Home Inspection Found Mold: What Buyers Should Do Next

If a home inspection found mold, do not panic and do not waive your condition yet. Find out where it is, how much there is and what is feeding it with moisture, then get a written remediation quote before your inspection condition expires. With a real number in hand, you and your realtor can ask the seller for a repair, a credit or a lower price, or decide to walk.

What the inspector's note really tells you

A home inspection in Ontario is a visual, non-invasive check. The inspector does not open walls, and most do not test for mold. That is why reports use careful wording such as suspected mold or microbial growth, further evaluation recommended. Read it as a flag with a location and a photo attached. It does not tell you the species, and for a purchase decision the species rarely matters. Health Canada's position is that indoor mold should be removed whatever type it is.

What the note leaves out is the important part: why the area got wet, whether it is still getting wet, and how far the growth runs past what could be seen from the attic hatch or the bottom of the basement stairs.

What to do in the first 48 hours after a home inspection found mold

1. Check your deadline. Your Agreement of Purchase and Sale sets the date and time your inspection condition expires. Everything below has to fit inside it.
2. Ask the inspector for every photo of the area, including the ones that did not make the report, and the exact location: which roof slope, which basement wall, which room.
3. Send those photos to a remediation company for a written quote. We turn photo quotes around within 2 hours between 7 am and 9 pm, so one day is usually enough to get a number.
4. Ask what caused it. A quote that removes mold without naming the moisture source is half a quote.
5. Sit down with your realtor and decide what to ask the seller for. Put the request in writing through the agents.
6. If you are running out of time, ask for an extension of the condition in writing before it expires. A verbal okay is not enough. Your realtor or lawyer handles the paperwork.

Five questions that tell you how serious it is

• Where is it? Attic sheathing and basement corners are the two most common spots, and both are routine jobs.
• How big is the area? A patch behind a stored box is a different job from a full north roof slope.
• Is the moisture source active? A fan duct that was fixed years ago is better news than a foundation crack that still weeps every spring.
• What is it growing on? Roof sheathing and framing can usually be cleaned in place. Drywall, carpet and insulation with growth get removed.
• Is the wood sound? Staining is cosmetic once cleaned. Soft, crumbling wood is a structural question for a contractor or engineer.

What mold remediation usually costs

Buyers tend to imagine the worst because nobody has given them a figure. Most attic jobs here run $2,300 to $6,500. Most basement jobs run $1,200 to $9,500. If you want the moisture mapped with a thermal camera and moisture meter before you commit, an inspection runs $249 to $549. Add the cost of fixing the cause. That is often small, such as running a bathroom fan duct to the outside or moving a downspout away from the wall, and sometimes larger, such as roofing or foundation work. Add the rebuild too if drywall or flooring has to come out. We do the mitigation side only, so finished surfaces are put back by a local contractor.

When you need more than a quote

Some findings deserve another set of eyes before you firm up the deal. Bring in a roofer if the attic mold sits under a leak instead of under winter frost and condensation. Bring in a foundation or drainage contractor if a basement wall is taking on water from outside. If someone in your household has asthma, allergies or a weakened immune system, or you are moving in with an infant or an older parent, talk to your doctor about timing and make sure the work is finished and documented before you move in.

Some buyers also hire an independent consultant for air or surface sampling. That is optional, it adds days while the lab does its work, and it is most useful after remediation as a second check on the result.

Tonight, email the inspector for the full photo set and write your condition deadline where you will see it. Tomorrow, get the quote and the cause in writing. Decisions made with those two pieces of paper are almost always better than decisions made from one alarming line in a report.

Common questions