South McLennan County · Population about 16,700

Mold Remediation in Hewitt, Texas

Hewitt is the largest of Waco's southern suburbs and one of the fastest-growing communities in McLennan County. Most of it is subdivision housing built from the 1980s forward, which means slab-on-grade construction, attic-mounted air handlers, and neighborhoods where every house on the street was built by the same crew in the same eighteen months.

What that construction pattern means

Uniform housing produces uniform failures. When we hear about a mold problem in a Hewitt subdivision, it's usually one of three things, and neighbors tend to have the same one.

Slab leaks. Hewitt sits on the same expansive Blackland Prairie clay as the rest of the county. Houses in the 25-to-40-year range are now at the age where original copper supply lines under the slab start failing at stress points, and the shrink-swell cycle here is what puts that stress on them. A leak under a slab runs invisibly and feeds the base of the walls for months.

Condensate line failures. Attic air handlers are standard in this construction era. A clogged condensate line backs up into the pan and then into the ceiling below. Secondary pans rust, float switches get disconnected during service and not reconnected, and the first sign is a brown ring on a bedroom ceiling.

Oversized air conditioning. A system with more capacity than the house needs short-cycles, cooling the air without pulling moisture out. A Hewitt house can sit at 65 percent indoor humidity through July with the thermostat reading 73 and grow mold on closet walls with no leak anywhere.

Newer isn't immune

The newest construction on the south side has its own version. Post-tension slabs move less than older conventional slabs on this soil but they still move. Tighter building envelopes hold moisture that a leakier 1970s house would have shed. And a house finished in a wet spring — framed, dried in, and drywalled before the lumber came down to normal moisture content — can grow mold behind brand new walls in its first year.

Freeze damage

Central Texas gets hard freezes rarely enough that the plumbing here isn't detailed for them. Hewitt homes with pipes running through unconditioned attic space or in exterior walls are vulnerable, and the pattern after a freeze event is consistent: the emergency repair gets made through a small access hole, the water gets mopped, and the soaked insulation in that wall bay stays there. Six months later there's a smell.

Get it looked at

Tell us the neighborhood and what you're noticing. We'll pass your details to a mold contractor working the Hewitt and Woodway side of the county — usually same day, always free to you.

We take referrals throughout 76643 and the surrounding Midway and Waco ISD areas.