Can you imagine living in a home with hidden health hazards lurking in its very foundation? Join me, Jim, and Laura, our office goddess, as we unveil the shocking discoveries from an Ohio home inspection that reveals troubling environmental risks. From the toxic threats of hexavalent chromium and formaldehyde to arsenic and lead contaminations in the soil, we explore the dark side of pressure-treated wood foundations. This episode serves as a stark reminder of why thorough inspections are not just routine, but essential, to ensuring your family's safety.
But don't worry—help is always at hand. We also highlight the importance of reaching out when you encounter unusual or challenging situations. By defining problems clearly, solutions become more achievable, turning daunting scenarios into manageable tasks. Stay connected with us through your favorite podcast platforms or social media channels as we continue to share expert insights and practical advice. Subscribe, tune in, and let's stay informed and engaged with the evolving world of environmental safety in our homes.
To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Two-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)
Continuing Education for Ohio Agents Scheduled classes
Continuing Education for Ohio Agents Course listings
Facebook Page Facebook
For home buyers: What to expect from a home inspection. YT video for home buyers
Home Buyer and Seller Resources | Habitation Investigation
Heartland Commercial Property Inspections
If you would like to be a guest on the podcast contact us and let us know. You can visit Home (jimtroth.com) and go to the podcast page or message Habitation Investigation.
Episode Transcript
Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast,
where we discuss topics,upcoming events, news and
predictions with real estateprofessionals and entrepreneurs.
Listen and learn what makestheir companies and themselves
stand out and gain advantagesover the competition and gain
market share.
Subscribe for the latest newsand discussion on what it takes
(00:23):
to stand out from the crowd.
Now here's your host, jim.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hey everybody, Welcome to the Standing Out in
Ohio podcast.
This is Jim, and with me isLaura, the office goddess.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Hello everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
All right.
So we do home inspections.
We also have a company,environmental Consultants of
Ohio, that does mainly indoorair quality air assessment,
which is mold chemicals.
We do that stuff there and it'skind of to help people kind of
solve their maybe odor issuesconsultation with them as well.
(01:07):
We also have a HeartlandCommercial Property Inspections
which does strictly commercialbuilding inspections.
But we did a house.
Laura, why don't you give thestory?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
This house the parents passed away right this
house, that was the parentspassed away right with really
weird diagnoses that both oftheir doctors said had to be
environmental, not genetic andthis is the parents that this
was the parents that died, sothese kids were raised in this
house from.
I think the house was built in88.
(01:42):
It had a wood foundation, whichwhy don't you explain what that
means for people?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
For wooden foundation instead of pouring concrete or
doing the cinder block.
It is pretty much framed like awall in a house.
You have these I wish Imeasured them, but they're like
two by eights, two by 10 framingfor the foundation walls, all
pressure treated wood, and theyhad the sole plate, they had the
(02:12):
top plate and then the outsidethey had sheathing that was
pressure treated plywood.
So it was basically like youframe in a wall with larger
pieces of wood, all pressuretreated, and you put like a
plastic wrap on all pressurized,and you put a plastic wrap on
the outside to help keepmoisture and you put that in the
ground and they put dirt upagainst it.
(02:33):
So that's a wooden foundation.
It's all pressurized wood whichback then they used copper,
arsenic as a preservative toprevent rotting.
They stopped doing that.
I wonder why.
Yeah, All right, so go aheadand story.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
So I went in and did a bunch of tests.
I did radon, mold, heavy metalsin the air, heavy metals in the
soil, voc testing, formaldehydetesting.
So we had higher levels offormaldehyde testing.
So we had higher levels offormaldehyde and we had higher
(03:09):
levels of a metal that came backin the metal test, which kind
of threw me, and it was calledum chromium.
Now, chromium is somethingwe've all heard about.
However, when it's in the air,there's two types of it at least
.
So the ones that I'm focusingon is the regular chromium no
(03:33):
harm, no foul, no problem.
But there's another one calledhex, and I may kill this.
So if I do, forgive me, butit's hexavalent chromium,
forgive me, but it's hexavalentchromium and that can be
released by the type of woodthat they use for their
foundation.
The copper arsenate canactually release that hexavalent
(03:55):
chromium.
So the amount that came back inthis test result, if it is more
of that hexavalent chromium,it's almost three times the
amount that the EPA says is safe.
And they're breathing that andthey're breathing that.
So I've got another company thatI need to contact today and
(04:17):
talk to them about the testing,because at this point I need to
find a company where I can testthe air and what is the okay
chromium and what is the notokay chromium.
So that's going to be my nextstep because that's kind of
where I'm leaning towards andwhat turns it into that type.
And how do we get rid of it?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
So that's why you do not.
You never do a cooking firewith pressure tree wood, cause
they use that chromated copperarsenic until like 2003.
Oh, is it used that long?
Yes, wow.
It was the 1930s, when theyfirst started using it for the
wood.
But 2003 is when the EPA says,hey, you can't use that anymore.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
That is crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So anytime you see pressure tree wood, do not cook
with it.
No, do not even.
I wouldn't even do a campfirewith it.
