Flip This House - The Reality

Parent Cafe
401

<p>In Southern California we still call it ‘green board’, although I noticed the brand carried at Lowe’s is actually ‘purple board’. It is marked mold resistant but I doubt it would really make too much difference in a bad situation. </p>

<p>For some reason my tiling guys don’t like ‘cement board’ because it crumbles when cut. They prefer ‘Hardibacker’ which is of course more expensive ! We always put 1/4" hardibacker board on the bathroom floors for tile and 1/2" hardibacker on shower walls.</p>

<p>Every single house there is always a big back/forth on what the shower walls need to be for tiling. Each tiler seems to have a different requirement for what they want. Old timers insist on mold resistant drywall and then spend a whole day doing chicken wire/deck mud on the shower walls before tile. I kept thinking this was a colossal waste of time and went to three different tile specialty wholesale stores and asked them. </p>

<p>Turns out the true requirement is 1) walls have to be solid and not flex, causing tile to crack or fall off wall and 2) walls need to be perfectly level and plumb. </p>

<p>So, to save on labor and material cost we now frame out showers with studs at every 12 inches (instead of 16 standard stud width) - or insert new studs between existing studs. I always tear out any shower to the studs because I’m not buying houses that have lovely clean new tile, and I want to get down to studs to check for mold, etc. And we make sure that every bit of the studs are level and plumb, even if we have to put in shims. This takes about 2 hours of my carpenter’s labor and about $20 in materials (basically 2 x 4s and some nails).</p>

<p>Then we insulate really well, cover with Aquabar tar waterproof paper and cover with 1/2" hardibacker. At this point the walls do not get any sturdier… I tell the tile guys that they have to work with that structure or they don’t need the job. But, always hot mop shower base and they deck mud that for solid structure. (see mistake below!) </p>

<p>Here’s another one of my colossal mistakes in the past… my favorite tiler was too busy and recommended another tiler to do my job. This guy convinced me that we should use the new plastic/rubber liner stuff for a shower pan. I asked him several times if he had experience, knew what he was doing, etc. Even called my original tiler to ask his opinion. Of course he installed this rubber thing when I was not there. Job done, everything looks fine. This was on a condo and we were just redoing bathrooms and kitchens, no electrical or plumbing, no permit required.</p>

<p>Sell the house and one week later (only one week!!), buyer calls to tell me that the dining room ceiling is completely wet and collapsing - under the shower upstairs. Huge disaster on my hands and a $4,000 mistake because I felt so bad about the situation that I let the Buyer select their own tile guy who insisted the ENTIRE shower had to be ripped out and start all over again. I just let them have whatever they wanted because I make sure I stand by my product and it was such a mess.</p>

402

<p>Sorry… hot mop is a term for special company comes in and puts hot tar (same as old roofing tar) over entire shower pan for guaranteed water proofing (well, unless you accidentally puncture it with a nail or something). This costs $300/standard shower size. I’m still trying to figure out how to get that done cheaper! But not working on it too hard because of that stupid huge mistake with some new fangled product that numbskulls don’t know how to use. He had actually sliced the corners of the rubber mat stuff to fold up the corners. Duh!!! cutting the product will open up a nice place for water to flow right into the plywood floor.</p>

403

<p>You’re not talking about Kerdi membrane, are you? We have used it successfully (at least as best we can tell after about 5 years).</p>

<p>Lately, we’ve been using Hydro Ban for tub/showers and really like it. It’s not the cheapest option but pretty easy.</p>

404

<p>Yes, I’m talking about the Kerdi membrane which I had researched and knew that it was a good product. But the guy did not know how to install it, although he insisted he knew how to install it. I don’t have a tiler that knows how to install it, haven’t found one yet.</p>

405

<p>We like Hydroban…</p>

406

<p>DH does most of our work himself. Getting him to change how he does things, like using Hydro Ban, takes time. Usually takes someone he trusts (not me :)) to vouch for it. So far we’ve changed to IKEA cabs which we love, epoxy grout and Hydro Ban. Haven’t gotten him to switch to PEX yet but I’m working on it.</p>

