Mold Inspection In
Melbourne

Melbourne is really two building eras sharing one shoreline. Downtown and Eau Gallie are mid century: block and frame houses with original stucco and original aluminum window systems, some of them a few blocks off the Indian River Lagoon. West of there, out along US-192 and through the newer subdivisions in West Melbourne, the envelopes are tight and well sealed. The two stocks fail in opposite directions. The older houses take water in from outside at hairline stucco cracks, tired window flashing and roof penetrations, and it shows up slowly at the base of a wall. The newer ones often are not leaking at all. They are holding humidity that has nowhere to go, and the first sign is a cool interior wall that reads wet on a meter with nothing visible on the paint.

Direction matters here more than most people expect. The sea breeze crosses the barrier island and the lagoon before it reaches the mainland, so a summer storm along Harbor City Boulevard drives rain sideways into the east side of a building rather than straight down on the roof. On the riverfront blocks off US-1, and on the marina adjacent buildings around Eau Gallie, the east elevation is the first thing we look at: the sliders, the track under them, the jamb and the drywall return beside it. Salt air is hard on gaskets and door sweeps, so a slider only ten years old can be taking on water at a corner that looks perfectly dry from inside.

Most of what we actually find in Melbourne is not roof water, it is air conditioning. From May into October the equipment runs almost without stopping. An air handler in a hallway closet pulls humid air through any gap in the return, sweats the plenum, and wets the wall cavity underneath it. Condensate lines silt up and back into laundry rooms and garages, which is why we pull the washer out instead of trusting a dry floor. Oversized units are worse: they satisfy the thermostat fast, shut off before they have pulled much moisture out of the air, and leave the house sitting at a humidity the finishes cannot handle. Part time properties closed up from June to October with the thermostat set high are the version of this we see most, and the owner usually finds it the day they come back.