Wanna See HACK Mentality?? Come On In

IHI

This is a job we did 2 years ago, we closed off half the garage and added a living room, full bathroom then found all kinds of problems that added up big time to fix before we could continue with our job at hand. House was built in 1995 by a home builder whom built it, lived in it for 2 years and then sold it to these people. After my plumber who had to fix all kinds of **** unrelated to our adding of the full bath to the old garage space found out who built it, he knew why it was messed up. When we pulled siding to close off a man door, fill in OHD that is when i found the plywood had no protective layer over it...just vinyl siding over plywood. The roof....keep in mind it's 10 yrs old....i found once we broke into the first floor framing and were able to see up into the knee wall spaces, the dumbass ran insulation tight in the rafter cavities right under the roof deck and sealed it tight to the top plate, so no circulation at all.

We started today pulling siding since we have to replace the bottom 32" due to flood damage, and then i found more stuff then i expected, it's literally pandora's box on this one, since aside from tearing it down, it'd cost more then they have to make it all 100% correct, and they know it. I feel bad for them, am going to do what i can to help salvage the situations but when do you say when is the problem when budget does'nt allow for a complete redo of the house inside and out. Notice in 10 yrs the plywood under the attached deck is gone, notice the flashing that does no fricken good since there's nothing to flash against. none of the fascia edges are folded over so water can just blow right in the joints. None of the windows are flashed, most of the wood after i pulled j off is rotten beyond help so even more rot than i anticipated.

Funniest part, when i first found this no tyvek/building wrap problem 2 years ago, i explained the situation to the HO's, the wife understood, the husband thinks i'm trying to screw them...so i was happy the husband got to eat crow and he manned up to me when they called me in to fix this crap and said, you were right, I never thought it'd happen this fast with all the rot we found after pulling the drywall off and being able to see the back side of the plywood that was there or left.

This is in the county, I was VERY suprised to find out the ONLY thing they wanted to inspect...ROUGH FRAMING!!! no electrical, no plumbing, no HVAC, no footing, no insulation, no drywall, ...just focking framing!!!! and, well...here ya go boys, SHINING example of why building codes are in place, and needs to be implemented everywhere, nobody seems to understand the wake of **** they're leaving for the next person who buys the house. I'm going to take my camera tomorrow, i forgot it today, and keep documentation for them, Tyvek or similar building wrap has been a code for the last 6 yrs regardless of where it's built, GC'shome builders in IA i found out are 100% liable for the structure for 13yrs, so hopefully with all my documentation they can go back and sue this guy...will it do any good, prolly not, but it'd be nice if the system worked for them and they were able to get something out of this.

Check out THIS mess

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IHI

Fast forward to now, they were'nt able to do a thing since the company had since gone belly up, so they not only were left to fix the mess the builder left them with in the first place, they are still trying to find funds to put the interior back together from the flood last summer that devestated our entire community and all communities right down the river.

Here was the garage reno we did when we started stumbling into all the messes originally but now it is all gone, nothing but gutted to the studs that are covered in muck/mud left behind...huge waste. Granted it was nothing special, but they loved it none the less so that's all that really matters.

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neolitic

Every time you think you're
following up the worst idiot ever,
you'll find an even worse idiot
the next job.

I've given up the "WTF was
this guy thinking?"
It just gives me a headache.

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J-Peffer

City officials don't care about building codes and inspectors don't have the time to check from my experience.

I had a fire in a investment complex. You know who looked at the work to check it? No one.

You know who gave me my residency permit to put tenants back? The secretary at the inspectors office with ZERO building experience.

The inspector was out going through cancer treatment for almost 2 years and they just never got a new one.

IHI

The city guys here are very strict, PITA strict but i like it, it's just routine work if you know what needs to be done, not a big deal. But the county inspector is a POS, he's supposed to have retired a few times by now, and just dlat out does'nt give a crap like you said.

What was funny, i'm freinds with the cheif inspector so i call him personally, tell him of everything going on and asked what i should do since the HO's are seeking legal advice to go after the builder since this house was obivously lemon, he told me straight up, I'm done talking about this, call ....the county inspector and talk with him. so i called and told him the story on the house, county guy asks me, "what do you want me to do about this?" so i told him, well, since YOU were the inspector on this job and the HO's are getting a lawyer i would like to have you come out while we have the hosue stripped so we can get an outside figure to verify this disaster, and since you supposedly signed off on it, i want to show you all of the things you missed so you can prepare yourself when this goes to court. He gave me the same answer, I'm done talking about this, and if you were smart you'd walk off the job after wew hang up, if they're getting a lawyer, they'll get money out of you somehow too, so go home and wait for a supena."

What a crock, i lost ALOT of faith in the system after this job...focking joke. Customer buys a 10ys old house thinking they'll be fine for years to come only to find out it's the biggest POS that is rotting away and going to cost big bucks to make it right again....it's not right at all. I told them, given the scope of the work needing to be done, materials, time, etc...i would just give the hosue back to the bank since as it sits with what we did, and what they have left, the hosue will never, ever be worth what's going to be needed to make it right.

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PA woodbutcher

Doesn't really matter rather it was code or not. Responsible builders and remodelers were using felt paper for many years before anyone even thouht about codes.

My cousin went through the same thing with her log cabin. Ended up footing the bill for everything, because she didn't want her insurance bill to go up or lose it all together. Maybe their insurance can help them if they're willing to give it a try. Had a previous customer that went that route after a major truss failure and the inspection process and builder fell through. Anyways, best of luck to all.

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bwalley

people need to realize building codes are Minimum standards.


Why would insurance pay for shoddy construction?

I could see going after the builders liability policy, but it has been stated the guy is out of business, so it is probably a waste of time.