Write down what you're seeing
Note where it appears, when you first noticed it, whether it tracks with rain or humidity, how it's changed over time, and any work already done in that area. A few photos and rough measurements go a long way toward making the first call productive.
Read the local context
An assessment is only as good as what it is allowed to look at, so it helps to establish a few things first. Whether the house has a crawl space, a basement or a slab determines where the problem most likely lives. Whether anyone has been into that space recently matters, because in this climate the space under the floor is where a long-running issue usually sits unseen. Note any history of water on the property, and whether bath and kitchen fans actually terminate outside the roof rather than into the attic, which is a common and correctable cause.
Ask about what won't be visible later
A patch of visible growth is rarely the whole story — the prep work, drying time, and verification testing that happen before everything gets buttoned back up matter just as much. A good written scope spells out exactly what that hidden work will involve, so you're not just trusting that it happened.
Set proposals side by side
Line up what each proposal actually covers: surface protection, access needs, materials, permits, testing, cleanup, restoration, listed exclusions, warranty terms, and how change orders get handled.
What official local sources add
Neither record governs remediation, so their value here is historical and contextual. Flood status tells you whether a property has taken water before, which changes what an assessment should look for — contamination inside cavities from an earlier event rather than only visible growth. The actual driver is climate: humid Piedmont summers push warm moist air into cool crawlspaces over damp clay, where it condenses on framing all season, while the heating season reverses the flow into cold attic cavities. Cleaning without changing that buys a repeat.
Sources were reviewed June 20, 2026. Durham's floodplain and historic-district maps are drawn parcel by parcel, not by neighborhood in general — confirm your address's flood zone, historic status, and current permit requirements with the city before authorizing exterior or structural work.