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People spend less time researching the largest investment in their lives than they would buying a refrigerator or microwave.

Being a home designer/builder, this kind of crap is one of my pet peeves.

I'll be there isn't one FReeper on this thread who has a clue what kind of HVAC sysem he/she has in the house. Metal ducts? Rigid fiberglass? Round flexible ducts? What is the total/sensible ratio of your AC unit? Where your air-handler is located, can you clean out the evaporator coils? How many air-changes per hour do you get in each room of the house?

Don't know about any of this? Then you deserve what you get.

This problem is about to snow ball it has already had a big impact here in NC, the tyvek insulation installation technique has retained the moisture causing mold,(some say).

Not too long ago while living in Northern CA my daughter made friends with a girl who's family lived on a hill overlooking their 14 acre horse stables, arena, and 20 miles of trail for riding. It was a 40 or 50 year old house, and it smelled of damp mold. It was a nauseating, disgusting smell and it stayed on you after you left the house.

Clean they were not, reminding me of Ma and Pa Kettle and my daughter would not stay overnight, even if I would have let her do so. I liked the family, but that mold aeroma was too much for me. The girl spent a lot of time at our house and the smell was always around her like Pigpen. She had a immune system problem, (so they said). She would get an open sore and it would grow to epic proportions eating the skin around the open sore and getting bigger and bigger and deeper. Finally cortisone injections seemed to stop it.

She does not have this condition any more, but she left home at 17 and moved far away from the "Smell". I tell you, the smell was awfull.

Was this black mold?

Good points.

My dad tried to build and sell well-built homes and couldn't compete with the guys who could slam them up and sell for 5% less. People would look at all the features he would point out, agree that it made the house better, then ask if he could match the 5% less of the guy down the block.

If all you care about is what's on the surface, you're likely to get a building that is mostly surface.

I'll be there isn't one FReeper on this thread who has a clue what kind of HVAC sysem he/she has in the house. Metal ducts? Rigid fiberglass? Round flexible ducts? What is the total/sensible ratio of your AC unit? Where your air-handler is located, can you clean out the evaporator coils? How many air-changes per hour do you get in each room of the house?

Don't be so hard on us uninformed types. I bought a house, hired a house inspector who gave it a clean bill of health, including the electric heating system. Hmmmm, why do the breakers keep blowing? And why is water flow so bad in kitchen. And where are the flies coming from? Among other problems

I decided to remodel and found out why.

Turns out that the electric system was poorly done, the water pipes were too small, and the builder of the house just nailed up tongue and groove wood paneling to the studs with no wallboard. You could literally see through the walls where they came together when the sun was right.

I now know a lot more about houses. But if people you hire to find out if there are problems don't figure it out, then what do you do?

BTW, do you do internet consulting? I bagged getting an architect after being charged 3k just to get as is plans of a largely empty shell made for the electical engineer, and have a few issues to resolve in my remodel.

I'll be there isn't one FReeper on this thread who has a clue what kind of HVAC sysem he/she has in the house. Metal ducts? Rigid fiberglass? Round flexible ducts? What is the total/sensible ratio of your AC unit? Where your air-handler is located, can you clean out the evaporator coils? How many air-changes per hour do you get in each room of the house?

As per my dear non-FReeper husband.... heat pump, metal ducts. He'd like you to rephrase your ratio question. Yes, he knows where the air handler is located. Yes we can clean the evaporator coils (not that we have. We just replaced a 16 year old heat pump last week). And he does not know about the air change per hour thing. He says that has to do with air flow and he doesn't know how to begin to figure it.

Did he pass?

I'll be there isn't one FReeper on this thread who has a clue what kind of HVAC sysem he/she has in the house. Metal ducts? Rigid fiberglass? Round flexible ducts? What is the total/sensible ratio of your AC unit? Where your air-handler is located, can you clean out the evaporator coils? How many air-changes per hour do you get in each room of the house?

Well, the only question on the thread that I didn't try to answer yet. :^)

Metal main duct and plenum with flex-duct to each register. All insulated. Don't know the sensible / total ratio, but I know that I have 3 tons of cooling and it works well. 60,000 BTU gas furnace, 80% efficient induced draft pilotless furnace as well. Its located in the middle of the basement and serves as the air handler. I've cleaned the condensor, but the evaporator hasn't been cleaned yet. Haven't taken the time to learn how to calculate the air changes per hour of the house either on a per-room basis, or as a whole.

Are you saying that being a home designer/builder is such a simple task that anyone should be able to do it? Or are you saying that anyone who doesn't know the compression ration of his car, or its timing setting or the firing order of the engine deserves car trouble? Maybe you are just being a smart alec.