Features: Issues & Trends — March/April 2006

Breaking Down Walls

An explosion of mold litigation means contractors need to educate themselves and their subcontractors about ways to contain mold on the jobsite

By Tom Nicholson

Dozens of public buildings across the nation, such as the federal courthouse in Palm Beach County, Fla., have been temporarily closed due to mold contamination. Photo ©Hedrich Blessing

The number of litigation cases stemming from mold growth in buildings has exploded throughout the construction industry. Mold's high-profile notoriety in the media and its status as the "new asbestos" has changed the way contractors and owners select building materials and insurance policies. That means contractors must learn as much as possible about prevention, detection and mitigation of mold to ensure they stay profitably above the fray of litigation.

"These days, everyone knows they need to be looking out for mold," says Russ Nassof, president of Phoenix-based TRC/Environomics, an environmental consulting firm.

According to information published by the National Concrete Masonry Association, the number of mold litigation cases in the country has increased more than 300% since 2001, and defendants in most cases include architects, mechanical engineers, civil engineers, contractors, construction managers, subcontractors and manufacturers and suppliers of building materials.

Mold growth in buildings is not a new phenomenon. "Under the right conditions-moisture, some kind of organic food and the right temperatures-mold will grow nearly anywhere," Nassof says. And while most experts agree that today's air-tight, energy-efficient buildings are more fertile places for mold to grow than older structures, they agree that public awareness rather than modern building designs is spurring the increase in litigation cases.

Turning Point

"Everything changed about 2001; that's when public awareness about mold really started to increase," says Bob Lintzenich, a researcher with Gallatin, Tenn.-based Servpro Industries, a mold remediation franchise with about 1,300 representatives across the country. Many point to a case in Travis County, Texas, in 2001 as the turning point in the public's awareness of mold.

In that case, Austin homeowner Melinda Ballard won a $32-million settlement from Farmers Insurance Group after suing the company in a Texas district court, claiming the company mishandled her claim for mold damage to her home.

The widespread media coverage the case garnered alerted many homeowners and tenants to the dangers of toxic mold that may be growing unseen behind walls, within crawl spaces or beneath floors.

"Prior to then, we were not as careful about mold. There were no standards back then," Lintzenich says.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mold exposure can cause allergic reactions, sinus infections and respiratory problems.

Mitch Cohen, vice president at insurance broker Aon Environmental's eastern region office in Atlanta, says the dramatic rise in media awareness and public concern about mold has had such an impact on the industry that it can be divided into two eras-"pre-Ballard and post-Ballard."

Mold-Detection Dogs There are still some jobs in the construction industry that may be better left to the dogs. When it comes to combating mold growth in buildings, contractors can choose mold-resistant building materials and hone techniques to remediate mold when it does grow, but the best tool for detecting mold hidden within buildings could be the canine nose. Across the country, demand for the services of mold-detection dogs is growing. Handlers like Carl Massicott, owner of Milford, Conn.-based Advanced Mold Detection, have found a lucrative niche. "I've had my dogs for about six months, and I am getting calls from around the country," he says. Massicott formed his mold detection company several years ago after 25 years as a general contractor. He added Mardi, a 2-year-old beagle, and Jada, a 1-year-old Labrador retriever to his arsenal of tools after going through a training course given by dog trainer Bill Whitstine, owner of Florida Canine Academy, based in Safety Harbor. The dogs-both recruited from animal shelters-were put through 800 to 1,000 hours of training at the academy, where they learned to distinguish the scent of molds and alert the handler when they detect it. Carl Massicott uses his two dogs to sniff out hidden mold. Photo by Tom Nicholson for Constructor "They can detect 18 different kinds of mold, and they are 97% accurate," Massicott says. "When they hit on mold, the lab will bark and the beagle will sit. They love working." On a job, Massicott leads the dogs along the walls and they sniff as they go. They are rewarded with a treat when they alert him to mold. "Without the dogs, in order to find mold, you first have to have an idea of where to look," Massicott says. "If you don't see damage on the outside, you don't know where to look. Once you think you may know where mold is, then you drill a hole and use a boroscope to look inside the wall and risk releasing the mold out into the air. With the dogs, you can pinpoint right where the mold is." Whitstine, a former police officer who worked with arson-detection dogs, says it took about three years to develop a training program and materials to teach dogs to sniff out mold. "We have dogs that can detect arson accelerants, cadavers and termites, and I thought, 'why not mold?'" he says. Whitstine recruits dogs from animal shelters. He says Jack Russell terriers, beagles, border collies, Labrador retrievers and German shepherds are the main breeds he has trained. "Only one in 10 dogs makes it through the training," he says. Dogs sell for about $12,000. Handlers from Japan, Finland and the Caribbean, as well as across the United States, have purchased dogs and gone through Whitstine's handler-training program. About 100 mold-sniffing dogs are presently working around the world, he says. "This is not something that anyone can do; they can't just buy a dog and go to work," he says. "Handlers have to go through a minimum of 40 hours of training and must have annual re-certifications. We teach them how to care for the dogs, how to work with them, how to document mold evidence, marketing and more." And while Whitstine and Massicott swear by the dogs' accuracy in detecting mold, "they are not a silver bullet," Whitstine says. "We believe the dogs are an effective tool, but you still need inspectors and remediators. We need to be able to find where the mold is, that's what the dogs help us to do better."

