Buying a house...

[Knucklehead97]

Wanted to get y'all some detailed updated pictures of the house to show the exterior/interior and how much property it is. If we buy it, we will be repainting the entire foundation and vinyl siding. That yellow is rough. The worst part of the house is the external washroom (you can see the door to it on the back "porch"). The previous owner had a dog that tore the drywall apart in that room and it only has a concrete floor. We plan to completely redo that whole room. The rest of the house, other than the wildly neglected back yard (my wife and I are working on it) is pretty nice.

[gogmorgo]

What's an "external washroom"?

 

[Knucklehead97]

3 minutes ago, gogmorgo said:

What's an "external washroom"?

 

We have to walk out our back door to get to the washroom. That's why I called it external 

[Eagle]

On 6/2/2019 at 1:36 PM, Knucklehead97 said:

We have to walk out our back door to get to the washroom. That's why I called it external 

 

In this corner of the world, "washroom" is another word for "bathroom" or "toilet room." Shall I assume that what you mean by "washroom" might be "laundry"?

[Eagle]

I have a question: I'm a licensed architect and a licensed building inspector. I've been doing this for more than 40 years. I have never heard of "wind mitigation."

 

Explain, please. What the heck is "wind mitigation"?

[Jeep Driver]

1 hour ago, Eagle said:

I have a question: I'm a licensed architect and a licensed building inspector. I've been doing this for more than 40 years. I have never heard of "wind mitigation."

 

Explain, please. What the heck is "wind mitigation"?

https://www.nachi.org/wind-mitigation.htm

[Jeep Driver]

2 hours ago, Eagle said:

I have a question: I'm a licensed architect and a licensed building inspector. I've been doing this for more than 40 years. I have never heard of "wind mitigation."

 

Explain, please. What the heck is "wind mitigation"?

I've been building in one capacity or another for more than 34 years.......I've seen a lot of S--- over the years. 

 

"Mitigation" of any kind,  for the most part, if your has has not been built within the last 20 years, is meaningless. 

 

Winds blow, winds suck, positive forces, negative vacuums. In this photo I suspect the was was sucked out, not blown out-

 

Garages are the first to go, large spaces, vacuums, I've seen this personally after tornadoes. 

 

Most houses, structures, built to 'code' or not, are built slightly better than dog houses. 

 

For those with money, times are changing, building materials and processes are changing, rapidly. 

 

I follow the Build Show, see here for some impressive framing- Worth your time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Eagle]

2 hours ago, Jeep Driver said:

https://www.nachi.org/wind-mitigation.htm

 

Just about all of the measures discussed in that link are good ideas, and required by the latest residential code, but not what I would call "mitigation."

 

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mitigation

noun

 

mit·i·ga·tion | \ ˌmi-tə-ˈgā-shən \

 

plural mitigations

 

Definition of mitigation

 

: the act of mitigating something or the state of being mitigated

: the process or result of making something less severe, dangerous, painful, harsh, or damaging mitigation of suffering mitigation of punishment

 

There was, in sum, a period during the Cold War … when a mitigation of the Cold War, including a renegotiation of some of its most troublesome tensions, was possible or even probable.

 

When talking about an existing house, to me "mitigation" addresses things the homeowner can do to lessen the risk of {whatever] WITHOUT having to take the house apart and rebuild it. Want "hurricane" nailing on your roof shingles? Too bad -- the only way to get it is to remove the roof and start over. Same with closer nailing of the roof sheathing to the rafters, or the latest code requirement -- taping the joints between the sheets of plywood on the roof. Sure, all that helps resist damage from high winds, but ... how can you do those things without tearing the house apart?

 

It turns out that I'm familiar with the procedures and philosophy of "wind mitigation," but I've never before heard it called that.

[Jeep Driver]

19 minutes ago, Eagle said:

 

Just about all of the measures discussed in that link are good ideas, and required by the latest residential code, but not what I would call "mitigation."

 

 

When talking about an existing house, to me "mitigation" addresses things the homeowner can do to lessen the risk of {whatever] WITHOUT having to take the house apart and rebuild it. Want "hurricane" nailing on your roof shingles? Too bad -- the only way to get it is to remove the roof and start over. Same with closer nailing of the roof sheathing to the rafters, or the latest code requirement -- taping the joints between the sheets of plywood on the roof. Sure, all that helps resist damage from high winds, but ... how can you do those things without tearing the house apart?

 

It turns out that I'm familiar with the procedures and philosophy of "wind mitigation," but I've never before heard it called that.

This is the problem. 

 

People think or believe they have actually done something by doing X or Y or Z and because of that they are safer or because they get ABC insurance credits for mitigation of some sort that they have actually accomplished something. 

When the fact is, for example, 9.99 of 10 people reading this sentence have no strong connection between the roof framing and the foundation other than the roof sitting on top of the wall framing/block....so.......they FEEL real good about that new shingle being nailed to 'code' when there is a greater chance of the entire roof separating from the house and blowing away. 

[Eagle]

3 hours ago, Jeep Driver said:

This is the problem. 

 

People think or believe they have actually done something by doing X or Y or Z and because of that they are safer or because they get ABC insurance credits for mitigation of some sort that they have actually accomplished something. 

