What I'm Seeing Now

It is about time I got this out.  As I have said, time is time is time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the dining room, left side.

We used to have a large Persian rug under the table, but my wife likes the flooring so much we will have to find another place for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the view of the dining room, right side.

The gate is to keep the kids (meaning the dogs) out of this room.  Too much opportunity to mark the "new" space...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This views the living room, left side. Everything in the living room except for the grandfather clock is very antique. 

The his/her chairs at the end of the room are circa 1820.  Am I allowed to sit in either one?  Noooo..  I am not even allowed to look at them. This is the "her" chair.

You have brief permission to view them, but don't look for long.  I don't have written permission.

This shows some of the antique rug around which this room was designed, right down to the bubble gum wall color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This views the living room, right side.

That is the "his" chair, although NOT mine.  You are correct, I do not use the living room for anything. 

Well, I do wind the clock every week, but must leave quickly.

This was a fun, though difficult, project.    It was made more difficult by my schedule.    That is the problem we all have, don't we?  Would I do it again? Yes!

Together we looked at the rooms again last night.  They have been transformed from comfortable spaces to very  beautiful, formal spaces.  They really pop.

I am pleased, we are pleased, with the results.  The way I figure it, the house has grown in value by, what do you think, $200, $300K?

Gotta be...

Thanks for coming along for the ride, however slow it was.

Look at this picture carefully and try to determine where the septic field begins and ends.  Look carefully...  and you might just see it.

You are looking down a hill, and the slope is about 15 degrees.  It is a perfect place for a septic drain field, but this one does not seem to be percolating or draining properly.  Notice how dry the material around the field is, but not the field itself.

The spines of this system are running from where the photo is shot, and you can seel puffy "lines" (8 or 10) where the drain tile is located.  Something is happening that causes the effluent to move upward and feed the surface plants.  The bottom of the hill shows the most abundant vegetation.  I would call that lush!

A septic field should not look like a "green" roof! 

My recommendation:  When you and your clients are looking at a house with a septic field, take the time to walk over the field.  If you see defined lines, notice any odors, walk on smooshy ground or see unusually lush vegetation, like above, there is a problem that needs further investigation by a qualified septic specialist.

You know the old saying:  "Effluent flows down!"  Or something like that...

 

I was surprised to see that Green has arrived to rural Virginia!  A fine example of a green roof:

It has been dry lately.  I think they need to water the garden...

 

Typically sump pumps drain outdoors.  Most jurisdictions require that.  Every now and then I see one that does not.

Sometimes they drain into the sanitary sewer.  I don't know of any jurisdictions that allow this.  Maybe they did in the past.

Sump pumps are not supposed to drain into the sanitary sewer.  If everyone did that, during heavy or continued rains, the result might be an overload of the sewer system and general indoor flooding!  It's that, or one lucky house that gets the full load from all the others!  Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.

This is one of two sump pumps in this house.  They had had a company by to install an indoor drain/sump system because of previous leaking into the house.

Draining this one away from the house in this case would not have been easy. They would have had to cut through a foundation wall and layer of brick on the exterior of that. Then the tubing would have had to be extended around a stair well on the outside in order to drain sufficiently away from the house.  Maybe they simply did not want to do that, and plumbed it like this.

In this case, the seller says that this pump was "grandfathered" and allowed to drain into the sanitary system.  It could be that the waterproofing company told them it was grandfathered.

I don't know about that.

There is some checking into it even now. 

My report stated that the County needed to be asked about such "grandfathering..."

Well, at least they used purple primer!

My recommendation:  When you see such an installation, check into it because it may not be allowed and your buyers would be inheriting a possible future problem.

It's been a while since my last post.  Not that I didn't want to post, but time is time is time.  And, since it stays light late, there isn't much of it these days...  People expect me to be able to work as late as the light.  So it goes.

The grand homecoming was grand.  But the floor wasn't quite finished.

There was about 4' left to go.

I wanted to finish.  But, as I said, time is time is time.

On top of my little available time, and in the middle of this project, my neighborhood HOA dinged me to paint the outside of my house.  Last year they simply wanted me to wash it.  That was easy.  This year it needed paint, or so they told me.  And what they say becomes, in effect, the new code...

They gave me 10 days to get it done.

