What have you seen? I just bought two houses with some good ones.
First, the Ferndale project. There’s a dip in the floor by the bathroom so I go into the cat urine soaked crawl space and checked things out. I find a main beam consisting of three 2×8’s. Thats fine, its the way it wasy assembled that made me shake my head.
The two outer boards break exactly in the same spot, the inner on breaks about two feet away from that and has dropped about 3/8’s”.
Today we put a footer in to support the new post. This should be better than the cinder blocks that hold up everything else.
The second one is in the Onaway house. 2.5 story house and someone thought it would be a good idea to put a window one the bearing wall on the first floor. Pity they didnt think a header would be a good idea too. I know have a pronounced droop in the roof that I have to fix before the new roof comes.
Replies
"First, the Ferndale project. "
Sorry about that.
I built that before I had the sex change operation and was know as Mary.
Bill. Are you from Michigan, or does Ferndale have a national reputation?
"Ferndale have a national reputation"Yes.http://timstvshowcase.com/mhmh.htmlBut it seems that I got the location off a bit. It was in Fermwood. Not Ferndale.But google I found a few others made the same mistake.
Not Wilhemina???
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Not structural but,,,,
New construction, for sale 10 years later, home inspector found wet crawl space and a "plumbing leak".
I was called in to "be the hero" and found that a 'P' trap was never hooked up from a bath vanity, plug still in the main.
Very mushy down there!!
http://grungefm.com
Just be glad it was the vanity. When the engineer was out checking out my house, he was telling stories about one of his rentals. Tenants called to say that they'd been smelling a bad smell for 3 or 4 weeks and that it didn't seem to go away.
So engineer landlord climbs down into the crawl and discovers one of the old cast iron soil pipes had given way and all the waste had been running into the crawl for those 3 or 4 weeks. Every time they flushed, there's a little more loveliness in the crawlspace.
Heaven forbid they woudl have called him a little sooner.
jt8
"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Edited 11/2/2006 3:59 pm by JohnT8
Just be glad it was the vanity.
My thoughts exactly. Even though it was a vanity, it still smelled pretty rank; 10 years worth.
http://grungefm.com
I'm a landlord and often I'm the last to know. I'm not talking about little things either.
A window blew out in a storm. -- I was told days later by a different tenant that saw the remains of the window on the back yard. This was in November.
A hot water faucet wouldn't turn off. -- I was told, again by a different tenant, "there's no hot water." This had been going on for months. When I went to fix the faucet I got -- "It's about time I fixed that." Excuse me, I just found out about it this morning.
There is something about the "landlord" that scares some, not all, people. Right now I have one tenant that the other tenants feel comfortable telling what's wrong. He then tells me. Not the best system, but at least it works.
Landlords always seem to get the short end of the stick, and never any benefit of the doubt.
A few years ago I was inspecting an 8-plex I was considering buying with a couple partners. Starting in the unfinished basement, I notice a couple inches of water. So I look up and see a hole in the floor above. When I go up to that apartment, I see that the bath vanity trap is disconnected...it had been previously held together with duct tape. Note to plumbers: Duct tape is only good for plumbing repairs for up to 2 years. They had, thoughtfully, drilled a hole in the floor to eliminate the problem.
Of course, the carpet was completely soaked as were all the family's clothes that were stategically placed over pretty much every square foot of floor.
It seems the head resident, a rather large, blind woman, threatened to kick my #### if any of her clothes were mildewed. I had to remind her that it might be better to hang the clothes or put them in drawers rather than pad the floor with them, and ask the landlord to fix the leak. Apparently, this hadn't occurred to her.
We ended up buying the place and evicting her and the family after the drunk husband and son had a shootout in the living room. Bullets must missed the woman sitting in the apartment, above.
Landlords deserve a break...some of the time.
Reddog
I can beat that. Get your umbrella!
Brand new custom home, well known builder, wealthy owner. One spouse was taking the first bath in their big tub upstairs while the other was downstairs reading in a comfy chair. When the drain plug was pulled, a huge amount of water gushed out thru the can lights in the downstairs ceiling, and of course got all over all of the new furniture and floors. The tub had never been connected to the trap.
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://grungefm.com
Bob Walker posted a picture here of a 4x12-ish beam that had been notched about 10" by a garage door installer. Not structural, but a favorite of mine is the one of the rain gutters run straight across the middle of the dormer windows.
-- J.S.
Plumbers seem to be associated with a few of these. I got called by a landlord to help sopme plumbers remove a ball/claw tub and install an acrylic tub/surround. The floors were way out of whack, so I went down to the basement.
The first pic is of the tub drain pipe where a previous plumber had notched the joist so bad, it was effectively a 2x2. All the other joists had been notched about half the depth of the joist to sit on the mud sill. The 2x8s were already overspanned. Found a few hairline cracks at several of the joist notches.
Told the landlord the only way I would help is if I corrected the floor first. Landlord said it wasn't worth it to him to fix, so he cancelled the project.
"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." Invictus, by Henley.
several years ago i (a tenant)
went to the basment to find why
we did not have hot water.2.5 feet of raw sewage.
i kid not the filth line was
most way up the 3rd step.i called right away.the plumber pumped for 5+ hours(on sunday)the tale goes on from there.
she has paid tens of thousands of dollars to fix this.i has no plans to rent to others, ever.
espalier
Thats not bad Nick but I got you beat. I did a house a couple of years ago that had 2x6 joists spanning 12', six of these "joists" went through the bathroom, three of those were cut completely through by wayward plumbers.
Wonder why the toilet leans?
Good luck with the Onaway house, I'am currently doing a remod in Indian River, about 30mi. as the crow flys.
Thanks. I cant wait to get started up there. There is alot of potential in that house. The house i'm doing in Ferndale is just a clean up job (were not taking all the walls down) so its kinda bringing me down. I'm used to gutting houses. With this one I have to try to fix alot with the plaster still up. Its harder to do but the budget is tight. At least the Onaway house was bought for so little that I can do more.
put 4 nice homes in an upscale sub. once where the developers plumbing contractor had inadvertently connected the main sewer to a telephone main trunk. took 9 months to fill up. 50 or so houses-must have been one heck of a long trunk line. don't know where that one ended up. Jim
What do ya dial to get help for that one? 911 or 411?
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