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By Nancy B. Solomon, AIA

Contractors, on the other hand, have been hit hard. As a result, since about 2002, a growing number of companies that provide comprehensive general liability insurance to contractors have begun to exclude mold coverage from new policies. Frank Musica, assistant vice president at Schinnerer, says that architects may one day feel the effects of this recent change. But he also thinks that the industry’s growing sensitivity to the issue has introduced better procedures and products that will temper the severity of such a situation.

 

To avoid moisture buildup, architects must consider a wall’s vapor profile for a given climate. Lstiburek has proposed 16 potential assemblies, three of which are illustrated on the left: The top example can work in all regions indicated on the hygrothermal map (next page); in the center is one appropriate for very cold and subarctic/arctic regions; the one at bottom is suited to cold and very cold regions. The walls have been designed to dry out to one side or the other.. Drawings: Courtesy Joseph lstiburek/Building Science Corporation

Also, it’s still not clear that mold is the perilous medical threat sometimes portrayed on the evening news and in courtrooms. According to Damp Indoor Spaces and Health, a report released in May by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in Washington, D.C., current research suggests that indoor mold can be linked to coughing, wheezing, and upper respiratory tract symptoms in otherwise healthy people; to asthma symptoms in sensitized people; and hypersensitivity pneumonitis (a relatively rare immune-mediated condition) in susceptible people. The committee that authored the report goes on to state that, at the time they reviewed the existing scientific literature, research had not yet established a clear relationship between indoor dampness in general—or indoor mold in particular—and the most severe health conditions that some have attributed to mold.