Tim,
I am having my first new home built and have seen the concrete slab, and now the blocks were delivered. Before the blocks arrived, they delivered the trusses or rafters and placed them directly on the ground bundled together with metal or plastic straps.
We have had a lot of rain and the rafters have been in a mud & water for about a month now. I am very concerned about the wood and wonder if it's bad for the wood to lay on the ground. Can this cause mold? I have contacted the builder and he seems to feel it's no big deal. Do they usually use pressured treated wood? The builder said the rafters could set out for a long time and exposed to the weather and still would be good to use for the new house. I don't know what to think. What do you say?
Karen
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Karen,
It is a big deal. My guess the trusses were made with regular Southern Yellow Pine, not treated lumber. It is okay for framing lumber to get wet *after* it is erected as it can rapidly dry. You want the lumber to get protected as quickly as possible, but it is not the end of the world if a house gets rained on as it is built. But lumber stacked closely together on the ground is not an accepted building practice.
I have acted as an expert witness in several mold cases and I know for a fact that what your builder has done is totally wrong and against all industry standards with respect to the storage of lumber outdoors. The trusses or rafter lumber should not have been dumped directly on the ground. They should have been placed on timbers so there is no direct contact with the soil. The wood should have then been covered with a tarp much like you see a rain fly over a tent. The sides of the tarp extending out at a low angle to allow air circulation through the stacked lumber. If you drape the tarp or plastic over the sides of the lumber and hold it down with rocks, the moisture from the soil gets into the lumber and causes huge problems.
Your builder has made a big mistake and there is tons of scientific data in the literature to support what I say. Each of the trusses needs to be sprayed with a bleach and water solution the day they are installed. I can guarantee you mold is growing on and in the stack. There is not a doubt in my mind.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
http://premium.askthebuilder.com
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