Water damage and mold in Cary, NC homes

How Cary houses let water in

Cary grew in waves, and the plumbing, roofs and ventilation in a house usually match the decade it was built. Brick ranches near downtown from the 1960s and earlier often still have some galvanized steel supply pipe and cast iron drains. The big subdivisions of the 1970s and 1980s, such as Kildaire Farms, MacGregor Downs and Lochmere, were built during the years when polybutylene supply pipe was common. Preston and the neighborhoods that followed in the 1990s and 2000s moved to copper and CPVC, with air handlers increasingly placed in attics. West Cary’s newer houses, around Cary Park, Amberly and the 27519 corridor, use PEX plumbing, second-floor laundry rooms and attic HVAC almost by default. Knowing the era of a house tells you where to look first when water appears.

Polybutylene and aging supply lines

Polybutylene is a flexible gray plastic pipe used in many houses built from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s, and Cary built a lot of houses in those years. It tends to fail at its fittings and can weaken from within as it ages, and failures usually come without warning, as a split line inside a wall or ceiling. Many Cary owners have already repiped; if you have not, a plumber can tell you quickly, often from the pipe at the water heater or under a sink. In any house of that age, plastic supply lines to toilets and faucets, washer hoses and ice maker lines are worth replacing on a schedule, because they are the most common source of burst pipe water damage here.

Two-story houses with water overhead

Most Cary houses built since the 1980s are two stories, and many put water equipment above finished rooms: bathrooms over the living room, a laundry room over the kitchen, an air handler in the attic over the bedrooms. That arrangement turns a modest leak into a ceiling problem. In summer, the most common call is a ceiling stain under an attic air handler whose condensate drain clogged, covered under AC leaking water. Year round, it is a toilet seal or shower pan leaking through the ceiling below, covered under the ceiling leak page.

Creeks, stormwater and low lots

Cary sits across the watersheds of Swift Creek, Walnut Creek and Crabtree Creek, with many smaller tributaries running behind neighborhoods. During heavy storms, low-lying streets and yards near those streams can take on water, and lots graded toward the house send runoff into garages and crawl spaces. When water comes in from outside, it is treated as contaminated, and the porous materials it soaked are removed through flood damage cleanup rather than dried in place.

When Cary freezes

Hard freezes are rare in Cary, which is exactly why they cause so much damage when they come. Supply lines in exterior walls, plumbing in vented crawl spaces and outdoor faucets are exposed in a way that would never pass in a colder climate. On Christmas Eve 2022, the low at Raleigh-Durham International Airport dropped to 10 degrees during rolling power outages, and split pipes kept plumbers and restoration crews busy across Cary for days afterward. Before a cold snap, keep the heat on, let faucets on outside walls drip and disconnect garden hoses.

Mold in Cary homes

Mold calls in Cary fall into a few patterns. Attic mold on the roof sheathing, often found during a home sale, usually traces to bath fans venting into the attic or air leaks from the house below; see attic mold removal. Mold behind vanities and on bathroom ceilings follows slow leaks and weak exhaust fans. Closets on exterior walls and rooms over the garage grow mold when indoor humidity runs high in summer. And older water damage that was dried on the surface only shows up later as a musty smell in the house. Each one starts with finding the moisture, then mold remediation.

Water and sewer service in Cary

The Town of Cary runs the water and sewer system, and it also operates the system that serves Morrisville. If you cannot find or close your main valve, the town’s utility can shut off water at the meter. For sewer backups, Cary clears blockages between its main and the cleanout at the edge of the property, while the line from the cleanout to the house is the owner’s; sewage cleanup explains how to tell where a blockage is.

Buying or selling in Cary

Cary houses sell quickly, and water and mold findings are among the most common inspection-report surprises: microbial growth on attic sheathing, staining under a bathroom, an old polybutylene system or a ceiling stain under the air handler. Sellers can get ahead of them with an inspection before listing. Buyers can get a scope and a price during the due diligence period, so the negotiation is about a real number.

The same water damage and mold help is available in Apex, Holly Springs, Morrisville and Raleigh.