dubb93
09-28-2015, 02:21 PM
I need some advice from people that will be more knowledgeable on this subject than I am. My mother is having an issue with her house. A guy from Serv-Pro just left her house today and is going to be preparing an estimate and she asked if I would be there while he was under the house.
This might be a bit of a long story to get it all in.
She has lived in the same place since 1986 and has the house paid off in full. Back in July she noticed that the floor was soft in her living room so she called over a contractor. He jacked the house up and fixed the floor. While he was under the house in the crawl space he said that it was a little damp and advised that he thought that the condensation line for the furnace had gone bad since when he investigated the source nothing was coming out of the end of the line(or something like this, this part is coming from her, it was a cheap fix which made her happy).
He ran a new line and said it should fix the issue. About a week ago she noticed that the furnace room was wet and the contractor came back out and said that he isn't sure that the new line he ran was working. He said that he would need to run a new line out at a different place since he thinks the original angle could actually be a problem and he put in a condensation pump. He did the second job free of charge and it has fixed the issue completely of the furnace dumping water under the house.
While he was down there for the second job he said that it is now not just damp it is a complete muddy/swampy mess and that there is now white mold that looks like "snowdrifts."
She called her home owners insurance and they actually agreed to pay to fix the mold issue since it came from the furnace malfunction. They said they would need to have a mold removal company to come out and give them an estimate and verify that it was caused by the furnace.
Today the company they suggested arrived. The guy went down, said it was one of the worst mold infestations he has seen (to be fair he looked about 25), and said there is no way that much moisture was caused by the furnace. He also slapped her with a $20,000 estimate. The house was appraised this year for $82,000.
She hasn't heard back from the insurance company. The mold removal company is supposed to call the insurance company later tonight, but this fix is completely beyond her means to pay for if and when the insurance company balks. The mold is confined to the crawl space below the house.
My question becomes is this a legit price to pay to fix this mold issue? What are the alternatives to having a professional company fix it? What do we do about the guy from the mold company seeing this one time for 10 minutes and completely writing off the furnace as the cause?
This might be a bit of a long story to get it all in.
She has lived in the same place since 1986 and has the house paid off in full. Back in July she noticed that the floor was soft in her living room so she called over a contractor. He jacked the house up and fixed the floor. While he was under the house in the crawl space he said that it was a little damp and advised that he thought that the condensation line for the furnace had gone bad since when he investigated the source nothing was coming out of the end of the line(or something like this, this part is coming from her, it was a cheap fix which made her happy).
He ran a new line and said it should fix the issue. About a week ago she noticed that the furnace room was wet and the contractor came back out and said that he isn't sure that the new line he ran was working. He said that he would need to run a new line out at a different place since he thinks the original angle could actually be a problem and he put in a condensation pump. He did the second job free of charge and it has fixed the issue completely of the furnace dumping water under the house.
While he was down there for the second job he said that it is now not just damp it is a complete muddy/swampy mess and that there is now white mold that looks like "snowdrifts."
She called her home owners insurance and they actually agreed to pay to fix the mold issue since it came from the furnace malfunction. They said they would need to have a mold removal company to come out and give them an estimate and verify that it was caused by the furnace.
Today the company they suggested arrived. The guy went down, said it was one of the worst mold infestations he has seen (to be fair he looked about 25), and said there is no way that much moisture was caused by the furnace. He also slapped her with a $20,000 estimate. The house was appraised this year for $82,000.
She hasn't heard back from the insurance company. The mold removal company is supposed to call the insurance company later tonight, but this fix is completely beyond her means to pay for if and when the insurance company balks. The mold is confined to the crawl space below the house.
My question becomes is this a legit price to pay to fix this mold issue? What are the alternatives to having a professional company fix it? What do we do about the guy from the mold company seeing this one time for 10 minutes and completely writing off the furnace as the cause?