My Money Pit

BIZILL

windows leaking for sure. but from the looks of those pics, your whole foundation looks to be another culprit. either no elevated slab, or those outside bricks are giving the water a good place to seep through the walls and door. is that the case?

G-force

Did an inspector miss this?

wingnut4772

Bizill wrote:

windows leaking for sure. but from the looks of those pics, your whole foundation looks to be another culprit. either no elevated slab, or those outside bricks are giving the water a good place to seep through the walls and door. is that the case?

Don't know. It appears dry away from the windows.

G-force wrote: »

Did an inspector miss this?

Sure did.

Treitz, here are some more pics of the roof and East (HT) Wall.
I called the roofer this morning and left a message.:(

disneyjoe7

Darla, Treitz3 got you covered, but I add this to settle your mind a little that slider with the track on the outside.... I have 3 like that myself on my home I think it's meant to be that way. This is so the track is lower then the floor, you can see that with the back lip in one of your pictures, if the other way you would have a pool of water in the track.


Other then that Flat roof, and it looks like you're in the WetLands.... I'm sure there's things you can do but they are issues to you thats for sure.

wingnut4772

I called the inspection company this morning and the receptionist fielded my call and said someone would get back to me. I told her what the issue was and she said " you had this inspected in 2005 and you are calling us now? How do you know the damage has not occurred since then?" I assured her that I could get an expert to testify as to the age of the damage and that it was existing and should have been discovered at the time of inspection. She said someone would call.:rolleyes:

I also put a claim to the insurance company for the mold as they do cover that. An adjuster is gong to call to set up a time.

And last but not least , I called an attorney and I have an appointment with him on 8/13. The appt. is free so at least he can tell me where I stand with
regard to this room:


A. Not being built with a permit to code by whomever whenever (records before 1971 have been lost by the county due to some accident or something so who knows)

B. Not CBS as represented and:

C. being a POS water ridden mold infested piece of doo

People will hang! I have a 500K+ mortgage on this house for this.:eek: :mad:

Bill Ayotte

wingnut4772 wrote: »

I called the inspection company this morning and the receptionist fielded my call and said someone would get back to me. I told her what the issue was and she said " you had this inspected in 2005 and you are calling us now? How do you know the damage has not occurred since then?" I assured her that I could get an expert to testify as to the age of the damage and that it was existing and should have been discovered at the time of inspection. She said someone would call.:rolleyes:

This really gets me.....The receptionist questioned you. You are more patient than I, she would get a STFU from me in short order, especially considering your situation.:)

I don't know what, if anything you can get from the previous owner of the house, he/she may have not known about the code issue, but if they had it repaired before this, you are in business. In that case, you should be able to hit the inspector up too. My parents had a similar situation with the house they are in now, the basement would flood every year due to improper drainage....They just remodeled it, and sold the house....When my parents asked about the new carpet in the basement, they said it was worn out and they "just replaced" it....I came home one early spring afternoon to 12" of water in the basement, and there was sooooooo much mold in there we had to stay in a hotel for a week.:mad: Needless to say, the old owner ate about 15K worth of humble pie completely re-doing the basement, all the sheetrock, and all of the framing from the 4' ledge down......So it could be worse, but that really sucks

wingnut4772

Bill Ayotte wrote: »

This really gets me.....The receptionist questioned you. You are more patient than I, she would get a STFU from me in short order, especially considering your situation.:)

I don't know what, if anything you can get from the previous owner of the house, he/she may have not known about the code issue, but if they had it repaired before this, you are in business. In that case, you should be able to hit the inspector up too. My parents had a similar situation with the house they are in now, the basement would flood every year due to improper drainage....They just remodeled it, and sold the house....When my parents asked about the new carpet in the basement, they said it was worn out and they "just replaced" it....I came home one early spring afternoon to 12" of water in the basement, and there was sooooooo much mold in there we had to stay in a hotel for a week.:mad: Needless to say, the old owner ate about 15K worth of humble pie completely re-doing the basement, all the sheetrock, and all of the framing from the 4' ledge down......So it could be worse, but that really sucks

The inspection company called and the rep told me that we did not order a structural inspection at the time which would have been an additional $125.00. I guess my realtor advised them that not to which pretty much screws us. Of course we trusted him because we did not know what the hell we were doing. They did not do a mold inspection either..:mad:

MikeC78

Interesting... I would of figured that would of been part of the "inspection"?

wingnut4772

MikeC78 wrote: »

Interesting... I would of figured that would of been part of the "inspection"?