When the fact is, for example, 9.99 of 10 people reading this sentence have no strong connection between the roof framing and the foundation other than the roof sitting on top of the wall framing/block....so.......they FEEL real good about that new shingle being nailed to 'code' when there is a greater chance of the entire roof separating from the house and blowing away. 

 

Or the roof AND the rafters peel away from the wall. I can't begin to count how many houses I've looked at that had rafter "hurricane" clips installed to tie the rafters to the wall plates (and/or studs) and the clips were installed on the wrong side of the wall, which reduces their effectiveness about 75%. I looked at one new house where the contractor put a "few" (a VERY few) anchor bolts into the tops of the concrete foundation walls ... but he didn't bother putting nuts or washers on them. How do you fix that after the fact? Code calls for anchor bolts every six feet. If they're only installed every twelve or fifteen feet ... how do you retrofit something that's supposed to have been cast into the concrete?

 

(There are ways, of course -- but they're not especially easy, and they're not especially cheap.) Same with "hurricane" clips -- if they're not there at all, or they're on the wrong side of the wall ... how do you retrofit them without tearing the house apart?

 

Many years ago, when my parents were alive, my father allowed an "energy auditor" to go through the house and suggest ways to make the place more energy efficient. Our huse had a walk-out basement. The walls weren't insulated (built in 1950), and half of the basement had later been finished as a recreation room. The rec room didn't have sheetrock or cheap plywood paneling for wall finish. My parents were after the feel of my grandparents house in Maine, so the walls were done with tongue-and-groove pine boards. The energy auditors suggestion was to insulate the basement walls.

 

"How?" we asked.

 

"Just remove the wall finish," the kid responded. Anything can be done, but to do that would be so expensive that it would have taken fifty years (or more) to amortize the cost of installing that insulation. The pine was nailed to 3/4" furring strips, which were nailed to the concrete. So the most you could get in there would have been 3/4" bead board insulation. That has an R-value of about 2, IIRC, which is just slightly better than nothing at all.

[DirtyComanche]

Screw living anywhere that the wind gets that strong on a regular basis.  All of my trees would fall on my house/shop/vehicles if that happened.

[Knucklehead97]

Finally the landlord got someone out to get her a official asking price. The realtor that gave her a "appraisal based on comps" says it's worth 110. I had someone come out for me and they said 107. The seller told me her asking price is 105. But, she has decided to not use a Realtor due to it not being needed. I'm offering 100k with me paying closing costs, IF my lender's appraiser agrees that the house is worth 100k. Home inspection came back good, nothing I didn't know about. Roof is good, pipes are good, the fuse box is the only rough part but I plan to swap it immediately. No boiler or furnace since the house was upgraded to a more modern form of heating. No chimney. I used a lead paint test kit on a couple places of paint and they showed that there's no worry about lead fumes.

[Eagle]

17 hours ago, Knucklehead97 said:

No boiler or furnace since the house was upgraded to a more modern form of heating. No chimney.

 

??? What would that be? Other than a furnace or a boiler, the only "more modern" forms of heat I know of are a heat pump (which is fine in climates where you rarely need heat, but when it gets cold it uses electric resistance heat, which is expensive) and solar.

 

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I used a lead paint test kit on a couple places of paint and they showed that there's no worry about lead fumes.

 

Fumes aren't the issue. The issue is when old lead-based paint flakes, and kids eat the chips.

[Knucklehead97]

24 minutes ago, Eagle said:

 

??? What would that be? Other than a furnace or a boiler, the only "more modern" forms of heat I know of are a heat pump (which is fine in climates where you rarely need heat, but when it gets cold it uses electric resistance heat, which is expensive) and solar.

 

 

Fumes aren't the issue. The issue is when old lead-based paint flakes, and kids eat the chips.

When furnace was mentioned earlier I thought old school furnace in the house. The newer style I meant was just your average outdoor central heating/cooling unit. 

 

As far as the paint goes, I meant that there is no lead paint in the house. The entire house has been repainted about 3 years ago and has no chips or peeling and is not lead based. 

[Eagle]

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When furnace was mentioned earlier I thought old school furnace in the house. The newer style I meant was just your average outdoor central heating/cooling unit. 

 

That sounds a lot like a heat pump to me.

 

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As far as the paint goes, I meant that there is no lead paint in the house. The entire house has been repainted about 3 years ago and has no chips or peeling and is not lead based. 

 

When was the house built? Just because the most recent paint wasn't lead-based doesn't mean there is no lead paint in the house.

 

Don't get me wrong -- I don't consider lead paint to be a problem unless it's loose, flaking, and peeling. But if you intend to have kids ... kids sometimes chew on woodwork such as window sills. If the original paint was lead-based ... it's still there and a kid could chew through to it. It's just something to be aware of. If the house was built before 1978, it most likely has lead paint.

[Knucklehead97]

It was built in '62. Definitely doesn't look like it was since it's been almost completely redone in the past 10 years. What would be the best way for me to handle the lead paint before kids come around? It's gonna be a few years, but I can add that to my list of things to fix/change.

[Eagle]

Teach your kids not to chew on windowsills.