We discovered mold on the exterior wood of our home located in the Trilogy (Central Coast of California) community. The mold is not isolated to one spot or direction (north, south, east and west). We have lived in our new home less than 19 months. I know of at least six neighbors who have this issue (and our neighbor across the street is having exterior mold remediation work done to her new home) and another home on our street has a mold remediation truck in front of their home and a crew doing work.
I notified Shea via email today including our Customer Service Representative of Notice Of Discovery of this Construction Defect and I received a call from F yesterday. Apparently, there is a list of homeowners with mold problems. This individual from Shea implied that we need to be doing home maintenance to forestall mold.
That being said I advised that there is no maintenance for exterior painted wood and there are no lawn or garden sprinklers.
As other homeowners are also complaining I asked about the paint used (is it rated for coastal areas, antimicrobial, etc). I didn't get a response.
I'm not sure if the exterior wood was primed properly, or was left exposed to the elements (i.e. rain) or a cheap paint was used or if the paint was watered down. As an ex-construction underwriter & reinsurer I know there is a master-servant relationship between the GC and their subcontractors. I also hope that Shea obtains CG2010 11/85 COI's from sub-contractors. Obviously, Shea is going to push-back on this. Their CGL policy probably excludes Biological Agents (ie. mold, fungi, pathogens) and it costs $$$ for repainting.
My neighbor had a mold remediation contractor scrub and repaint the exterior wood for over $15k. My first estimate was for over $17K (ours is a larger home). I will have another estimate next week.
Due to mold and the builders response ("we are looking into this") I am temporarily downgrading my Yelp review to one Yelp star. I will update my review at a later date. I may have to go into mediation and / or reach-out to a Construction Defect Attorney.
Yes, I still love the area, the community and the the inside of my home. I still feel that Shea is one of the better builders. Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over-and-over and expecting a difference outcome. Obviously, if there is mold developing then Shea needs to investigate the paint used and whether the type is appropriate for use in a coastal area.
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9/14. We had two representatives from Shea view the exterior of our home on 9/8. They authorized our home to be cleaned a third party with a 1:3 bleach to water ratio on all exterior wood, including under the eves tomorrow.
Then they spent two days prepping our home (masking windows, doors) and repainted over the Frazee flat paint with Sherman Williams eggshell paint with an antimicrobial. They are not removing the rain gutters which were previously painted. The house looks great. Shea Homes came thru in the clutch.
Ps. We decided not to partake in the MOTH class-action lawsuit started by several neighbors as this will take years. Even assuming the homeowners win the attorneys in retainer will probably pocket the majority of the monetary award.