As you may remember, we’ve had a bit of fun with our foundation over the past few months. But in reality, the fun started before we even bought our house. You see, the moisture problem caused by wimpy ventilation under the house actually caused some of the joists supporting the house to rot. Boo.
We were a bit freaked out when our inspector gave us this news, since no one ever wants to hear that any part of the structure of their house has been compromised. Of course, it was great that we found out about the damage before we bought the house – that meant that we were able to go back to the seller and negotiate down the sales price a bit to cover the cost of replacing the joists.
Here’s what floor joists should look like:
And here’s a closeup of what the wood rot had done to a few of the joists under our house:
Not great. Luckily, it turns out that joists are relatively easy and inexpensive to replace. The foundation guys just crawled under the house, cut out the rotted joists and replaced them with new ones. Easy! Now our foundation is as good as new.
Find out anything scary when you got your house inspected? Surely someone can beat my rotted joist story!
Hiyas! We found a few things scary about the house before we bought it, and before the inspection was done. The old septic tank in the backyard had sunken in, and the hole goes underneath our concrete patio! The hole is probably 4 feet deep and about 5 feet wide, and about 3 ft went underneath the patio. Luckily, we found that the septic tank is dried up, and we only need to fill it in with dirt. Also on top of that, our master bedroom’s concrete slab was built below grade of the backyard. The master bedroom had water damage when it rained, so there’s a huge foundation issue… :( But it’s ok, we’re getting it fixed right now :D yay!
K,
You totally kicked my joist story’s rear!! Great job on identifying all the issues before you bought the house so that you knew what you were getting into – I’m always so nervous when I hear that someone didn’t get their house inspected, so you’re way ahead of the game! Good luck with all of your repairs, and enjoy your new home!
~ Liz
Oy! Foundation issues are definitely my worst nightmare! Our current house was built in 2004 so we really didn’t come up with anything scary in the inspection report, but I’m still really glad we had it done — the $300 is really worth the peace of mind. We’re planning on paying for the inspection on the new house, too. Better safe than sorry, right?
That septic tank issue sounds wild. I can’t imagine dealing with such a problem on a new house!
When my parents moved into their new home a couple of years ago it got a clean bill of inspection. However, several weeks later, after the first hard North Texas storm, they discovered that water was pouring into the house from several windows! It was a nightmare to get the builder to come make the repairs and I’m pretty sure my mom *mentioned* that her daughter was an attorney. He showed up pretty quick after that! It was very frustrating to see them go through that and to see the builder try to take advantage of the situation.
We ended up walking away from a house after an inspection found way more things wrong than we thought were wrong. My favorite was that the disclosure asked if there was any knob & tube wiring in the house. The seller said no. The inspector found active knob & tube in the attic with insullation blown in over top of it. The inspector said it was a fire hazard and the local code enforcement officer told us it was against building code. We figured if they’d done that, it wasn’t worth buying and finding out what else they had done wrong (it was a flip).
Ok, I give up – my joist story has nothing on you guys!!
ML,
I can totally sympathize. My hubby and I also had to walk away from a house (we had a contract on it before we bought our current home) because the inspection revealed WAY too many issues. We were sad but it definitely wound up for the best – and it sounds like it did in your situation, too!
Cheyenne,
What a bummer! I hate to hear that – and as you know, it can be pretty difficult to deal with construction defects in Texas because of the dispute resolution requirements of the Texas Residential Construction Commission (http://www.trcc.state.tx.us/default.asp). I’m glad things worked out for your parents!
~ Liz
There was an older couple that lived in the condo before me. They guy built a “special” room in the attic to build dollhouses (creepy, I know). Anyway, to build this room he took out some of the trusses which has been causing the roof to slowly sink. I ended up buying it anyway because my dad thought he could fix it… two years later though and it still hasn’t been fixed!
Audra,
Ah well, now at least you can have your own dollhouse room in the attic . . . ok no, you’re right, that’s just creepy! I wouldn’t be surprised if a roofing company could fix you up fairly cheaply, as long as too much damage hasn’t already been done to the roof. Good luck – my fingers are crossed for you and your roof!
~ Liz
A room to make dollhouses?? Definitely creepy!
It’s amazing for me to think about the entire contents of a house being supported by a few pieces of wood. Wood rot can definitely do some quick damage!
After we moved in, I found a hand gun in the attic in the corner under a bunch of insulation. Wonder if CSI should be notified?
Also, the pretty flowers ‘way in the back yard turned out to be plastic on closer inspection. There was also a rusting, disassembled circular iron staircase behind the garage that was home to the biggest fire ant mound ever!
Ah, the joys of home ownership!
We had to have the previous owners repair a section of the sewer pipes in the crawl space under the house. If the inspector hadn’t caught that tear in the pipe, we could have had a very stinky and gross problem on our hands! Eeek!!!
Hope you have a great weekend Liz!