Yes.So would I...and I did.:(

BIZILL

home inspections are like pizza's. made to order. that way they can charge you extra for each and every topping.

Bill Ayotte

Do you still have the inspection report? That will be the ultimate tell....It is not above some inspection companies to change things around on their end sometimes if it avoids a big payout....

Face

wingnut4772 wrote: »

The inspection company called and the rep told me that we did not order a structural inspection at the time which would have been an additional $125.00. I guess my realtor advised them that not to which pretty much screws us. Of course we trusted him because we did not know what the hell we were doing. They did not do a mold inspection either..:mad:

Did you receive a pamphlet or receipt for what tests were conducted and the results of each? Or is that only a NY thing?

wingnut4772

Face wrote: »

Did you receive a pamphlet or receipt for what tests were conducted and the results of each? Or is that only a NY thing?

Somewhere maybe in the paperwork mess but I don't think so.:(

bobman1235

Take all your stuff and put it in a storage locker, then burn the place down. Problem solved!

You're a cop, you can sneak out of arson and insurance fraud charges, right?

(I keed, I keed - best of luck with all of this ).

BIZILL

i'm sure many of us here can furnish you with audio purchase receipts to help build you a new system while keeping your old one, via insurance....

RuSsMaN

Was there any kind of sellers disclosure notice signed by the seller and yourself?

wingnut4772

BIZILL wrote: »

i'm sure many of us here can furnish you with audio purchase receipts to help build you a new system while keeping your old one, via insurance....

Ha. You guys are creative, I will give you that. I have pics of all my stuff on the internet to show the insurance company.

wingnut4772

RuSsMaN wrote: »

Was there any kind of sellers disclosure notice signed by the seller and yourself?

Yes.

bikezappa

Wingnut

To bad you don't live in CA, because this can't happen there. When I bought my home in CA I was recommended not to have a lawyer. I was not trusting but agreed. During the purchase of the home all transactions go through Escrow. Long story short, your house must pass inpection for the deal to go through. The inspection cost $50 and is the sellers resposiblitiy. If the inspector finds nothing wrong you pay them $50 and sell your home. If the inspector finds bad things like,rot, termits, leaks in roof, uncoded wiring or plumbing, you name it, the home owner must fix before the home can be sold. Usually the inspector will fix the things wrong and that's how they make money. But you can hire an outside contractor to fix and the inspector can reinspect for another $50. The beauty of this is that if you find something wrong with your new home up to two years later, I think, the inspector MUST fix the problem regardless of the cost for FREE or they lose their license. The buyer is protected.

Sami

wingnut4772 wrote: »

Yes.

That might be your ticket for a lawsuit against the seller, hope that's what your lawyer will tell you.

treitz3

OK Darla, are you ready to do some testing? Prepare the pressure washer and get into something that you don't mind getting dirty and extremely wet in. You will also need another set of eyes around to see what is going on on the inside.

How dry has the interior framing become? Mostly dry, with the exception of the blackened areas? Also, do you have a hair dryer? Grab a long flat head screwdriver and a kabob skewer if you have one just in case.

The tests that we can do tonight are going to determine the extent of your problem and when we can at least take care of that smell.

As for the roof having standing water, there are many different types of flat roofing products/systems and procedures, some of which are designed to have standing water that is perfectly acceptable. That said, it depends on the installation and thoroughness thereof as to whether or not a particular roofing material will actually be "OK" with standing water. Thanks for the daylight pics. I cannot say with 100% certainty whether or not that type of material is suited for standing water, but I don't believe that it is. Seeing as how the two water spots are directly above your targeted "problem area", from my end and with what I see without being there, it needs to be addressed professionally to assure a permanent repair. For one of our tests, you will be required to physically get up onto the roof with the nozzle [gun] of the pressure washer. Will this present a problem for you?

