Home Sick Home (Mold story)

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6NEWS Investigators: Home sick home pt. 3

06:11 AM EST on Tuesday, February 21, 2006

By JEFF SONIER / 6NEWS

E-mail Jeff: JSonier@...

6NEWS

House inspector King said the mold problems in

Hunter Oaks were more severe than what the builder

reported.

6NEWS investigators were back in the neighborhood

where several families said mold in their houses made

them sick and forced them to move out.

Now 6NEWS talked with a home inspector who said what

he saw made him afraid of getting sick himself. The

neighborhood is Hunter Oaks, off Rea Road in Union

County, just over the Mecklenburg County line.

The area we're talking about in Hunter Oaks is

Mossington Lane.

So far, 6NEWS talked with the former home owners,

we've talked with the home builder, and we’ve talked

with the soil experts about it.

Now the home inspector who's actually been underneath

and seen it for himself says the problem with mold was

a lot worse than we were told.

King was looking for trouble. That's what a home

inspector does. But after what this inspector saw at

homes in Hunter Oaks last year -- the moldy crawl

spaces of the houses here, the health problems of the

families here King started worrying about his own

health.

" And you can't help but think in the back of your mind

if it's doing this to somebody else, if I continue to

put myself in this environment, is it going to do it

to me, too? " King said.

King investigated for mold in three different houses

at Hunter Oaks. The same houses where whole families

got sick. The same houses Ryland homes bought back

from the families for more than $1 million. The same

houses where Ryland told 6NEWS the mold was limited.

" It was less than one square foot of mold in the crawl

space, " said Ryland Homes President .

“And how does that compare with what you saw? " 6NEWS

asked King.

" There was definitely more than one square foot of

mold, " said King.

" If you have a mold level in a house that's causing

somebody living in that house to be sick, you have a

problem "

King said it's all right here in his home inspection

report for one Hunter Oaks house -- pictures from the

crawl space and all.

" On the bottom of these joists you can see a fuzzy

like substance,” said King. " All that fuzz there is

some mold. "

" How unusual is it to find that much growth in so many

places? " 6NEWS asked.

" With a house with that much water under it, it's not

unusual at all, " King said.

Other findings from King's report show a virtual

breeding ground for mold with humidity above 90

percent in the crawl space, and standing water in the

foundation.

6NEWS: " Grading, poor. Gutters, poor. Crawl space,

poor, "

KING: " Yeah, actually (the home) have a large pond of

water sitting up against the side of the house, near

the crawl space door, " King said. " (And) you're

pulling whatever's in the crawl space up in the

house. "

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King's inspection report also differs with how Ryland

describes mold levels inside the homes.

" There were no elevated levels of mold inside the

homes at all, " said.

But King showed 6NEWS the equipment he used to measure

mold inside those Hunter Oaks homes, and the numbers

he got -- mold numbers a lot higher than Ryland's.

“And if the numbers are high?” 6NEWS asked.

" If the numbers are high, then it's glaringly apparent

that you've got a problem that's not going to affect

just one person, but affect several people, " said

King.

And while Ryland has denied, from the beginning, that

these rashes and other health problems were

mold-related…

" You don't see any connection between the illnesses of

the families and the time they lived in those houses

with the mold in the crawl space, " 6NEWS asked.

" We've seen no evidence of that, Jeff, " said.

This 6NEWS investigation has already shown handwritten

notes and letters from doctors that say the neighbors

they treated really did get sick from mold in their

home. King said it's what home inspectors call sick

building syndrome.

" If you have a mold level in a house that's causing

somebody living in that house to be sick, you have a

problem, " King said.

Ryland, meanwhile, said they haven't seen the

inspectors report so they can't respond to it.

They've also said from the beginning that whatever

problems those houses did have with mold or moisture

have since been fixed.

6NEWS also did a little research on sick building

syndrome. The federal EPA's own website describes it

as a situation where people get sick when they're in a

building, and get better when they're away from the

building, which is exactly how the families who lived

in those houses described what happened to them.

The EPA website also lists mold that grows near

standing water as one possible cause of sick building

syndrome.

Online at:

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/stories/wcnc-ad-2_20_06-homesick_home.48fdde53.ht\

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