Stains on slab and stucco

[Inspectorjoe]

This is from a 1 year warranty inspection.

The first issue is in the basement slab. The seller said these brown stains mysteriously appeared after she moved in. I have no idea what caused them. Any ideas?

Click to Enlarge

16.61 KB

Click to Enlarge

40.02 KB

The other issue is staining under the windows at the stucco exterior. It looks like it was caused by chalking paint, but the house is only a year old and there are no painted surface anywhere near the windows. I've seen this many times before, but never really made an issue of it. I'd like to be able to tell the owner what caused it.

Click to Enlarge

47.78 KB

[Jim Katen]

I don't know about the rust stains.

I see similar chaulky residue when drywall dust in the window channel gets washed out by water. If that's the case, it should wash off.

Otherwise, I'd guess that the paint on the plant-on trim wasn't dry before it got rained on.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Bill Kibbel]

This is from a 1 year warranty inspection.

The first issue is in the basement slab. The seller said these brown stains mysteriously appeared after she moved in. I have no idea what caused them. Any ideas?

Some of the aggregate has hematite crystals. Hematite= very common iron ore in our area.

The other issue is staining under the windows at the stucco exterior. It looks like it was caused by chalking paint, but the house is only a year old and there are no painted surface anywhere near the windows. I've seen this many times before, but never really made an issue of it. I'd like to be able to tell the owner what caused it.

It's normal for titanium dioxide in the vinyl on non-glossy windows to chalk. If the vinyl is supposed to be the glossy, something went wrong.

[Inspectorjoe]

Thanks guys!