What Age Home Should I Look For If I Want a Mold-Safe Home?
By Blair Decker, Mold Assessment Consultant, Healthy Home Dallas
It’s a fair question, and I hear it often. It’s also not an easy one, because we’re working in shades of gray rather than black and white. I’ll give you my answer, but with a handful of caveats.
Why social media won’t give you the answer
If you post this question online, you’ll go a little crazy trying to make sense of the replies. One person will say, “My house was built in 1994 and it made me and my son very sick, so avoid homes built in the 90s.” Another will say, “My family got sick in a new build, so don’t buy new.”
Those experiences are real, and I’m not discounting them. But it’s easy to take one family’s story and stretch it across every home, and that doesn’t hold up. Please be careful about extrapolating one experience to the rest of the housing market.
The “breathing house” debate
Another point that comes up constantly is building practices. You’ve probably heard it a million times: older homes were built to “breathe,” and newer homes are built tight for energy efficiency.
In my experience, when you follow either of those rabbit holes, neither scenario turns out to be perfect. What matters more is this: the longer a building has been standing, the more time there has been for water events to happen. It has also had more occupants, and more chances for something to go wrong and not be addressed correctly. That’s the relevant point.
None of that means a young home is in the clear. I’ve seen brand-new homes with catastrophic roof leaks, and even homes where the builder did not store his material correctly and used moldy wood in the build. Anything can happen at any time, which is why awareness and prevention matter so much.
The trouble with fixating on old versus new building practices is that no building practice can cancel out a water event that has already happened. An older home that breathes well doesn’t erase the dishwasher leak from ten years ago, the washing machine leak from two years before that, the toilet leak from five years back, or the basement that flooded one time in 1982. Those are two separate things, and one doesn’t offset the other.
The same goes for new construction, which is not immune to construction defects. I see them often. A house built ten years ago isn’t automatically the happy medium either, unless you’re focused on something like VOCs, which is a different topic altogether.
So what matters is the history of the particular home and what has or hasn’t happened there. Age doesn’t dictate that. The one rule of thumb I’ll offer is that the older the home, the more opportunity there has been for things to happen.
So how do you narrow down your options?
Since age isn’t a great deciding factor, what do you do? I wish I could point to one test or one thing to look for. There isn’t one. There’s no checklist of “find a home with A through D and avoid E, F, and G.” Every property is unique.
Here’s what I recommend instead:
- Educate yourself. Learn building science, and what to look for as it relates to water damage and mold.
- Do your own walkthrough. Look at as much as you can yourself.
- Bring in the best professionals you can find. That could be a home inspector who holds a mold certification, a licensed mold inspector, and a Conscious Healthy Home Realtor.
- Gather data points. The more you collect, the clearer the picture becomes.
Love the house, and keep a cushion
The most important advice I can give is to make sure you love the home. Choose somewhere you want to live and are willing to invest in, emotionally and financially. If something does turn up, you’ll want to fix it because you want to stay there, and that makes the expense feel far less painful.
Which brings me to a practical tip: don’t buy at the very top of your budget. If you look at home buying through a mold and moisture prevention lens, chances are you’ll find something. That doesn’t mean you can’t make the home yours. It means you should set money aside in case you need remediation or other work. Having those funds available can make all the difference.
A red flag in a clean report
Sometimes I hear, “We had the home inspection and they didn’t find anything.” Honestly, that’s a bit of a red flag for me. Nothing? Every home will eventually have something: a window or flashing that gives way, a plumbing leak, a small failure somewhere. That shouldn’t scare us. We just need to be prepared.
Reframe the goal
People want a black-and-white answer to a very gray question, and I truly wish I could give you one. The better move is to reframe what you’re trying to do. Put together every tool and piece of information you can.
Some people find it stressful to hear that there’s no perfect home. I find it freeing. You’re not on a quest for a unicorn. You’re building a toolkit and making an informed decision.
Resources to help you
- Hire both a home inspector and a Licensed Mold Assessment Consultant (MAC) / Indoor Environmental Professional (IEP). They have different skill sets, and both should investigate the home during your inspection window.
- Use a Healthy Home Certified Realtor. Finding a knowledgeable Realtor will make a difference in finding the right home for your family. Meet Lori Decker.
If you’re house hunting in the DFW area and want a second set of eyes, we’re here to help at Healthy Home Dallas.