Basement in Florida? Why Mold Took 20 Years to Fail this House

A very cool client of ours named Niko came to us with a wildly different home issue- a finished basement. In Florida. That's vented to the outdoors.
Watch us tour the home being renovated with Tony Gomes, my Tampa go-to-guy for advanced diagnostics on existing homes. We explore how it's possible that mold was held at bay for 20 years, until Niko did a 'good' thing and replaced an old HVAC system with a VRF (variable capacity) heat pump.
Find the brilliant Tony Gomes and Faraday Energy in Tampa Bay at: faradayenergy....
Test your home for airborne mold with this easy kit: GotMold.com
Consult with Corbett on tuning any home, anywhere: buildingperfor...
Watch the first-ever TV series about the Science of Homes: homediagnosis....

[@MattFerguson26]

8:20 looks to be your humidity source, humid drier air escaping the porous bag.

[@KPHVAC]

As a HVAC retrofit company we ALWAYS run heat load calculations!! I don't trust anyone else's work and people make changes to the home. New insulation, new windows, etc.

[@HomePerformance]

Good work, keep it up!!

[@jeremyjedynak]

This house was definitely a unicorn. Given the current price of real estate in Florida and the complexity of repair, I wonder if the owner wouldn't have been better off tearing down and building new.
Also, having just watched seasons one and two last week, I'm looking forward to season three!

[@HomePerformance]

Hell yeah Jeremy! Thanks for bingeing our show!

[@paulgaras2606]

that structure is so complicated it almost seems like it would be easier to strip the exterior of the house down and just fully sleeve the whole thing in an exterior air barrier.

[@turboflush]

Sadly Florida hvac contractors like to do the manualJ in their head. They can spit out numbers before they leave the house with completed quote.
Looks amazing to the uneducated.
To me.. the boot.

[@GlenS123]

Definately a tough one! Luckily he has a few options, but all pricey.

[@TheVideoNorm]

What's the current status of the property? Be nice to know how well the needed fixes worked out.

[@turboflush]

You were down the street from me!!!
What a crazy house. Yep.. basements very rare.

[@HomePerformance]

Wow, Turbo, didn’t realize- shoulda had a meetup party

[@turboflush]

@Home Performance would have been honor to shake your hand.
Your doing great work.

[@HomePerformance]

🙏🏽

[@Poohbizzle]

Basements arent as rare as you think they are. Alot of Central and north fla have homes with half basements or walkout basements. Also alot of older homes built between 1920 to 1950s have full complete basements.
Definitely not as common as the northeast. But florida does have basements in the Central and Northern regions.

[@philomenajohnson2995]

I’ve. Been Looking for a home in Florida and found 2 that have basements. They are both 30 plus years old. What should I be checking for to make sure I won’t have a problem?

[@trueKENTUCKY]

No basement is good

[@martinp1544]

What a Unicorn..... The water table is so high in Florida.

[@andrewd.conard5088]

The property appraiser does not actually count this home as having a basement (BMF). It looks like they built up the grade slightly and the house is raised up a bit but the 'basement' of this home is not actually below grade.

[@louilunsford3912]

Built to accommodate Florida weather.

[@billcunninghame8554]

It's complicated!

[@HomePerformance]

Amen

[@neilcomparetto5282]

Nice diy air cleaner.

[@HomePerformance]

Everybody’s going to be impressed with how big it is

[@trueKENTUCKY]

Oh my

[@coldfinger459sub0]

Watching HVAC videos about Florida and attending Brian orbs HVAC symposium twice. There’s a good reason they don’t build subterranean garages basements in Florida..