Builders try to break mold

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Builders try to break mold

By Tony Quesada

The Business Journal of ville

Updated: 7:00 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2006

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11454497/

NORTHEAST FLORIDA -- Four years ago, home builder Vic Buscaino began

having an outside company inspect his houses for mold and moisture

intrusion during and after construction. The company labels those

that pass as mold-free and built to stay that way.

Buscaino's incorporation of third-party mold inspections into his

construction practices correlates to a time when several high-

profile mold-related lawsuits garnered national attention.

The service, which costs a few hundred dollars, is one of the more

tangible ways the public's increased sensitivity to mold has

increased the cost of building.

" The impact [of mold] is that any responsible builder out there is

doing anything they can do to be proactive, " said Buscaino,

president of Plantation Housing Corp. in Fernandina Beach.

Buscaino estimates that being proactive against mold, including

measures such as house wraps to prevent moisture, has added 1.5

percent to 2 percent to the cost of building a half-million-dollar

house. But it's only a rough estimate because he's never tried to

quantify it.

In fact, the National Association of Home Builders and the Florida

Home Builders Association are equally at a loss to say how much the

cost of a new home has been affected.

Jaffe, NAHB vice president of legal affairs, said it's hard to

spot industry trends largely because 80 percent of his association's

members are small companies that build fewer than 25 homes a year.

Nevertheless, the association is seeing changes in the way builders

are operating. " They are redoubling their quality efforts, " he said.

Commercial builders also find it difficult to attach a figure to

mold.

Jim Carlson, director of construction for The Haskell Co.'s

commercial group, said a lot depends on the type of project. " With

residential you have to focus more because people will live there, "

compared with buildings such as parking garages that are more open.

But in general he said the cost has been increased by things such as

improved air- conditioning and ventilation systems designed with

mold in mind.

" Logic tells you that if you're doing extra steps and adding extra

components, it's costing you more, " Carlson said.

Perhaps the only attempt to quantify the cost of mold-conscious

construction isn't by a builders' organization but a health

organization. The American Lung Association's Health House program

predates the mold mania, but it establishes guidelines in line with

the goal of preventing moisture intrusion and keeping the indoor

environment free of conditions conducive to mold growth.

The program estimates adhering to those guidelines costs 3 percent

to 5 percent more than traditional construction techniques, though

it advertises that its methods can lower utility bills by 30 percent

to 40 percent and qualify buyers for deals from some mortgage and

insurance companies.

Steve Klossner, technical director of the 13-year-old program, said

interest from builders in becoming Health House builders has clearly

jumped since the concern about mold swelled a few years ago.

" The Health House program has grown nationally in the last five

years, " he said, " probably dramatically. "

On the other hand, there are people in the industry who believe mold-

smart construction is a matter of following sound building practices

and existing codes and shouldn't cost any more than before.

" In the normal course of construction, you inherently protect

against mold, " said Jack Glenn, director of technical services for

the Florida Home Builders Association. " What tends to happen is if

there's mold it's a result of a construction defect that is usually

a result of a code violation. "

He also said the association cautions members to carefully inspect

building materials when they're delivered. A recent $23 million

settlement in a mold-related lawsuit in California involved a lumber

company, one of multiple defendants, agreeing to pay $13 million as

a result of mold-infested wood being delivered to a construction

site.

Still, many desire more peace of mind -- and, to a degree, some

extra protection from liability -- than they get from sound building

practices alone.

In Northeast Florida about 50 builders are employing SkyeTec

Environmental Building Solutions Inc., the company Buscaino has been

using, as part of an approach to mold prevention. That's up from the

two builders using SkyeTec when it launched the service in

ville in March 2003. In the last year, the company's workload

has nearly tripled. In January, SkyeTec inspected almost 700 homes

being built in ville, up from about 250 in January 2005.

Such extra assurance is vital, many say, because insurance against

mold is less available, covers less and costs more.

SkyeTec's services are usually less than $500 for a single-family

home, said SkyeTec director Matt Garner, " which in the long run can

save them tens of thousands of dollars. "

Though a comprehensive mold inspection program can add confidence

that things are as they should be, sometimes builders already know

or suspect excessive moisture has been present during construction.

That's when some call Medis' company, Waterout of Northeast

Florida Inc.

In many cases, Medis said, moisture gets trapped in new structures

because " we build houses too fast " and then look to air-conditioning

systems that aren't designed to " deep dry " the home or building.

Waterout's service uses an equipment trailer that takes in outside

air and dries and heats it to about 250 degrees before exchanging it

with the building's air at 2,250 cubic feet per minute. When the air

equalizes in the building, it results in a working temperature of

110 degrees to 130 degrees.

And while a standard dehumidifier can lower a building's relative

humidity to about 30 percent, a Waterout trailer can bring it down

to 4 percent to 8 percent, Medis said.

" We make it like a dry, desert windy day inside the building for 48

hours, " he said.

The cost, generally passed on to the buyer, is about $1 per square

foot.

Medis has four trailers and exclusive rights to market the system in

Duval, Nassau, Clay and St. s counties.

He's been in business since June 2003 and demand for his service has

outpaced capacity. He hasn't been able to take on new construction

projects lately because he's been responding to calls from

waterlogged buildings hit by last year's hurricanes.

Not all the changes in construction brought about from mold

awareness result in higher costs. For example, Carlson said Haskell

and others have altered the way they sequence certain steps, such as

not installing drywall before the building is enclosed.

But whatever the extra costs of construction are, they're nothing

compared with the cost of mold remediation, Carlson said.

" It used to be you just tore it out, " he said. Now it's an expensive

process performed by people with " special respirators and

procedures. "