunning.
(13:20):
Check the humidity coming out ofthe heating and air unit.
Check and make sure it's below50% Usually whenever the AC is
running, humidity coming out ofthe HVAC system, out of the
ductwork, should be between 40%and 50% relative humidity.
If it's coming out 60%, 65%,70%, either, the condensation
(13:41):
coils inside the heating and airunit could be clogged.
You might need to get some kindof maintenance on that HVAC
system to address that.
So those are just some of thetips that I would recommend, and
then, of course, if you can'tfigure all this out, I recommend
that you call someone locallyperhaps call the HVAC contractor
, a plumber or, like I mentioned, an industrial hygienist or a
(14:03):
mold inspector to do a fullinspection of the home and to
make sure all those things areaddressed properly.
You can also buy a humiditymeter and just go around the
house and see if you see changesin humidity from room to room,
and then that room might be theindication of where you're
having some issues.
Some other things I wouldrecommend, as I mentioned check
plumbing leaks.
(14:23):
Make sure your ventilation isworking in your bathrooms, as I
mentioned before.
Check the irrigation and thelandscaping.
Check for ice dams and roofleaks.
Get the roofer up there, makesure the roof decking is in good
shape, make sure there's noleaks coming through and then
check for condensation issues,especially in the wintertime,
cold outdoor temperaturescombined with heated indoor air
(14:45):
can lead to condensation onwindows, walls inside poorly
insulated attics and crawlspaces that, over time, can
contribute to these moistureissues.
Also, it sounds like you'regetting the crawl space taken
care of.
You want to make sure youaddress those.
And then, of course, any typeof flooding.
If the kids are splashingaround in the tub, make sure
(15:06):
you're cleaning all that up veryquickly before the humidity
spikes up too high in the house.
So these are some advice that Iwould give you if you live in
Reno, nevada and you're lookingto take care of that moisture
problem and that mold problemthat you might have in an arid
area like Reno Nevada, and, ofcourse, no matter what part of
the country you live in.
(15:26):
And don't forget, if you have aquestion for me, I have the Ask
a Ninja link in the descriptionof this episode so that way you
can send me pictures andquestions on anything you have.
And I'm Michael Church withCrawl Space Ninja, and I hope
you make it a happy and blessedday and we'll
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