Moldy Taylor Morrison Homes
Posted July 24th, 2010Day 6 living in a hotel due to my choice of a Morrison, now Taylor Morrison, home. If you asked the builder, they’d tell you that they adhered to Florida code when they built the roof of my two-story home. They’d be right. They did the absolute minimum required to comply with Florida’s builder-friendly building codes. The roof leak over our air handler closet has created Condition Three mold (visible, active spores) in my home. The drywall in the closet is being removed, the air conditioning unit is being removed and the homeowners have been removed to a local hotel as the 2-week mold remediation process unfolds. Can we win a lawsuit against Taylor Morrison? No, because they built the roof to the pitiful specifications allowed by Florida law. But here’s where Taylor Morrison, in my opinion at least, was negligent. Certain areas on a two-story roof will have multiple streams of water running over them. Any roofer knows where these potential problem areas are. In my home, that area was right over the air handler closet. The roofer I brought in immediately noticed a depression of tiles over the area–a clue to the degraded condition of the wood under the tile– and what looked like mold inside the closet. The mold was confirmed through environmental testing and when roof repairs got underway Taylor Morrison’s roofing expertise became apparent. Taylor Morrison, like other builders, uses cheap particle board under its roof tiles and the thinnest, cheapest paper over the particle board. They hope the tile will keep the water out. Taylor Morrison must be a religious corporation, always praying for mild weather, lest the rain waters cause trouble for homes still under warranty. My roofing repair contractor said that if Taylor Morrison used the higher quality underlayment now being placed over my rotted out roof that he would be out of business–no roofs to repair because the better quality material would keep all the water out. But Taylor Morrison paid no extra attention to a known problem area on a two-story roof. They could have used a higher quality underlayment, but didn’t. They could have enhanced the roof flashing which provides a barrier to water seepage, but didn’t. Taylor Morrison spit my house out during the height of the Orlando building boom in 2004. Employment was high, undocumented roof workers were everywhere and homes were sprouting like mold spores. Judging by the rotted condition of the particle board under our roof tile and of the drywall inside our air conditioning closet, we’ve been living with Morrison’s Mold for years. Our awareness of the mold explains a few things. For years, my son complained of allergies, but only when inside of our house. Morrison Mold. For years, my wife has suffered with fibromyalgia, exacerbated by Morrison Mold. For years I’ve been unable to bring itchy psoriasis under control. Morrison Mold. We have loved our home for six years and always thought highly of Morrison. Our beautiful home is now a HazMat site. The area near the A/C closet is a plastic-wrapped containment area. Air scrubbers are in place in every room. And soon, the remediation crew will be hand wiping and Hepa-vacuuming every item in the home. The contamination will be dealt with and the house will be “micro-cleaned” until the air testing company certifies the house as safe. We have another 8-10 days in the hotel. It’s not fun. It’s not glamorous. It’s an imposition and a complete disruption of our normal lives. One question I’d like to ask the president of Taylor Morrison Homes: Would you build a house you were going to live in yourself to the same minimum standards that you adhered to when you built mine?
Tags: mold, Morrison Homes, Orlando, Orlando builder, Taylor Morrison