Can I get someone to paint that inside of 10 days?  No.  Do I have time?  No.  I looked at my calendar and the weather.  I had two afternoons.  So I didn't schedule anything else and got it done.

This was in sacrifice of my floor.  So here is the final result. Almost done, but close only counts in, what is it, horse shoes and hand grenades?  Painting and papering the living/dining rooms was the project of a previous year.  The flooring is the final improvement.

And this is what the living room looked like when the family got home.  It became the dining room's shed.  What of the living room furniture?

It was a bit like the Scarecrow on the Wizard of Oz - part of it was over here, and part of it was over there...

The furniture made it all hard to see, but the flooring was beautiful, and even though it was not finished everyone was happy with the project so far.

I should confess - the floor project has been done for some time as of this post.  But I am way behind in my being able to get it online.

The final result?  You will see in the next, and last, post... whenever the heck that is!

Stay tuned!

 

In this last post of the "remodeled house" that proved so interesting, when I pulled up to the house I noticed that the roof was sagging in many places.  Not just sagging, but BADLY.

It is common for an older house to have a couple of roof sags here and there.  This house was 55 years old.  I can tell you that some things do in fact sag at 55.  But that is perhaps fodder for another post...

I pointed the sagging out to my buyer during the exterior inspection, promising that we would investigate further from inside the attic.

We did.  Here is what we found.  This house had 48 trusses similar to the ones you see here.  Of those 21 had been broken or cracked similar to this photo.  This attic was used extensively to store things.

This roof was "stick built."  You can see that the trusses were individually cut and put together.  But not like they do it now - trusses are pre-fabricated with metal plate connectors.  This roof was done with smaller 1x3 wooden connectors simply nailing each piece one to the other.  This is very weak, especially over time.

If you pile enough weight onto those angled members, they can separate.  You can see that these connectors pictured here simply broke in two.  And there was a lot of separation in this attic! 

Looking carefully you can actually see that the upper, larger rafters have sagged.

Imagine the amount of sagging that can occur with nearly 50% of the roof supports broken like this!  This was a badly sagging roof!

My recommendation:  do not use an attic for storage.  If you do, create shelving that is up on the rafters but that cannot hold much weight.  Roof supports are made to support upwards, and can do a great job of that if left alone!

This is the same house on the previous post and could probably take up a couple of chapters in a home inspection training book on things you hope not to find on a remodel.  This house could provide 30 blog posts.

Many rooms had been changed.  The master bathroom was enlarged by eliminating the linen closet.  They wanted a larger, more modern, double shower stall.  It looked nice, but sacrificing the only linen closet is not recommended.  It had a new vent fan and HVAC register.

The register blew no air.  The vent fan worked fine (I employ the toilet paper test - if it holds toilet paper firmly against itself, it works...)

A visit to the attic revealed why no air blew from the register.

That is a dryer vent, obviously uninsulated.  Dryer vents do not make good HVAC vents.  Period.

It is connected to the other side with tape.  A hole was repaired on the right side by taping a towel over the vent.  And you can see it is crushed and torn.  It did somewhat cool the attic space, for which I was temporarily grateful... 

On the left is the bathroom vent, which drew out air.  Here is what I found.

 

 

 

 

 

It vents into the furnace vent, which passes through the roof!!

This view shows the whole connection.  I have to confess, I have never seen that before, and I have seen many bathroom vents!

The furnace vent has a "hot" vent on the inside of this larger "cool" vent, but this is a BAD BAD to say the least.

 

 

 

 

 

The house boasted a "fourth bedroom!"  This bedroom was 6'x8' and used to be a garden shed.  It was cleverly converted into a "bedroom" with some insulation, one small, jalousie window and an exterior door.  There was one receptacle, cut into the back side of a receptacle in the original, abutting bedroom.  The box for this new "bedroom's" receptacle was shaved to fit both back to back.  And cute!

Okay, the ceiling was low, the two degree slope on the roof leaked badly, the walls were soft and stained high and low, and it smelled like a moldy-oldy gym sock, but cute!

There was an HVAC register in the ceiling, which did not blow air either.  Here is what I found in the attic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What you see on the left is the beginning of the vent for that shed "bedroom."  It is another crushed dryer vent, taped into the main trunk, which transitions into another uninsulated slinky vent.  The view on the right is the continuation of that same vent as it goes down and eventually into that room.  That tear is not helpful...

