TAMPA — National Guardsman Ryan Steiner was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in 2018 when he and his wife bought a home in Belmont Heights for $140,000.

© Douglas R. Clifford/Times/Tampa Bay Times/TNS
National Guardsman Ryan Steiner, 30, stands in the garage of his home on Machado Street in Tampa. Steiner said he demolished a section of drywall in the garage, at left, to find the manufacturer’s stamp so he could identify the origin of the building material.

The couple was about to marry and planned to start a family. They moved in before Steiner left for three months of military training and a nine-month tour of duty.

A few weeks after moving in, Steiner’s wife, Paige Skinner, began to have breathing difficulties and a cough. The couple thought it must be the mold they found in the kitchen when they remodeled it. But that didn’t explain why the air-conditioning