In the post-Ballard world, news of another public building closure from mold contamination has become commonplace. Dozens of schools and courthouses from California to Connecticut are presently undergoing mold remediations. Building closures-such as the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, Fla., which was shut down throughout 2005 after mold began sprouting around windows, and the Elbert County Justice Center in Kiowa, Colo., shut down in January to undergo mold remediation-are keeping the issue of mold in the public eye.

Insurance Exclusions

In the past five years, insurance companies have rewritten the book on mold coverage, and it has dramatically influenced how contractors and owners insure themselves against mold litigation.

Previously, contractors and owners could get policies that included mold with other pollutants, Cohen says. "Now, mold is being excluded from insurance claims," he adds. "These days, contractors buy general construction pollution liability polices and add on coverage for mold."

Cohen says a typical policy includes coverage of up to $5 million for property damage, bodily injury, defense and actual cleanup. And while costs vary, Cohen says contractors are paying about 30 to 50% more for coverage on commercial building jobs and twice that on residential and government buildings than they did pre-Ballard.

"Many large, general contractors are getting blanket contractors professional liability [CPL] policies to cover their whole construction practice," Cohen says. "But we also see a lot of project-specific polices, especially among small- to mid-size contractors, and in many cases owners may require project-specific policies."

Mold-Resistant Materials

Protection against mold litigation is not limited to insurance policies. Choosing the right building materials may be the best thing contractors and designers can do to stay clear of mold issues.

Plenty of mold-resistant materials have sprung on the market in the wake of the mold scare. Since mold growth within drywall is particularly difficult to mitigate, often requiring gutting and replacement once mold appears, manufacturers now offer drywall with paper and cores that are treated with mold-resistant chemicals.
"Paper on drywall is organic food for mold, and these new drywalls are being used a lot on exterior walls, and they are great products," says Cohen. "Another important materials choice would be to use steel wall studs instead of wood."

Contractors also need to be meticulous with materials once they arrive on site because wood and other materials left uncovered to rain can be fertile places for mold, Cohen says. Sometimes products can arrive on work sites from a supplier already contaminated with mold, so inspection of materials is vital.

HVAC Systems

Installation of proper heating, venting and air-conditioning systems is another important aspect in preventing mold growth. "Underdesigned HVAC systems can be a problem," Cohen says. An HVAC system, including piping and drain pans, can be an ideal place for mold to grow, and it can disperse mold spores throughout a building.

Homes in the path of Hurricane Katrina suffer from mold damage. But under the right conditions-moisture, organic food sources and the right temperatures-mold can engulf any home. Photo courtesy of Servpro Industries

HVAC systems that encourage moisture to linger, whether it's due to inadequate cleaning and maintenance or systems that are either too large or small for a building, are key culprits in many mold cases, says Lintzenich. "Controlling moisture is key," he adds. "When moisture is trapped in a building, that's where the problems start."

Cohen says other key moisture-vulnerable spots are seals around windows and doors or expansion joints, and leaky plumbing and piping. "It's not the catastrophic leaks that cause the mold problems," he adds. "It's the undiscovered mold in invisible places that's the problem. Ninety-five percent of the time there is no indication there's a mold problem."