407

<p>For those following along, the Dale Ave comparable flip just dropped their asking price again. They are now down to $435k-$460k price range, which means they will take $435k, down from their first asking price of $469k. Has been on the market 24 days and they are aggressively dropping their price every week or so. </p>

<p>This is not good for my potential!</p>

408

<p>I like kerdi membrane and other similar products. Also fine with Hardibacker backing board.</p>

409

<p>

Is that the orange stuff they use all the time in Holmes on Homes?</p>

410

<p>Orange is Schulter-DITRA. One of my contractors spent ten minutes with me singing its praises!</p>

411

<p>I think that orange stuff is very expensive and not very prevalent in California. Holmes on Homes is very interesting. However, most of the issues he is solving involves severe weather and foundation or basement problems that we just don’t have in our region. They always appear to big money issues, just glad we don’t have those problems in our region. For example, missing 3’ of insulation here or there is not going to cause freezing or moisture intrusion.</p>

412

<p>WEEKLY UPDATE:</p>

<p>I have uploaded 5 new photos to our group. We have new leaves on the tree! But it’s really hard to see them because the power lines in the back alley are so distracting </p>

<p>PROGRESS:</p>

<p>Drywall, tape and mud was completed this week. However, we are way behind because we were able to get primer on all the walls this week and discovered that the primer is highlighting many drywall screw heads that weren’t sunk down correctly, many screw dimples in walls and many areas that still need some mud or sanding. It is easier to see these imperfections when a focused light is on the wall and the primer is on the walls. I have made several calls to the drywall crew to get their butts back over to the project and fix all these issues. Gee, they haven’t been returning my calls and when I finally got them to answer the phone they were on another job and “will get back to me on whether they can on Saturday to fix everything”. Well, it’s Saturday and they aren’t at the project and they haven’t got back to me. These guys don’t realize that they have now lost my business permanently and I know a lot of people in the industry (Well, at least I’ll let them think that I know a lot of people in the business).</p>

<p>My lead is trying to give me a lecture that I shouldn’t let them leave the job until you walk around with a flood light and check the walls. In the dim interior everything looked OK. Well, thanks for letting me know later and why didn’t you speak up that afternoon??? Ugghhh. Now I have to get two of my own guys to spend all day Monday patching and sanding all the imperfections. This is holding up my painter who is all perturbed because I keep telling him to fix the imperfections. Everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else.</p>

<p>We built a side fence to the house for privacy and security and it is painted and ready to go. We have also built a new low front fence that is gorgeous!!! I designed it myself to give a Craftsman style to the house but I haven’t loaded pictures yet because it needs final paint coat to really look good.</p>

<p>All of our interior doors have been installed, primed and painted and we have the Hardibacker board down in our bathrooms. I am desperate to get to the point that we can get at least one floor tiled and a toilet installed! Please please I don’t want that dang Porta Potty anymore!!</p>

<p>Our ceilings are painted.</p>

<p>Oh, and did I mention that the tankless water heater is done and it looks like it could operate a nuclear power plant. Way overkill on the plumbing and I never want to see that fancy plumber again – spent way too much time trying to convince me that nuclear galvanized whatevers were mandatory. On top of it all, I hired him to set up the plumbing for a dishwasher that is going in an island. He ran a 3/8” plastic tubing (like the kind used for water going to the refrigerator ice maker) under the house for the dishwasher. I looked at it and realized that you cannot have hot hot water running from the kitchen sink through plastic tubing!! We are going to have to rip it out and put the stainless threaded hose that can handle hot water. </p>

