Potential Mold Problem with flooring

[Irmgard Swan]

A patio door we had installed professionally leaked. After the door was replaced , we had the subflooring repaired and were going to have new laminate flooring put down. When the contractor replaced the subfloor, he noticed additional damage to the floor joist underneath and an outside facing wood board. To repair the water damage, the contractor we had hired just sprayed it with Kilz and claimed this would stop any mold from growing. Then he sistered the floor joist and kind of boxed the area in, basically covering everything up. Now I'm thinking that what he did was wrong, that he should have treated the wood with some kind of chemical or bleach and let it dry out again (it was dry at the time; the door had been fixed a couple of months ago). I'm concerned that there will be health problems later on and/or, when we want to sell our home, his work wouldn't pass inspection. Any suggestions? I hate to have some other contractor have to rip everything back out and get in a legal battle with the one who did the repair. Getting the door company to fix the door was a big enough headache.

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[Jim Weyenberg]

Irmgard,
No, no, no and no, I would not stand still for one moment for that. You are right in thinking that just covers up a problem. The roof weight on the rafters bears on the top plate which bears on the large header above the door which splits that weight and bears it onto the studs/jack studs down to the plate, onto the joists and rim joists. That joist , rim joist and bottom plate are all to damaged to support that intended weight. That blocking in there still bears on the damaged bottom plate also. And if and when leakage happens again, all that extra wood sandwiched together will be a breeding ground for decay. That's my thought. What do the rest of you think?

Jim Weyenberg
HouseMaster Inc.
NE. WI.

[Ted Menelly]

Well, he could have treated it with Timbor or a borate product. Are you sure it was just kilz because it does not look like and white kilz product anywhere near the new wood or sill or concrete stem wall.

I don't know how rotted the floor joists were from the end, you only show one of them. That particular joist (again guessing of damage) it should have been sistered farther out, maybe, if any end substantial damage was done. It does show substantial rot on the sill plate and I do not know if he repaired it or not. When there is brown rot and not soft rotted wood it can be treated with a borate product such as timbor and it will stop the brown rot from turning into soft rotted wood.

Who knows. Maybe your old door leaked slightly over time. If this new door was installed not to long ago then that rot on the pressure treated sill (if it is) would not have rotted out that fast. Even after many months.

To me it looks like that was going on for some time. Not just a few months in the slightest. Not even several months in the slightest.

Not enough pictures for before and after to determine a whole lot or time frame when all this was to take place. As far as the rot, if it is not soft, borate products will stop it and from what I see it was not kilz.

Who knows. I could be wrong on all of it.

[Scott Patterson]

If the moisture has been stopped and the mold encapsulated (covered with paint) then I really doubt that it will be a problem. Truth be known you will have more mold spores just hanging out in the crawlspace than on the repaired area.

As for the quality of the repairs? True it is not perfect, but I doubt it will present a problem down the road.

[Irmgard Swan]

Ted, Yes, I'm sure the contractor only used Kilz, because he dropped the spray can in the crawlspace and I picked it up later. I took the pictures that I showed before he sprayed it. I have a couple more, but, the site only allowed me to upload 4.
I think the joist I photographed was the only joist with such damage - from what I could see. The contractor didn't want to remove the subflooring to the left of the damaged subfloor - and I didn't blame him - because the company that put the door down had replaced that part of the subflooring when they put one of the new doors down (I think I lost count of how many doors this company had put in perhaps 6 - each of them leaking) and he would have had to remove the latest patio door, voiding our warranty.
No, the contractor did not do any repair to the sill (I wouldn't know how he would have - he would have had to lift our two story house?), and, yes, the contractor confirmed that the sill is treated lumber. I'm thinking now that the job was above the contractors expertise, should have paid him for what he did, and hired a specialist. But, I'm thinking it's too late now.
We had the door installed in December 2007 and noticed the leak in June 2008. You don't think 6 months of leaking could have caused such extensive damage? I would have thought that if the damage would have been there prior to installing the new patio door, the guys who installed it would have told us and not just installed a good door on a bad subflooring. - The patio installers, back in December 07, also replaced some aluminum flashing beneath the patio door on the outside. I really would have thought they would have seen the damage when they did this and told us about it.
And, my husband went down in the crawlspace and confirmed that the wood, even though dark (the contractor only boxed in one side of the bad wood), is not soft. I'm thinking perhaps we should apply the borate products on the not covered side.
Scott, I like your response, because . . . I wouldn't have to worry about passing an inspection when selling the house. Our kids are all grown and the house is too big now, but, I don't want to cause someone else any problems in the future, if we sell our home to them.
And, thank for your responses Jim, Ted and Scott

[Ted Menelly]

A presssure treated sill would not rot that much in 6 months or a year by getting wet. I t would over time but not usually that quick. You can use simple pressure treated wood on a deck that is sitting on the ground and not ground contact pressure treated and not rot that much in years. I would say that you had a trickle of water over a period of years.

If you can get to the back side of the joist then you should be able to get to part of that sill. Sure, treat if you can get to it, it wouldn't hurt. As Scott said I really do not think anything is going anywhaere as long as you finally have the water leaking finally fixed.