On renovation jobs, many contractors are turning to mold-detection experts like Adam Beckham, president of Southfield, Mich.-based Statewide Disaster Restoration, to help them find mold before they lift the first hammer.

"Once we have an idea where mold may be, we drill a hole and insert a boroscope, which is a tiny camera," Beckham says. "If there is a leaking pipe or has been a leak in the roof, those are places we would begin to look."

Environmental consultant Nassof says most mold-detection experts rely on "a moisture meter and a good set of eyes. We used to go out and sample everything, but it's very expensive and not always accurate. There has been a movement toward less sampling and good visual inspections."

Sampling involves testing the air outside the building to determine the amount and types of mold spores that naturally exist in the environment at the site, then sampling air inside the building and comparing results. The types and amount of spores should be consistent inside from outside.

"Mold exists everywhere all the time," says Nassof. "We look to see if the amount of spores within the building is more than that outside."

Some contractors and owners are seeking out the services of mold-detection dogs, a growing trend within the industry that has both proponents and critics.

"I have heard of people using dogs to detect mold, and while I haven't seen it done, in general we laugh at the idea," says Nassof. On the other hand, Cohen says he's heard "fantastic" reviews of dogs' ability to detect mold within structures.

Remediation

Once found, remediation of mold is more complicated than merely cleaning or removing contaminated materials. Remediators use protocols laid out in various standards codes such as the New York City Dept. of Health Guidelines for Remediation of Fungi and Mold in Indoor Environments.

"There are no federal standards," Cohen says. "But most insurance companies refer to the New York City guidelines." Still others follow different guidelines, such as ones published by the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification.

"The IICRC is a very detailed standard, and that is what we use," says Lintzenich.

It may be only a matter of time before mold mitigation standards are put into law, especially in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, where mold mitigation will be a long-term concern in the Gulf Coast. Lintzenich points to state standards and guidelines enacted in Texas and Louisiana last year as the beginning of a burgeoning trend among states to regulate mold remediation.

In practice, "there are multiple ways to remediate mold," Beckham says. "Once you remove drywall and find mold on framing, you can sand it, soda blast it, or ice blast it." But he cautions that plunging in to remove mold without taking proper precautions can almost certainly make things worse. "Once you open up a wall, you can spread spores throughout the rest of the building," he says.

Before cleanup begins, areas of the building suspected of harboring mold are partitioned off with plastic sheeting. The partitioned area is then put under negative air pressure, using vacuums to ensure disturbed spores are pulled through a high-efficiency particulate-arresting filter.

Once negative pressure is established, "visible mold can be cleaned off or vacuumed," says Lintzenich. "If mold grows into the wood beneath drywall, the framing often has to be removed and replaced, in many cases."
Mold cleanup procedures can be risky for contractors, Nassof says. "I've seen litigated cases where a contractor was being sued for opening up a wall and dispersing mold spores throughout the house," he adds.
As a result, contractors doing renovations could benefit from bringing in mold-detection experts before they begin work. Nassof says there are many training programs available for contractors to help them navigate the ins and outs of mold.

"Insurance companies are telling contractors they need to attend [mold remediation] training before they get a policy," he says.

Bob Lintzenich, a researcher at Gallatin, Tenn.-based Servpro Industries, Inc., assembles an onsite mold decontamination chamber at the company's training center. Photo courtesy of Servpro Industries

Nassof recommends three basic steps: First, have a good prevention program that includes using mold-resistant materials, inspecting materials for mold and properly installing seals, plumbing and HVAC systems. Second, have a good response plan in place and respond promptly to owners' concerns of mold growth. Third, document all actions taken to mitigate the mold, develop checklists, take photographs and use moisture meters.

"Respond within 24 hours to any concerns," Nassof says. "And clear up any moisture problems there may be."
Contractors also need to be alert for mold during renovations to protect the health of their crews and themselves. In Katrina's aftermath in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast where demolition of mold-infested structures is ongoing, "we have already seen workers getting sick," Nassof says. "We think there are new species of mold growing there. We are seeing a red mold that we've never seen before."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends protective eyewear, a HEPA-filtered, half-face respirator mask, and long sleeves when coming in contact with mold.