Is your handyman familiar with a stucco repair, if needed? And would you be confident enough in him to provide a seamless stucco repair?

One last question. Due to today's posts we may have a conflict of interest with the insurance company's covering of the mold and taking care of it yourself. Do you have a 24 hour claims office/dept. with your insurance company?

BIZILL

treitz3 wrote: »

Prepare the pressure washer and get into something that you don't mind getting dirty and extremely wet in.

and as always, pics are a must.:cool:

...sorry. couldn't help myself.

wingnut4772

treitz3 wrote: »

OK Darla, are you ready to do some testing? Prepare the pressure washer and get into something that you don't mind getting dirty and extremely wet in. You will also need another set of eyes around to see what is going on on the inside.

How dry has the interior framing become? Mostly dry, with the exception of the blackened areas? Also, do you have a hair dryer? Grab a long flat head screwdriver and a kabob skewer if you have one just in case.

The tests that we can do tonight are going to determine the extent of your problem and when we can at least take care of that smell.

As for the roof having standing water, there are many different types of flat roofing products/systems and procedures, some of which are designed to have standing water that is perfectly acceptable. That said, it depends on the installation and thoroughness thereof as to whether or not a particular roofing material will actually be "OK" with standing water. Thanks for the daylight pics. I cannot say with 100% certainty whether or not that type of material is suited for standing water, but I don't believe that it is. Seeing as how the two water spots are directly above your targeted "problem area", from my end and with what I see without being there, it needs to be addressed professionally to assure a permanent repair. For one of our tests, you will be required to physically get up onto the roof with the nozzle [gun] of the pressure washer. Will this present a problem for you?

Is your handyman familiar with a stucco repair, if needed? And would you be confident enough in him to provide a seamless stucco repair?

One last question. Due to today's posts we may have a conflict of interest with the insurance company's covering of the mold and taking care of it yourself. Do you have a 24 hour claims office/dept. with your insurance company?

Hi. I have been working today and the insurance adjuster comes tomorrow at 11:00 AM. I guess I will put a hold on testing until I see what goes on there. I do not have confidence in my guy to do a seamless anything.:p
The roofer did not return my call today.:mad:

wingnut4772

The adjuster cames yesterday. It may be that some of this is covered so we will see. He is sending out a team to test the extent of the damage and to determine the areas the water is actually coming in. This is going to be a loooooong haul with no HT.

cheddar

wingnut4772 wrote: »

The adjuster cames yesterday. It may be that some of this is covered so we will see. He is sending out a team to test the extent of the damage and to determine the areas the water is actually coming in. This is going to be a loooooong haul with no HT.

No HT? Is that 'cause of the smell? Just get a good filter mask. Shouldn't affect the eyes and ears...;)

Hope everything works out. At least now you've got a professional 'team' on the job. treitz3 was doing a great job, though...

wingnut4772

cheddar wrote: »

No HT? Is that 'cause of the smell? Just get a good filter mask. Shouldn't affect the eyes and ears...;)

Ummmmm...how about because there are no walls?:p

cheddar wrote:

Hope everything works out. At least now you've got a professional 'team' on the job. treitz3 was doing a great job, though...

Thank you, and yes, and he calmed me down a lot! What a really nice and helpful guy.

cheddar

wingnut4772 wrote: »

Ummmmm...how about because there are no walls?:p

Who needs walls? Just means less room distortion...:p.

Willow

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles and I know what you are going through. When we moved in our old place the guys above us had moved in as well. His aquarium ended up leaking all over our place. We had to live with dryers in our house for a week it was so hot in our house that the PB was liquid. it was a PITA for sure. It will work out in the end for you.

BIZILL

yeah, but she's gonna be upset that all that dough 'should' have been spent on A/V gear.:D

wingnut4772

Ok..Any insurance agents or attorneys here?