North McLennan County · Population about 3,000

Mold Remediation in West, Texas

West sits eighteen miles north of Waco on I-35, a town founded on the railroad and shaped by Czech immigration — an identity it has held onto more thoroughly than almost any small town in Texas. Its housing stock reflects a long history, with a substantial share of homes well over a century old, and it also carries a distinct newer layer that most Texas towns this size don't have.

Two housing eras, one town

On April 17, 2013, the West Fertilizer Company facility exploded, killing fifteen people and damaging or destroying more than 150 buildings. The rebuild that followed put a significant amount of new construction into a town that had mostly been building nothing for decades.

That leaves West with two housing populations that need very different attention. The century-old homes have pier and beam foundations, vented crawl spaces on Blackland clay, original wood windows, and layers of remodeling. The post-2013 construction is modern slab-on-grade with attic air handlers and tight envelopes.

There's also a middle category worth naming: homes that were damaged and repaired rather than replaced. Repair work done at speed, in volume, by crews from out of the area is not always work that dried the structure properly before closing it up. A house repaired in 2013 that has smelled faintly wrong ever since is worth a look inside the walls.

Old houses on this soil

Century-old homes in West sit on the same expansive clay as the rest of the county, and pier and beam foundations move on it — piers settle unevenly, floors develop slopes, and the gaps that open around plumbing penetrations and at the sill let humid crawl space air straight into the floor system.

The crawl spaces themselves are the usual Central Texas problem. Vents that were meant to dry the space deliver warm humid spring air onto joists sitting at ground temperature, and it condenses there. Add bare clay with no vapor barrier evaporating moisture upward year-round and you have a floor system that stays damp for months at a stretch.

Wells, septic and outbuildings

West addresses extend well out into surrounding farmland, and rural properties bring septic fields on tight soil, private wells, and barns and equipment sheds. Grain and feed storage in outbuildings is its own moisture question — a metal building with no vapor control condenses on the underside of the roof on clear cool nights and drips onto whatever's below it.

Free referral

Tell us the age of the house and what you're noticing. We'll pass your details to a mold contractor covering northern McLennan County and the I-35 corridor. There's no charge to you.

We take referrals across 76691 and the surrounding Abbott, Leroy, Ross and Elm Mott areas.