Mold Inspection In
Merritt Island

Merritt Island has water on every side. The Indian River runs down the west, the Banana River down the east, and Sykes Creek and Newfound Harbor cut into the eastern half, which is why so many streets end at a canal. Low ground and a high water table mean the soil around a slab stays wet for days after a storm. Our first readings are at the slab edge: the bottom of the drywall, the bottom plate and the back of base cabinets on outside walls.

The island filled in during the 1950s and 1960s, when the space program brought thousands of families to within a few miles of the Kennedy Space Center. Those concrete block houses are now around sixty years old. The original cast iron drains, aluminum windows and roof-to-wall flashings are all reaching the end of their lives at about the same time, and patios and carports enclosed along the way add rooms that were never built to be cooled. None of that is unusual. It just means a musty smell in a house of that age usually has more than one possible source, and the job is to find the right one.

North of State Road 528 the island turns rural, with larger lots and more trees, and down South Tropical Trail the older waterfront properties sit under heavy canopy. Shade is pleasant and it also slows drying, so a roof or a wall that gets wet stays wet longer. Add an air conditioner running most of the year and the usual Florida problems follow: sweating plenums, backed-up condensate lines and closets that never quite dry out.