<p>^^ Site Down and TALK to each other? You must be kidding! The rule of city inspection is that the inspector’s duty is only there to approve or disapprove the project and point out where the problems are. They are not there to teach you how to fix the problem, your contractor supposed to know how to do it right.</p>
<p>In reality, the inspectors do talk, but that is on their discretion.</p>
<p>My relative treats inspectors like royalty and they are very nice to him. I think they generally feel under-appreciated. I’m astounded at the things they’ve approved and permitted for him!</p>
<p>artloverplus, that’s what finally happened to get the deck at our old house fixed. Our contractor felt that getting pre-approval for his proposed fix would be smarter than doing something that the inspector wouldn’t approve. They discussed the solution by phone and then the inspector’s sign-off was very quick. (Of course it took him several days to come to the house, thereby delaying our closing. But that’s another story.)</p>
<p>Many building inspectors do have office hours where they will sit down with a homeowner and a drawing on a napkin and guide the homeowner on how to keep within code. Building inspectors aren’t “out to get” homeowners, they are trying to keep licensed contractors honest. It’s pretty easy for a contractor to pull a permit then cut corners on beams, foundations, etc. and hope they don’t get caught. Most won’t, but some will. That is why you pull a permit for things like mechanical, structural etc. not because you want a pretty house. You want a house where your ceiling won’t fall down, your foundation won’t cave, your deck won’t pull away from the structure and fall down and your furnace won’t blow up.</p>
<p>I can see that I need to get on this forum more often to keep up with this thread! Coralbrook, I so enjoy your expertise in this process. Through your experience you have determined what works, what doesn’t, what you need to do, and what you don’t need to do.</p>
<p>I take it you hire subs to do a lot of the work. Or do you have your own crew? If you hire subs, how did you find the right ones you could trust to do the job right, and were easy to work with. A good working relationship seems to be so important, even when getting some work done to your own home.</p>
<p>We’ve had many bad experiences with getting work done on our 27 year old home. Just last year we received a promotional card in the mail from one of the best home builders in the area. They were advertising their home maintenance service. We hired them to do things from the simple (paint over the water spot in the ceiling) to the complex ( tear down the deck and build a flagstone and brick patio). We know that the work we are getting is top quality, because they use top quality subs. We’re paying a little extra to have them work as the general contractor, but it’s so worth it.</p>
<p>You all have had such bad experiences with city inspectors. Here’s my GOOD experience.</p>
<p>When we were remodeling our kitchen (third kitchen remodel, first in Portland, OR), we didn’t know what was inside one wall and we did know that we needed to bring the new work up to earthquake code (very stringent). The contractor made an appt for the structural engineer, the inspector, himself, and the beam manufacturer; everyone showed up on time, they spent an hour talking (and ripping holes in the walls and ceiling), and together they worked out a plan that cost us (only) $10,000 and passed inspection at the end. (And I really do mean ONLY $10,000—the previous time we did a kitchen and brought that part of the house up to code, it was ten years earlier and cost us $50,000–but when we had the mag 7 earthquake, the plaster didn’t even crack.)</p>
<p>Our Progress:</p>
<p>I have had two foundation repair guys under the house for about a week. I decided to replace every pier and post under the house and add additional piers under our new header areas. He is using jacks to level floors while installing new piers.</p>
<p>When I inspected property before purchase there were cracks in exterior stucco right at the top of the stem walk area. I estimated that we would have to do a full foundation repair. </p>
<p>Last week we discovered good news!!! Which rarely happens. Turns out there were roots that had grown up between the stem wall and the stucco because the stucco face was below grade level. These roots were pulling stucco away from concrete stem wall. No stem wall foundation issues.!! </p>
<p>So here is our scope of work for foundation repair:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Dig new footings for each pier, insert handmade concrete form and pour new concrete. Because the crawl space is less than 18 inches in this old house we have cut up all the flooring and are doing the work from above. Although there are still areas where he is crawling on his belly with little scoops of reinforced concrete to make the footings.</p>
<ol>
<li>Jack up house where needed to level out floors. Believe it or not you do this with heavy duty car jacks.</li>
<li>Build new piers with concrete pilings and pressure treated 4x4s. Strap everything with earthquake straps.</li>
<li>Brush out interior of concrete stem walls and inspect for cracks. Only 2 minor vertical cracks found. Repair with special epoxy.</li>
<li>Cut off bottom 12" of exterior stucco off. Great!!! More heavy stuff to haul away. Also, this is going to cause us to restucco the entire house.</li>