Another problem you might not have noticed is that nearly the entire attic was floored with a mish-mash of plywood.  For storage, don't you know!  This crushed the insulation to the point of having an R-value of about what, five or six?  The air conditioning in the rest of the house was not very effective, competing with so much heat radiating down from the attic.

My recommendation:  Place your hands against HVAC registers to see if they actually blow air.  Without getting too technical, the air flow should feel fairly strong.  If not, it should be evaluated.  And don't crush attic insulation for any reason.  If you need the attic for storage, create a shelf on the trusses up off the insulation but don't store too much weight.

 

A recent inspection started out on a high note.  The Realtor met me early and showed me extensive advertising for this house, which advertising extolled it as "completely remodeled.  Must see the inside!!"

I asked if there were any permits provided by the seller or listing agent.  "Oh, I don't know...," she said.

The kitchen just felt wrong.  I don't like that feeling.  So, first thing, I pulled the stove away from the wall of the  "remodeled" kitchen.   This view would be one indication why there are no permits to reflect professional work.

 

The picture is taken while peeking over the top of the range.  Upper left/center is the gas connection.  The shut-off valve, which must have pre-existed this installation, is visible on the top, and inaccessible.  The rest of the connection is just as frightfully incorrect!

What you cannot see is the bottom of this unprotected, flexible gas tubing.  It was maybe 6' long and actually bent, curled up and stuck under the range! 

There was no anti-tip device either!  Well surprise, surprise, surprise!

This was a new range and has an electric spark to ignite the flames.  This necessitates a proper electrical connection, preferably to a dedicated receptacle.  The "remodeling professional" provided one!  The range was plugged into an extension cord, visible center/right.  That cord goes up the wall from there.  It passes through a hole in the bathroom wall and its other end was hard wired into the light fixture connection for that bathroom.  All that wiring is ungrounded and was laying on the top of the bathroom light fixture, right beside the hot lights.  Had the drywall been replaced I may never have looked there to find this connection!

Thus begAnneth a very, very, very long inspection...

My recommendation:  if you are going to show your clients homes advertised as "remodeled," before you even take them by to see it, call and ask the other Realtor if he/she can show you the permits for the work.  If the answer is no, don't even bother to show it!  And if there are permits, make sure they were not issued South of the Border...

This is as close as I could come to planting red, white and blue clematis under my deck.  It came out pretty well!

 

This is typical of one of those problems that crop up during floor installations.  It it at the edge of the entry where the original hall flooring and our new flooring meet the bottom of the stair case. 

It could have been harder.  I might have had to notch out a spot for that trim piece.

This one is straightforward, with a little wrinkle.  You can see that the tongue on the new piece still needs to go into the groove of the original flooring, but also accommodate a small 1/8" bump out of the stair piece, and then an easy notch for the molding piece. 

How to do that and still maintain straight lines?

I have a tool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surprisingly, this is called a "Japanese Pull Saw."  It has its own case to protect it while in the tool box with the other bourgeoisie tools.  It likes to be set apart!

What a wonderful tool.  It is not like a traditional saw where you pull and push.  This saw is just pulled. 

It makes very fine, very exact cuts.  You simply pull gently and let the saw do the work. 

Working with hardwood flooring isn't exactly like working with furniture.  But close!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what it looked like when finished.

The floor molding still needs to be nailed into place.  But I wanted you to see how it looks at the end of the process.

It fits pretty well!

This right view is the opposite side left by the builder - two large gaps visible.

That was installed by the flooring "professional" ten years ago.

So, how do you get the floor down so as to mix grains, and textures and colors?  How do you make it not only look pretty but also with very little waste?

I am using Armstrong flooring that comes in various lengths inside boxes that are about 7' long.  Each box has 84 board feet.  For each box, I am getting less than 12" of waste.  That is pretty good. 

Here is one technique below to be able to mix and match, with little waste...

This is a dry fit technique.  You simply lay out the boards ahead of time, placing together colors and grains that are different.  You also want to put them down so that edges do not come together in the same place.  There is one spot in the upper center which looks like the two seams are together, but that is an illusion.  The longer piece is on top of the one below and there will be about 3" cut off. 

Onward and upward!