Mold Removal in Lake Oswego, OR: Hillside and Lakeside Homes

Owner-occupied homes from the 1960s to the 2000s

The American Community Survey (2020 to 2024) counts 18,140 housing units in Lake Oswego with a median build year of 1982. About 4,100 were built before 1970, 4,300 in the 1970s, and 3,600 in 2000 or later. Sixty-one percent are detached houses, and only 31 percent of households rent, so most work here concerns a single owner and a single house. Homes built before 1978 fall under federal lead-safe work rules, and Oregon requires an accredited asbestos survey before demolition or renovation of residential buildings built before 2004.

Slopes, water, and landslide mapping

In 2013 the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) published a landslide study of northwestern Clackamas County, from Milwaukie to Canby and from Wilsonville to Sandy. The cities of Lake Oswego, Happy Valley, and Oregon City were among its funders, and the release includes an inventory map detail of Lake Oswego. The study mapped 2,885 existing landslides and counted 370 recorded landslides between 1964 and 2009. Direct losses ran from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in a typical winter and up to $75 million in severe storm years such as 1996.

DOGAMI describes the maps as valuable for regional screening but not for site-specific evaluations. A geotechnical engineer assesses slope stability, which a mold contractor does not. What a moisture inspection can show is where water is entering a hillside house: a downspout discharging uphill of a wall, a retaining wall that holds water against the foundation, or a crawl space low enough to collect runoff. See our gutters and drainage and crawl space and subfloor pages.

A 405-acre lake in the middle of the city

Oswego Lake covers 405 acres, and a 2017 KOIN report put the number of homes with access to it at more than 3,000. That report described the lake being lowered about ten feet, to roughly 88.5 feet above sea level from its normal 98.6 to 98.8, for maintenance that includes giving residents time to repair docks. The Lake Oswego Corporation can say when the next drawdown is scheduled.

Waterfront houses, boathouses, and lower-level rooms are worth watching for humidity. The EPA recommends keeping indoor relative humidity below 60 percent, ideally between 30 and 50 percent, wherever a house sits, and a low-cost humidity gauge in a lower level answers the question.

Twenty-five neighborhood associations

The city recognizes 25 neighborhood associations, including First Addition, Glenmorrie, Westlake, Mountain Park, Palisades, and Lake Grove, part of which was annexed in 1960. We also serve nearby West Linn, Tigard, and Milwaukie.

How the work is planned for Lake Oswego homes

Sixty-nine percent of Lake Oswego households own their home and 61 percent of homes are detached, so the scope is written for a single owner and a single house, including how finished floors and cabinetry will be protected. On hillside lots the inspection traces where runoff meets the foundation and leaves slope stability to a geotechnical engineer.

Lake Oswego neighborhoods we serve

• First Addition
• Lake Grove
• Glenmorrie
• Westlake
• Mountain Park
• Palisades

Services for Lake Oswego homes and buildings

See all services