Cumberland Township: Newer Houses Around the Battlefield, and Where They Get Wet

By John Calhoun, owner of Mold Remediation Gettysburg PA · Updated October 20, 2026

Cumberland Township wraps around Gettysburg borough on three sides, and the battlefield park takes up close to a fifth of it. Drive out of town on most roads and you’re in it within a few minutes. Its houses are a different generation from the borough’s. Where the borough’s median home was built in 1942, Cumberland’s was built in 1983, and close to 30% of its homes went up in 2000 or later.

Cumberland Township by the numbers

These are U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey estimates for 2020 to 2024.

These are survey estimates with margins of error, so read the small rows loosely. The side-by-side with every nearby township is on the Gettysburg housing data page.

Tighter houses, different problems

A house built in the 1980s or later keeps rain out better than one built in the 1880s. It also keeps moisture in. Showers, cooking, laundry and people breathing all add water to the air, and a tight house has fewer leaks for it to escape through. When that moist air hits a cold surface, it condenses. That’s why newer homes often grow mold in quiet places: closet corners on outside walls, the bottom of window frames, the back of a bedroom wall behind a dresser.

There’s a second piece I see a lot in newer houses: they’re sealed up very tight and then given heating and cooling equipment that’s too big for them. An oversized air conditioner cools fast and shuts off before it pulls much moisture out, and if nobody balances the system and the ventilation to the house, the house stays damp. A blower door test measures how tight the house is, and on new construction the builder should share that result with me. More in why brand-new houses get damp.

The other newer-house problem is the hidden leak. Finished drywall covers the plumbing, so a slow drip at a supply line or a drain fitting can run for months before it shows. Mold behind drywall covers how I find it without tearing out a whole wall.

Finished basements and crawl spaces

If your house has a finished basement or a crawl space, those are the next places to look. A finished basement hides water the same way finished drywall does: carpet over a damp slab, framing against a foundation wall, and a musty smell nobody can place. If that’s your house, finished basements and hidden mold is the page to read. For crawl spaces, vapor barrier vs. encapsulation explains the options.

Mobile homes and moisture

About 1 in 11 homes in the township is a mobile home, against well under 1 in 100 in the borough. Manufactured homes have their own moisture habits:

• The underbelly. A plumbing leak under the floor soaks the insulation above the bottom sheeting, and it can sit there unseen. A sagging or torn belly is a clue.
• The skirting. Skirting that’s sealed tight with no ventilation, over bare wet ground, traps damp air under the home.
• Soft floors. A spongy spot near the bathroom or kitchen is worth a moisture reading before it becomes a rotted subfloor.

I like these jobs. Once the source is found, a mobile home is usually an easier in-and-out job than a house. The full rundown is in mold under a mobile home or trailer.

Townhouses

About 15% of the township’s homes are attached single-family houses. Shared walls mean a leak can involve two owners, and association rules may decide who fixes the roof or siding. Check that before anyone starts work.

Same first question, newer house

A newer house doesn’t need a different kind of mold job. It needs the same one: find the water, fix it, remove what grew, and prove it’s dry. I’m John Calhoun, and I work across Cumberland Township. The overview of mold remediation in Gettysburg, PA and my mold services explain how.