<p>Good news is that I was walking through Lowe’s this week and noticed some ‘returned’ appliances. I pulled a microwave out the box and inspected every piece and part – got a $500 microwave for $134. Then I found a gorgeous stainless dishwasher that had been ‘used’ and then returned. It had a cut water hose (which is fine because we have to run a special long hose from the island) and looked like it had scratches on the front. I asked them for some stainless cleaner and a rag and laid down on the store floor and scrubbed out everything that looked like a scratch, but it was just glue. They sold me the $700 dishwasher for $374.00. So, my budget for appliances was $3,000 and I found Range $850+ Dishwasher $374 + Microwave $134 = $1,400! I finally saved money on something.</p>

<p>So, based on last week’s update, the only thing we didn’t get completed was bathroom tile on the floor (because I am waiting for bathrooms to get primed and painted first). Bathrooms are where our biggest drywall issues are – of course!</p>

<p>NEXT WEEK:</p>

<p>I would like to get the entire interior painted
Bathroom floor tiled
Toilet installed
Shower Pan built
Shower Valve completed
Front fence painted
Eaves painted with stupid texture coat to match old texture
Fascia painted</p>

<p>Next weekend we are doing a total blitz on Friday/Saturday/Sunday to get the front exterior complete</p>

413

<p>Going back to 9/8/2013, budget was:</p>

<p>PRIOR OVERAGE $4,350 - $300 = $4,050 over budget now.</p>

<p>Unfortunately it hasn’t gotten much better since then.</p>

<p>Tankless Water Heater – Unit $800 + Materials $250 + Labor $700 = $1,750</p>

<p>In comparison it probably would have cost a total of about $600 for a regular water heater and install, but I would have had to build an outdoor shed for the thing for maybe $400. Since I don’t have any plumbing budget left over, this is total overage</p>

<p>Prior $4,050 + $1,750 = $5,800 over budget so far</p>

<p>Drywall budgeted at $4,000 came out at $2,500 labor + $800 materials = $700 savings
Appliances budgeted at $3,000 came out at $1,360 = $1,640 savings
Fences budgeted at $1,000 came out at $2,000 = $1,000 overage</p>

<p>OVERAGE NOW EQUALS = $5,800 - $1,340 = $4,460</p>

414

<p>Coralbrook, thanks for all your updates. Do you visit the other flip to see the inside? </p>

<p>Also, I wonder about the strategy of reducing the price every week. Doesn’t that encourage potential buyers to play chicken to see how far down it will go?</p>

415

<p>Delays and cost overruns… SOP unfortunately.</p>

<p>I’ve gotten so that when DH says it’ll cost $X and take Y months, I just double both. Keeps me semi-sane.</p>

416

<p>I haven’t visited the other flip yet. When I get about two weeks from listing my agent and I usually tour any listings that are vacant, either in pending status or for sale. Then we sit down and look at the recent sales and pick our listing price. I am usually very pessimistic and she’s very optimistic, probably a requirement for a real estate agent. She’s been right about slightly higher list price most of the time.</p>

<p>Have sold at or above asking price 12 times, had to lower price a lot on one (loss) and took about 5% low offer on something I felt was going to linger on the market too long.</p>

417

<p>Nice job on the appliances! </p>

<p>We are in the process of removing clawfoot tubs and replacing them with real tubs and showers in two units in one of our buildings. There’s a window in the middle of the shower now, so I am redoing the trim around it with vinyl boards and putting up a surround (which is a challenge because it is covering three different wall materials and is not level or plumb) and putting in a new floor. But I can’t do most of that until the tub is in, and the tub is still sitting in the middle of the floor waiting to be installed, where it has been all week.</p>

<p>I have a tenant moving in next Friday… too many delays. My 80 year old plumber is really starting to show his age. :(</p>

<p>

The problem with this is that the listing gets stale, and buyers start to wonder what is wrong with the place.</p>

418

<p>What appliances did you get for $1,360?? That’s less than the cost of my wall oven . . .</p>

419

<p>^See the post above that.</p>

420

<p>Coralbrook: Do you always get new appliances? Have you used/considered good quality used appliances such as off craigslist?</p>