When it’s not fixed right

I stopped by a fixer house that sold about a month ago. We had looked at it breifly, but were on another project. The foundation was cinder block, which doesn’t have to be bad, but in this case it was. You saw cinder block foundation work a lot in years gone by for reconstruction work. It’s easier to build up bricks than to pour a foundation, or I should say it was. Today a concrete contractor can do almost anything. The price for concrete pumping has gone down a bit because there are more concrete pumping trucks than there were in the early 1960s.

Anyway, this house is the classic example of not fixing it right. As they built up the perimeter foundation walls the center of the house was left at the original heighth. This means a dip in the center of the house of what the contractor estimates is about three inches. The dip happens to be between the kitchen and bathroom on the main floor. The basement has since been completely sheet rocked with a bathroom added below where the main floor bath is located. Fixing the dip at the time when the foundation was first adjusted or added as the case may be didn’t seem important I’m sure. It was over the course of time that settling made the dip deeper and more noticable.

The fix was to pour concrete into the dip to make the floor appear level. When this home owner bought the house, with an inspection, no one noticed the concrete that was covered by flooring. No one would think to check if the wood subfloor was actually a concrete pour. So while looking at the home today the question would be how to fix it. The new home owners have already reroofed, resided, and added new windows, before starting on the interior.

The concrete pour is in the area between the kitchen and bath. The walls are sheet rocked the tub surround is in place and even though it would be easy to jack up the floor, support it and be done the cost is very high. The entire main floor would be effected, as would the all of the basement ceilings, which would be a good thing if the new home owners had factored in gutting the whole house. I don’t think they did. Had they made that assumption the price of the house may have been less.

I know in my heart of hearts that the new home owners thought they were getting a good deal. They were after all paying less than the bank had lent on the property last year. The reality is that what they are ending up with is a set of worthless remodels. The inspection may have pointed out the all of the property defects and the intention may be to correct those defects over the course of time. The truth is that no matter when the defects are addressed it will involve the entire house. In time it may all be worth it. The neighborhood is good and there are more expensive homes surrounding this one, but the fact is the property will need a major renovation or else be torn down.