Expert: Dan Griffin - 12/17/2007

Question
We live in Iowa and have started the process of building a new house.  The septic, and poured concrete basement are complete.  They have completed the basement framing, and have pretty much completed the 1st floor framing.  The basement has been capped but not enclosed.

So, now it has been raining ice for two weeks.  Everyone is telling me it will be fine and not to worry about the concrete and wood.  I am just wondering if there is anything that could go wrong with the wood being wet or the concrete being wet and frozen?  Is there anything I should do or look for in terms of damage?

Feeling pretty insecure, we are spending way more money than we have and our house looks like an icicle.  Thank you.

Answer
The ice and the cold of themselves don't hurt.

I assume the concrete was poured long enough ago to not freeze moisture within the concrete (concrete should not freeze in the first 3 days).  I also assume ice is not trapped in a locked condition with concrete like a bearing pocket where the concrete can freeze so hard it breaks the concrete.  If men have been working on site, I suspect they are using some form of heat, coupled with ground contact, that probably makes this an unlikely circumstance.

Wet wood, wet sheathing, wet flooring kind of come with the territory, summer or winter.  You have heard the nasty word mold, often over used in my opinion.  Discuss the issues with your builder.  You can feel reassured if he acknowledges mold, the causes of mold problems, and reassures you that he will not seal or cover materials until they have had a satisfactory amount of time to dry.
He wants to get dried in more than you do.  I am far too old to miss the crisp cold dry building days of the winter months, but I do remember them.  Freezing dries out moisture, often better than heat.  You don't want to install drywall with a bunch of wet framing and/or wet insulation.  You don't want to shingle a sopping wet roof deck.