<li>Dig trench around house and create root barrier to stop root invasion from happening again.</li>
</ol></li>
</ol>
<p>I can guarantee that this is way more than my competition would ever do to repair an old house.</p>
<p>So, in the spirit of full disclosure, I had estimated foundation repair at $7,500. I believe the final cost ( without restucco) will be Labor $250x8 days plus $500 materials = $2,500.</p>
<p>Sent from my Nexus S 4G using CC</p>
<p>How could you do it so cheap? Without permits? How about insurance? Worker’s comp, Liability, E&O…</p>
<p>For example, what if one of the car jack failed?</p>
<p>I was told to jack up the house like that, you need to open four or more gigantic holes on the wall so two or more I-BEAMs can be installed over the load bearing floor trusses, you will need special house lifting equipment to lift the house, then the foundations can be repaired. It was quoted that cost doing the lifting will be around $5000, but the aftermath could cost a lot more because you need to redo the exterior, load bearing and dividing walls, in addition to pour a new foundation.</p>
<p>I was told that permits are absolutely required, that alone will add 10% of the cost.</p>
<p>A little horror story about cutting corners:</p>
<p>I bought some cheap but nice kitchen cabinets and counter tops. The problem is that the store will not deliver the material even I pay for it. It is totally cash and carry. So, I ask one of my contractor who has an antique truck(real old) to pick them up for me, a 70 miles round trip. Before we go, he swear that the truck is sound and will be able to accomplish the duty.</p>
<p>That morning, I waited in the parking lot of the cabinet store and they were late but did show up, so we loaded the stuff and go. For some reason, I did not trust the truck and follow the truck back to the construction site. Lo and behold, less than 10 miles from the destination, the truck blew a cylinder and was inoperable. Well, it was my stuff on the truck and you can fill in the story for me…</p>
<p>
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<p>What is the root barrier? A special material you put down there? I’m thinking of the weed cloth we use in the garden and I’m sure it’s not as simple as that.</p>
<p><a href=“Century Root Barrier Panels - 6ft Deep Trench - YouTube”>Century Root Barrier Panels - 6ft Deep Trench - YouTube;
<p>Sorry, wasn’t totally clear …we didn’tjack up the house per se. The jacks hold the area while you pull out one pier and replace with another new pier. Floor adjustments were 1/2 inch here and there that can be corrected by the new piers since the issue was the deteriorating piers.</p>
<p>And yes there are additional overhead costs for property insurance and my workman’s comp that covers my suns or direct hires. These guys are working independent, paid cash and I 1099 at end of year but they are included under my workman’s comp umbrella.</p>
<p>Thanks, alp.</p>
<p>Root barrier product looks cool but I’m hoping we don’t have to dig 6ft!! We are targeting about 3 ft based on the type if roots we are seeing. We are not even sure where they are coming from since nothing is really living in yard except weeds:)</p>
<p>Interesting thread. I didn’t know there was a whole societal interest in “flipping,” as evidenced by these tv shows, apparently!</p>
<p>When a house is inherited, in general, is it better to sell it asap, or to fix it up then sell? What about renting? Or are these impossible questions to answer without information of a more specific nature?</p>
<p>Hanaviolet,
Real estate tends to be a pretty valuable asset (generally). It’s best to get a good appraisal, based as of the date of death. That can give the heirs some idea of its value and also some idea of what they might prefer to do with it.</p>
<p>Much depends on how many heirs are involved, what the condition of the property is, what the real estate market is like where the property is located, what the rental market is like in the area where the property is located, how much “stuff” there is to clear out, how urgently cash is needed by the heirs, what other assets are in the estate, and a host of other factors.</p>
<p>Some families prefer to keep the property “in the family” and use it as a vacation home (if they can afford to do so), or rent it out, while others prefer to sell. There is no “right” answer, as far as I know.</p>
<p>Wow, the root barrier looks like a good way to keep the sidewalks and streets from buckling due to roots. I have NEVER seen this used in Hawaii and think it would save the state quite a bit in slip and fall damages, as well as road and sidewalk repairs. It seems like this should have been done for a lot of the huge trees and roots around town, since much of our state is pretty densely populated, with a lot of vegetation that has big roots near sidewalks and roads.</p>
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<p>Roots can come from trees that are 30 or 40 feet away. The root system spreads amazingly broadly. Nature wants to assure survival of the trees so it spreads the roots far and wide.</p>
<p>The 6’ barrier is the extreme example of the kind I saw on youtube to get a wow factor here. just do a search with the terms “root barrier” you will see there is actually a sub industry for this, the barrier starts at 2’ deep, costing about $200 for 26x18" sections.</p>
<p>They even sell it on ebay!</p>