Habitat house demolished after mold problem found

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Habitat house demolished after mold problem found

Cheryl Wade, Midland Daily News 04/21/2006

Midland,MI,USA

http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?

newsid=16514504 & BRD=2289 & PAG=461 & dept_id=472542 & rfi=6

SANFORD -- and Darin McHenry watched Thursday as demolition

workers scooped up debris from what once was their home and piled it

into a big truck to haul it away.

Their house, which was donated to Habitat for Humanity in 2002,

had so much mold in the attic that Habitat officials decided it

would be less expensive to have it demolished and a new manufactured

home moved in than to fix the problems. Bad breaks and mistakes have

left Habitat officials with a big bill and an even bigger

disappointment: the gift of a good Samaritan turned into a pile of

boards and crumbled drywall.

" The thought is a good one: why don't we see if we can do good

by this house? " Habitat Executive Director said of the

donated home.

The house was moved from Midland to Sanford on a lot Habitat had

purchased. In 2003, construction crews built foundations and a crawl

space for the house. But as movers came up the road to drop the

house on the new supports, they saw the foundation was four feet too

short and it had to be fixed. During the building process, one

construction coordinator resigned because of schedule conflicts and

another was fired for incompetence, said. He added that the

village building inspector signed off on the completed work,

indicating it was done correctly. However, the inspector,

Gannon, said while he did sign off on the project, he should have

been contacted when the repairs to the foundation were made and he

wasn't. Only later did he discover the work was done improperly.

Last year, the McHenrys reported mold in their attic. Habitat

paid for a Detroit company to find ways to get rid of the mold,

which was caused by moisture that wasn't draining properly from the

crawl space. The company suggested treating the rafters with bleach

solution and venting the bathroom fan through the roof. Habitat

replaced the roof and added insulation in hopes the mold would be

gone. But early this year it came back even worse than before.

" We didn't catch it in time, " said.

Habitat then hired two companies to analyze the mold. The

companies found five types of mold and said people whose systems are

sensitive to molds would have problems living there. Darin said he

saw white, brown and green mold. , who said her whole family

suffers from allergies, said she began to feel run down.

" It was all over the OSB (oriented strand board) and the attic,

on the rafters, " Darin said.

said the fixes to the house cost Habitat about $3,000 and

the mold analyses $1,500. Moving a house usually costs $10,000, and

demolishing this one will end up costing about $4,500. Then there's

the cost of a new house, which needed to be moved in quickly so the

McHenrys would have as little time as possible without a permanent

home. He expects their new house to be ready by June 1.

" We wanted the family to be able to move back into a fresh house

as soon as possible rather than waiting the normal four to six

months that it would take to build a Habitat house, " said.

Habitat board President Holder called the situation " a

terrible thing to happen, " but said " we have a family in need and we

believe we needed to do something immediately. "

Integrity Homes, which demolished the old house and will install

the new one, was " extremely professional and supportive, "

said. The owner convinced suppliers to cut their prices for Habitat.

said he doesn't want to name those who made mistakes

because so many people were involved in checking and fixing the

house and it would be difficult to know for sure who they might be.

" I don't know how useful it is to assign blame, " he said. " We're

taking care of it. "

He wants to assure community members and donors they can

continue to trust Habitat. In the past 17 years, the organization

has helped 50 families move into homes.

The McHenrys' home is the second donated home Habitat has

accepted. The other one, which also had to be moved, " wasn't as well

built as our normal Habitat home, " said. " When you move them,

you crack things. It wasn't a satisfactory experience.

" We certainly want to look even harder at accepting older

donated homes. "

©Midland Daily News 2006