East McLennan County · Population about 2,500

Mold Remediation in Mart, Texas

Mart sits east of Waco on Highway 84, straddling the McLennan and Limestone county line. It grew as a railroad town — one of the communities that appeared when the rail lines pushed through this part of Central Texas in the late 1800s and early 1900s — and its housing stock still reflects that era heavily.

Century-old houses on expansive clay

A large share of Mart's homes are pre-1940, and most were built pier and beam. That combination on Blackland Prairie soil produces a specific set of problems.

Piers settle unevenly as the clay beneath them swells and shrinks through the seasons, and over a century that adds up. Floors slope. Gaps open at the sill and around plumbing penetrations. Those gaps connect the crawl space directly to the living space, which matters because air moves upward through a house — a good share of what you breathe in a pier and beam home came up from underneath it.

The crawl spaces themselves are usually vented, usually over bare clay, and usually without a vapor barrier. In a Central Texas spring that means humid outdoor air condensing on cool floor joists and clay evaporating moisture upward at the same time.

Old materials behave differently

Plaster over wood lath doesn't fail like drywall. It can look intact while the lath and framing behind it stay wet for months, which means a moisture meter and a thermal camera matter more in a Mart house than a visual inspection does. Original wood siding holds water behind failing paint. Shiplap sheathing wicks along the grain, carrying moisture further from the leak than you'd expect.

Plumbing is the other era problem. Cast-iron drain lines and galvanized supply lines in homes this old are past their design life, and the failures are slow rather than dramatic — a hub crack under a floor, a threaded joint weeping inside a wall.

Roofs and outbuildings

Central Texas hail finds older roofs, and Mart has plenty of them. Homes that have been reroofed often kept original flashing at chimneys and wall junctions, which is where the leak usually is. Metal roofing on houses and outbuildings leaks at fastener penetrations as the washers age.

Detached garages, sheds and barns on these properties frequently have dirt floors and no vapor control, which makes them permanently damp spaces. Anything porous stored in them — furniture, boxes, documents — is at risk regardless of what's happening in the house.

Free referral

Tell us the age of the house and what you're finding. We'll hand it to a contractor covering eastern McLennan County. There's no cost to you.

We take referrals across 76664 and the surrounding Riesel, Axtell and Hallsburg areas.