New Las Vegas Build With Two Leaks. We Found a Third.
A brand new Las Vegas house sprang two leaks. The owners, who had dealt with mold before, called half a dozen companies. The survey that followed found a third leak nobody knew about, in the gym. New construction is not a reason to assume the building is sound, and a leak you have not found yet is the one that turns into a mold job.
This case study is about what a proper moisture survey covers, and about how a remediation contractor works alongside a builder’s own trades.
What the owner said
“My wife and I both have had issues with mold in the past, so when our brand new house sprung two leaks, we were both extremely nervous to say the least. We called half a dozen mold companies, but Oliver was the only one who said, ‘Yep, I will be there in 30 minutes.’ In actuality, he got there in 20. He inspected not just the source of the leaks, but used his light gun to survey the entire house, identifying another leak in the gym. He left without asking for any sort of payment. Our builder showed up the next day to remove all the sheetrock, and Oliver showed up at 7am and provided them with the plastic and zippers to section off the areas. He left while they did their work, and then came back during the day to inspect the areas they had opened. Still, he did not ask for any sort of payment. Finally, he came back a third time the next day once everything had been removed and started running all of his mold tests… going up on the roof, instructing the roofer on how to fix the leaks, putting our minds at ease.”
Erich K., Google review
Two known leaks, a whole house thermal survey that found a third, containment supplied to the builder’s own demolition crew, inspection of the opened areas, then testing once everything was out.
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What we would do if your new build is leaking
The instinct is to look at the leak. The value is in looking everywhere else.
What else comes up on a new construction job
New houses leak in predictable places. Roof penetrations and flashing, window and door head flashing, condensate lines from attic mounted air handlers, and supply connections that were never fully torqued. None of that is exotic, and all of it shows up in the first few years.
Wet building materials get closed up. Framing and sheathing that got rained on during construction, or a slab that never fully cured before flooring went down, can produce moisture readings in a house nobody has ever leaked in.
The builder wants to use their own trades, and that is usually fine. What matters is that somebody independent decides the scope, sets containment and verifies the result. A builder’s crew doing demolition inside our containment, as happened here, is a perfectly good arrangement.
Documentation protects your warranty position. Photographs, moisture readings and lab results taken while the walls are open are the evidence you will want if this becomes a warranty argument later. What that claim looks like is covered in mold in a new Las Vegas home under builder warranty.
Monsoon exposes what twenty dry weeks hid. Valley roofs sit through months of nothing and are then hit hard in a few storms. A roof detail that was wrong from day one often does not announce itself until the first real rain.
Two leaks usually means look for three. That is not a sales line, it is the reason the whole house gets surveyed. Here it was the gym.
The service this job used
The survey, the source identification and the post demolition testing are all mold inspection work, which is free on site for property owners and managers. Where laboratory analysis is needed, samples go to an independent lab rather than being read in house.
On this job no remediation crew of ours was required, because the builder’s trades removed the affected material inside containment we supplied and the areas tested clean afterwards.
Leak in a house that should not have one?
Whole house thermal and moisture survey, free on site for property owners and managers, with written findings you can take to your builder. Same day response across the Las Vegas valley.