House Remodeling Thread (long)

[withm]

They found the same thing when they replaced my roof at my former house. It's a wonder my roof hadn't cave in. The decking, which was rotted in spots, dated back to the late 1800s. My home inspector absolutely should have caught it, but didn't. .

In fairness to the inspector, he can only inspect what he can see. If there was no access to the attic, or if the attic was finished, there is no way he could see the holes in the sheathing underneath the shingles. He MIGHT have been able to tell if there was one or two layers of shingles on the roof, but frankly the only way to find these holes is to remove the shingles, or to see them from below. If you couldn't see them, neither could he.

If he had walked the roof and noted spongy spots, that's a clue, as is any evidence of leaks - water spots in your ceilings. Any of those conditions would be a red flag.

[tulip]

The inspector on my house walked all over the roof, in the attic, etc. He missed a bunch of stuff--roof, furnace, basement, plumbing, electric...I didn't know what to look for, that's why I was paying HIM.

A year later, the real estate agent called and asked if I had any problems stemming from the inspection. I listed off the whole ream. She said he had made many mistakes on other houses, too, and that she was sorry. Sorry big whoop, I'm 5-figures in the hole because of him. I would not have bought the house if I had known that the roof was bad, the furnace was improperly installed and unsafe and unusable, the hot water heater was corroded nearly through, there was no washing machine hookup (I should have caught that one on my own), the electric and the plumbing were not up to code.

Lesson learned. The house before this one had an excellent inspector who caught every little thing, including how many years left on certain appliances and features and estimated repair and replacement costs. I thought they were all like that one! Doh!

[Desert Tortoise]

Tulip, love the backsplash! Is that glass tile?

Just saw the pictures of your house exterior before and after. What a great touch of the red color just inside the window frames. Very stylish

dt

[indysteel]

Tulip, love the backsplash! Is that glass tile?

Just saw the pictures of your house exterior before and after. What a great touch of the red color just inside the window frames. Very stylish

dt

Oooooh, I just so those pictures for the first time, too (I'm not sure why, but I didn't really follow this thread previously). What a charming house and lot! I love older homes--despite the fact that they're money pits.

[GLC1968]

The tile looks great, Tulip! Great color choice!!

[spokewench]

Beautiful Kitchen Tulip. I love all of of it.

[Crankin]

Your kitchen looks awesome. You are a saint to do all of that yourself!

[indysteel]

In fairness to the inspector, he can only inspect what he can see. If there was no access to the attic, or if the attic was finished, there is no way he could see the holes in the sheathing underneath the shingles. He MIGHT have been able to tell if there was one or two layers of shingles on the roof, but frankly the only way to find these holes is to remove the shingles, or to see them from below. If you couldn't see them, neither could he.

If he had walked the roof and noted spongy spots, that's a clue, as is any evidence of leaks - water spots in your ceilings. Any of those conditions would be a red flag.

He had attic access and could have, and should have, seen that the decking was rotted in parts. This was just one of two VERY obvious issues that he should have caught that ultimately cost be a total of $12k, but thanks for suggesting that I was unfairly blaming him.

[withm]

No need to get like that. I have no idea what your inspector had access to or what he might have seen and your first note did not elaborate. Not all houses have attic access unless you start cutting holes in the ceiling. An inspector won't do that. Sounds like you got ripped off and that's a shame.

There can be many hidden conditions in older houses that would/could never be observed in a 2-3 hour home inspection. If you like the house enough to buy it, then you have to deal with the eventuality of making major repairs - that just goes with home ownership - and new homes and older homes alike are just as prone to have major problems.

His liability is probably limited to the amount charged for the inspection so he has little to lose if he misses anything.

[Koronin]

The house we just bought (repainting several rooms) actually had two inspections before we bought it. One we paid for (very good inspector and he found a bunch of stuff) and a VA inspection. We got a VA approved loan so that requires them to do an inspection as well. Thankfully we got one of the good inspectors they have and she also found a bunch of stuff, mainly the same things our inspector found. Also in getting a VA inspection anything they find the seller is required to fix or no sale. There are a few things we will need to fix though. Like the gate for the fenced in back yard needs new hinges.

[Blueberry]

His liability is probably limited to the amount charged for the inspection so he has little to lose if he misses anything.

This depends on the state, and the contract with the inspector. It's not necessarily true.

[Irulan]

Bump.
So who's got house projects going on right now?
We looked for a new place to accomodate our need for a shop ( more garage space) and office for DH. To make a long story short, we decided to add on. Much cheaper since we were paid off, and we get to stay in our neighborhood.

Before: 1979 Daylight Rancher, in sore need of updating.



We decided to bump out on the side, adding another 15 x 40 shop bay (the garage is double deep anyway) and an office ( 15 x 28) with an entrance on the side. The shop now has 8' doors instead of 7'. We also put in a new furnace, AC which we finally got to use today!, more insulation, LAN, and a few other updates. We hired an excellent contractor who's been doing a terrific job.

Almost done



LOTS of photos here, with more description of the work and so on.
https://picasaweb.google.com/penny.schwyn/Addition

[ny biker]

Wow. Very nice.

I've been getting ready to have most of my condo painted, then rip up the wall-to-wall and have the floors replaced. But there's some uncertainty in my job right now so I'm holding off for a few more months at least. In the meantime I'm still doing small projects like finding better ways to organize things and declutter, replacing doorknobs, locks and hinges, and cleaning out a big closet. I have boxes and boxes of old photos, many with duplicates, that I need to sort through.

[TrekDianna]

Awesome! I love it.

My current house is great, but it's on the wet side of Oregon. We've been spending so much time biking on the dry side of the state, we just bought a townhouse and closed on it today over there...no more driving to the wet side exhausted and sweaty. My favorite single track begins less than a quarter mile from my townhouse front door