No, because you definitely notwhere you're gonna breathe.
In a smoke, maybe a little bitmaybe, but, dude, you're putting
that like arsenic in the airright and that's yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
So basically at this point the the metal test also
came back in the soil high inarsenic and lead.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So that's unusual that you we normally don't do
soil testing Well, but this isEnvironmental Consultants of
Ohio that did that Right.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, part of the thought.
So, like I worked with the laband we came up with some ideas,
because he wanted, first of all,to know about doing a garden,
because it's a fairly decentsized property where they can
have it's a nice property, itwas very nice, like it was a
really pretty area, so they wantto be able to grow their own
(06:01):
food.
Okay, I get it, I'm doing thesame thing.
You're a hippie, I'm a hippie,I'm a hippie, I'm down with that
.
So we also did one as like theyhave like a walkout basement.
So we did one beside the houseto see what was going on, and
that one was very high in likearsenic and lead, as was out
(06:24):
where the garden was actuallygoing to be.
It wasn't as high as it was atthe house, so there's definitely
stuff leaching from thatfoundation.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, Copper arsenic in the wood is just kind of well
as it gets wet, and we did findmoisture in there.
We did find moisture In thebasement, so that was just
leached down to the soil.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
We also found a small area of stachybacteris, which
meant that that's been wet for along time, so we did talk about
that that's a species of moldthat is a species of mold that
takes a very long time to growand, if you're going by normie
standards, that needs completelyand totally eradicated, with no
spores whatsoever left in thehouse.
(07:04):
That's what they call theirno-go mold.
There's like five of them.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
That are supposedly really bad.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Really.
Yeah.
So he and I talked he knowsabout, you know, containment and
all that stuff and cleaning itup and getting rid of it and
killing it before he doesanything.
So this next piece of it um,the last time I spoke with him I
told him that I needed to findout about this test and how to
(07:32):
see if I could find another testto figure that out.
So at this point I'm going tomake a phone call to that new
company today Because I haveabsolutely no clue about this
test, like how much it is, howlong it takes, anything.
So I need to get thatinformation before I call and
talk to him.
Next.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Okay, so that was an unusual thing that we did, and
I'm reading an article here.
It's talking about leachinginto the soil, and how much
leaches out is definitely goingto be related to the moisture
levels, and they're talkingabout the acidic level of the
soil.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Oh I didn't test the acidity level.
But that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That makes sense.
It makes sense.
So we talked to the lab forthis one.
So they lowered the acidiclevel of the soil.
Would that reduce?
How much would continue toleach out?
But this house, whether we'retalking about 80, it's been like
40 years.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Kind of a done deal at this point, like how do you
get it out?
I don't know.
So that's some of the questionsthat I need to start doing some
research on and helping themfigure out.
My thought was, if you're goingto do gardening at this point,
it may just be easier to do theraised garden beds and haul in
dirt.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
For gardening?
Yes, for gardening, because youand I did look at this.
Arsenic can get into yourvegetables at your grow.
Yes, Especially the rootvegetables.
Yes, so you got to be carefulof that.
But this is kind of odd thingsthat we get into because people
contact they have questions.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
They need help and nobody's been able to help.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Solutions, and I mean , I remember one place they had
the industrial hygienists thatwere contacted.
They contacted three and noneof them helped them.
Nobody would.
They wanted to know what theissue was before they come out.
You're supposed to tell me whatthe issue is, so we go and then
go.
Here's your problem and here'show to fix it.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Here's how you can fix it.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Forget the industrial hygienists, because they're
apparently not helpful.
So we, through talking to thelab, we know how something
should be done.
Anyway, that was that one.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
We've been getting some really interesting calls
like this.
I like these ones.
I like being able to try tohelp people figure out what's
going on.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I do think you should set up an online.
We'll figure out what's goingon.
I do think you should set up aonline forum I know you have it
set up where people fill out theform.
It's like a quiz.
They answer these five thingsand you go yep, this is a
potential.
This could be the cause ofwhat's going on in your house,
(10:19):
and then they can do aconsultation with you and then,
if they want, you could providethem a plan on how to fix that
Right which you have, yournormie designation.
We'll talk about it in anotherpodcast.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, that's going to have to be a separate one here
We'll do that next.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
We'll do that one next.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
And so you can help them figure out the protocol to
get things fixed for themselvesor at least greatly improve it.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
So, all right, I think that's it for this one.
So if you have anything weirdgoing on, don't be afraid to ask
us for help.
We can probably help you out orgive you proper directions.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yeah, greatly narrow it down.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Narrow down a lot of issues for you like I said
before, a problem preciselydefined is already largely
solved.
Lord knows, it's true.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
All right, thank you, everybody bye, everyone bye
you've been listening to thestanding out in ohio podcast.
Be sure to subscribe on spotifyor google podcast to get new,
fresh episodes.
For more, please follow us oninstagram, twitter and facebook,
or visit the website of thebest ohio home inspection
(11:39):
company,homeinspectionsinohiocom or
jimtroffcom.
That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H andclick on podcast.
Until next time, learn and godo stuff.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!