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seniorjudge
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If the first inspector agrees that he messed up and will put that in writing and has "malpractice" insurance, lawyers will be beating down your door.structure said:
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Structural Engineer Found House Structurally Unsound
- Thread starter structure
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seniorjudge said:If the first inspector agrees that he messed up and will put that in writing and has "malpractice" insurance, lawyers will be beating down your door.
I don't know if he will put it in writing. But, he did say it three times and it was in front of my husband and a friend of my husband's. We haven't inquired yet as to whether he has insurance yet, because we're trying to work with him at this point to come to an amicable agreement. I would assume that he does have insurance because he is a member of all the professional organizations. CABO, ASHI, GAHI and another one I can't remember.
I have a lawyer looking over his inspection report now.
floor joists
How much square footage of sloping floors are we talking about? Did the footings move or just sagging between spans. Can you see the problem from underneath? Has this house been remodeled? Are the floors sloping of bowing? Is this on the first floor or second? Sounds to me like you could just need the floor joists shored up by doubling up the framing in the overspanned spots, or add some colums Under the overspaned area's, not all that big of a deal. See you can get two completely different stories. Get quotes to do the repairs from a few different people, act like you dont have alot of money. I bet the first estimate was the guy "fishing" for a ride on the gravy train.
How much square footage of sloping floors are we talking about? Did the footings move or just sagging between spans. Can you see the problem from underneath? Has this house been remodeled? Are the floors sloping of bowing? Is this on the first floor or second? Sounds to me like you could just need the floor joists shored up by doubling up the framing in the overspanned spots, or add some colums Under the overspaned area's, not all that big of a deal. See you can get two completely different stories. Get quotes to do the repairs from a few different people, act like you dont have alot of money. I bet the first estimate was the guy "fishing" for a ride on the gravy train.
John Se said:How much square footage of sloping floors are we talking about? Did the footings move or just sagging between spans. Can you see the problem from underneath? Has this house been remodeled? Are the floors sloping of bowing? Is this on the first floor or second? Sounds to me like you could just need the floor joists shored up by doubling up the framing in the overspanned spots, or add some colums Under the overspaned area's, not all that big of a deal. See you can get two completely different stories. Get quotes to do the repairs from a few different people, act like you dont have alot of money. I bet the first estimate was the guy "fishing" for a ride on the gravy train.
I'm not 100% sure about the footings and spans. My husband met with our original inspector and I wasn't there. But, he said you could see a problem from underneath. I think you are right about the first guy, because when I talked to him I indicated to him that I lived in the house for four years and there was no way that there was $40 to $60k worth of damage. I would have noticed something. Needless to say, he won't returned my phone calls. And, when he talked to my husband he said he isn't taking on new business. (Even though he told me in our original conversation that if I wanted his opinion that I would have to pay for it!!!) What a jerk.
I don't think I mentioned that the original inspection mentions stress fractures found in the drywall of the top floor. (Turns it was wallpaper that has been painted over.) Ooh - painted over wallpaper is very dangerous!!! Here's the funny thing - the inspector didn't notice that the cracks were perfectly straight up and down and evenly spaced. And, 99% of people don't even notice because we sheet rocked over the seams, sanded and primed before we painted, as recommended by our local home improvement center.
The sloping floors are in the middle floor. It is two stories from the front, but there is a walkout basement on the back so it is three stories on the back of the house. It is about 2,500 square feet, and there has been no structural remodeling. Other than we replaced carpet with hardwoods on the middle floor.
code changes over the last 20 years
It doesnt surprise me that you would have some problems. How much are (i.e. "inches" are the floors sagged or sloped or bowed?. The requirements for how much you can span a common joist have changed, also now you see engineered lumber used in large spans. The old 3-4,2x12's nailed together for a large span is nowhere near the strength of a new engineered lumber 5x12. Seems like you could fix it and sell it just fine. But your fishing if you think someone else is going to pay. Just means you pull a little less cash out when you sell, Your house has appreciated substantially correct?
It doesnt surprise me that you would have some problems. How much are (i.e. "inches" are the floors sagged or sloped or bowed?. The requirements for how much you can span a common joist have changed, also now you see engineered lumber used in large spans. The old 3-4,2x12's nailed together for a large span is nowhere near the strength of a new engineered lumber 5x12. Seems like you could fix it and sell it just fine. But your fishing if you think someone else is going to pay. Just means you pull a little less cash out when you sell, Your house has appreciated substantially correct?
John Se said:It doesnt surprise me that you would have some problems. How much are (i.e. "inches" are the floors sagged or sloped or bowed?. The requirements for how much you can span a common joist have changed, also now you see engineered lumber used in large spans. The old 3-4,2x12's nailed together for a large span is nowhere near the strength of a new engineered lumber 5x12. Seems like you could fix it and sell it just fine. But your fishing if you think someone else is going to pay. Just means you pull a little less cash out when you sell, Your house has appreciated substantially correct?
You must have industry experience! Are you a contractor or an inspector? What you described is exactly the case. The old 3-4, 2x12's nailed together is what is causing the problem. We are working with our inspector. He is also a licensed contractor. Hopefully he will fix it for us for a discount since he admitted he should have caught it. We aren't fishing. But, we don't want to be suckers either. We wouldn't have purchased the house in the first place if we had been told about the problem - or, more accurately - we would probably asked for repairs. The house has appreciated approximately $50 grand until we found out it would cost between $40 to $60k to fix (or so we were told)... To complicate matters we got transferred to Tennessee in December and the house is empty. We're looking at starting dual mortgage payments June 1 and it seems like everyone is dragging there feet.