Your Basement Is Damp in July and Dry in January. That Is Not a Leak.
The single most misdiagnosed problem in Janesville housing. Why the season tells you the mechanism, and why opening the basement windows makes it worse.
Guides
Mold in a Southern Wisconsin House
Practical articles on mold in a Janesville home — basements and limestone foundations, ice dams and frozen lines, Rock River flooding, what the work costs here and what your insurance is likely to say. Written for the housing in this region by the authors who cover it.
Basements
Basements, foundations and the ground
Limestone Cellars: Why Sealing One Destroys It
Courthouse Hill and the older village cores are built on laid-up limestone with no damp-proof course. These walls stay sound by drying inward. Here is what happens when somebody stops them.
Frost Depth, Footings and Where the Water Actually Comes From
Southern Wisconsin frost reaches deeper than most homeowners assume. What that does to drainage, to footings, and to the wall you were thinking of finishing.
Radon and Mold in Rock County: Two Symptoms, One Basement
Rock County is an EPA Zone 1 county and roughly half of tested homes come back above the action level. Radon and moisture use the same routes in, which makes them one job.
Winter
Winter, and what the cold does to a building
Winter Vapor Drive: The Mold You Cannot See Inside the Wall
In a cold climate the moisture moves outward all winter and condenses on the back of the sheathing. Why warm-climate advice gets this exactly backwards.
Ice Dams and Attic Mold in a Wisconsin Winter
The damage happens in February and does not stain until July. How to read the eave, the attic and the ceiling below it.
Condensation on the Inside of Your Windows Is Data, Not a Defect
What the glass is telling you about the humidity in the house, and the point at which it stops being cosmetic and starts rotting the sill.
What a Winter at 50 Degrees Does to an Empty House
Vacant, seasonal and minimally heated buildings fail in a specific and predictable way. What to set, what to run, and what to check before you close it up.
Water
Water, the Rock River and the first 48 hours
The Rock River, June 2008, and Why Flooded Houses Still Have Mold
The flood was the event. The mold was what happened in the eight weeks afterwards, in houses that were dried out but never opened up.
Sump Pump Failure: The 48-Hour Mold Timeline
Hour by hour, what actually happens to a finished basement after the pump stops, and the point at which the decision changes from drying to removal.
A Burst Supply Line in an Exterior Wall
Why it is nearly always an outside wall, why the damage is worse than the water volume suggests, and what has to come out rather than be dried in place.
Go Into Your Attic and Follow the Bath Fan Duct
One of the most common and cheapest-to-fix mold sources in the county, and one almost nobody checks. Fifteen minutes with a flashlight.
Cost
Cost, insurance and the law in Wisconsin
Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Mold in Wisconsin?
Usually not the mold. Sometimes the water that caused it. What the sudden-and-accidental distinction means in practice, and how to document a claim so it survives.
Wisconsin Seller Disclosure and Mold: What Buyers and Sellers Owe Each Other
The Real Estate Condition Report asks direct questions about moisture and defects. What has to be answered, and what a buyer should do with the answers.
Mold in a Wisconsin Rental: What Tenants and Landlords Can Actually Do
There is no state mold statute, which does not mean there is no remedy. Habitability, written notice, and the order in which the steps have to happen.
When to Hire a Professional, and When You Genuinely Do Not Need One
The EPA's own square-footage guidance, what Wisconsin does and does not license, and the documents worth asking any contractor for before you sign.
Health
Health, diagnosis and what mold actually is
14 Signs of Mold in a Janesville Home
Including the five that are easy to mistake for something else, and the three that mean you should stop looking and make a call.
Mold and Health: What the Evidence Actually Supports
The Institute of Medicine and WHO reviews are clear about what damp buildings do and honest about what is unproven. A straight summary, without the scare copy.
Safeguarding Your Home: A Comprehensive Guide to Black Mold
What Stachybotrys is, what it is not, why the color matters far less than the water behind it, and what a proper containment looks like.
Dry Fog Mold Removal: Where It Works and Where It Does Not
A genuinely useful supplementary tool, sold surprisingly often as a replacement for removing wet material. The difference matters and it is easy to test for.
Prevention and air quality
Prevention and air quality
Enhancing Indoor Air Quality in Janesville Homes
Source control, then ventilation, then filtration — in that order. Why an air purifier bought before the moisture is fixed is money spent on the symptom.
5 Mold Prevention Techniques That Actually Work in Janesville
Five things that change the outcome in this climate, and the popular ones that do not.
10 Proven Mold Prevention Techniques for a Wisconsin Home
A seasonal checklist built round the freeze-thaw cycle rather than a generic list copied from a warm-climate market.
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