What certain developers wished they knew about avoiding moisture and mold problems in South Florida construction – Advice from Liberty Building Forensics Group

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The impact of the recent construction boom in South Florida has caused a resurgence of high-rise condos along the coast of Miami and cities north of it like Sunny Isles Beach. “This is a tricky region for contractors if they have any intention of reducing their risk of moisture and mold problems during construction,” Liberty Building Forensics Group (LBFG) said in a news release. “One such tricky area is to know how to control moisture at each stage of construction – from the rough-in construction stage, to the dry-in stage and then to the start-up stage.”

During the last boom, circa 2005, there was a rash of moisture and mold problems in this region’s high-rise condo construction, which was complicated by the enormity of the buildings and their coastline locations.

“It became apparent that avoiding these problems meant taking measures at each construction stage to assure proper moisture control,” LBFG said in its announcement. “More than mere rainwater control, this requires a determination of how to ventilate for moisture, protect against all kinds of water impact (rain and plumbing related), and protect against humidity control; which is the most difficult to achieve and can result in some of the most devastating mold problems that we have seen.”

“The only way to control all of these elements is to know what strategies were needed for every different area of the building – the same strategy cannot be applied across the entire building,” says LBFG president George DuBose. “I hope that the institutional knowledge that was gained 10 years ago is still present in today’s projects.”

LBFG says it has provided problem avoidance and after problem solutions to owners and contractors for buildings under construction by developers along the South Florida coast; including 50+ story range high-rise condos where moisture and mold problems cost their developers in excess of $15M dollars to resolve.

Recently, LBFG and NCARB (National Council of Architectural Registration Boards) have developed a new online course for architects, contractors and developers that teach how to avoid these kinds of problems and has extensive expertise in investigating and resolving construction and design deficiencies in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast states, as well as in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and Southeast Asia.

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