Fixing Granny's house adendum

L

Leonthecat

Racism Watchdog
Dark Soul said:
I was called on a problem house down in Lumberton last week, house built in 1945. Granny is in her 80's, let the house go after her husband died and has dementia. She stopped making tax payments and the city threatened to evict her. Grandson stepped up, paid the taxes and now has himself as joint owner. He hires a day nurse to keep her clean and fed, but he lives in Raleigh, two hours north.

Tax value is $50k, slow economy down there. Homes on the street are higher values and maintained. House has 5 small additions, plus a 6th- brick veneer. Floor plan is terrible, 8' wide x 20' long 2nd bedroom, probably an old porch, and the second bathroom through the main living area on the extreme other side of the house. Ceilings 6'-10", don't even make the Code minimum of 7'. On a crawl space that is inaccessible if you follow OSHA regs, which I do. It's 18" high at the highest point, and quickly dives down to much less. All I could do was stick my camera through the opening and snap some pictures in a scan pattern.

The brick veneer is perfect, indicating that the perimeter footings are good.

Granny is in her 80's, let the house go after her husband died and has dementia. She stopped making tax payments and the city threatened to evict her. Grandson stepped up, paid the taxes and now has himself as joint owner. He hires a day nurse to keep her clean and fed, but he lives in Raleigh, two hours north.

I've never seen termite infestation this bad. The door to the bathroom from the master bedroom just fell off the frame. The jack studs behind it look like swollen styrofoam. The floors throughout are like a roller coaster. The place stinks, probably dead animals in the crawl space below the floor, plus a disaster of plumbing leaks that can't be fixed because the space below is inaccessible. "A hot mess", as my client warned me.

Normally in a situation like this we move everything out of the house and take the floors out, leaving the walls hanging. We have a termite guy come in and treat everything left over. Then rebuild the floor structure with pressure treated lumber. Encapsulate the crawl space and dehumidify it. Then we build trap doors everywhere to access the space to service the plumbing.

However I always try to think outside the box and in this case I may have a way to help the grandson out and make his investment work for him.

I spent most of the day designing a new floor plan, expanding the second bedroom, putting a bathroom in it, enlarging the master closet into the common bath and making it a powder room. Getting rid of the non-working central HVAC for modern split systems, and making that space into a cozy office. I dropped the floor down and made it a slab on grade, so ceiling height goes to 8'-3". Completely new exterior studs set inside the old walls to make a 9" super-insulated envelope.

I hope he goes for this design. Cost should be about the same as the "normal", and he creates a much more modern, desirable home.
Click to expand...


If the doors are falling off, the studs behind the lath and plaster are like sponges as well and the only thing holding the roof up is probably the brick veneer.
Termites don't stop at the wood that you can see. The rotten smell isn't dead animals, it is the frame of the house rotting and disintegrating from wet rot and insect infestation. You will soon find there is nothing to nail new studs to.
If you were honest you would tell the son to knock it down and sell the lot. There is nothing left to salvage.
To try and fix this mess will create a bottomless money pit he will never recoup.
Granny should be living with junior, if he cares about her at all. Get the poor woman out of there. It is not a healthy place to live and is no doubt contributing to her decline.

I have heard of people so insensitive, stupid and cruel that they make jokes about watching their geriatric cat dying,day after day, instead of doing the Right thing and putting the poor suffering beast down.
You remind me of him.
 
Leonthecat said:
If the doors are falling off, the studs behind the lath and plaster are like sponges as well and the only thing holding the roof up is probably the brick veneer.
Termites don't stop at the wood that you can see. The rotten smell isn't dead animals, it is the frame of the house rotting and disintegrating from wet rot and insect infestation. You will soon find there is nothing to nail new studs to.
If you were honest you would tell the son to knock it down and sell the lot. There is nothing left to salvage.
To try and fix this mess will create a bottomless money pit he will never recoup.
Granny should be living with junior, if he cares about her at all. Get the poor woman out of there. It is not a healthy place to live and is no doubt contributing to her decline.

I have heard of people so insensitive, stupid and cruel that they make jokes about watching their geriatric cat dying,day after day, instead of doing the Right thing and putting the poor suffering beast down.
You remind me of him.
Click to expand...

Just by the description DS has provided, it looks like a real waste of time, energy and money to try and salvage this thing. Where's Granny staying while all the construction goes on?
 
Jack said:
Just by the description DS has provided, it looks like a real waste of time, energy and money to try and salvage this thing. Where's Granny staying while all the construction goes on?
Click to expand...

DS is one cruel son of a bitch.
He would have her moved from room to room as reconstruction is attempted.
It will probably kill her and he couldn't care less. DS will still send junior his bill, even after reality sets in and the reconstruction is abandoned.
 
Leonthecat said:
DS is one cruel son of a bitch.
He would have her moved from room to room as reconstruction is attempted.
It will probably kill her and DS will still send junior his bill, even after reality sets in and the reconstruction is abandoned.
Click to expand...

hahaha ... I just noticed he banned you from his thread. Maybe you two have a 'history' with each other?
I was just tossing out my thoughts so maybe he could see something he had missed.
 
Jack said:
hahaha ... I just noticed he banned you from his thread. Maybe you two have a 'history' with each other?
I was just tossing out my thoughts so maybe he could see something he had missed.
Click to expand...

His screen name used to be"Right", and like he is now, he has always been wrong.

He is literally bragging about taking the son's money for a lost cause before "Granny" dies.
He knows this house will never pass code or be lived in.

A greedy psychopath. That is what he has demonstrated himself to be over the years.

BTW the asshole joking as he watched his cat suffer and die was him.
 
Leonthecat said:
His screen name used to be"Right", and like he is now, he has always been wrong.

He is literally bragging about taking the son's money for a lost cause before "Granny" dies.
He knows this house will never pass code or be lived in.

A greedy psychopath. That is what he has demonstrated himself to be over the years.

BTW the asshole joking as he watched his cat suffer and die was him.
Click to expand...

Dark stool is delusional, he is pretending to be a builder now

bob-the-builder.jpg
 
Jack said:
"92-5/8"
"Q: Why is the length of a precut stud 92-5/8 in.? With the sole plate and two top plates at 1-1/2 in. each, the total wall height is 97-1/8 in.Sep 1, 2002"
https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2002/09/01/do-precut-studs-make-sense

You DON'T want a 8'-3' floor/ceiling height, you want a 8'-1' floor/ceiling height. You want to put 1/2" (or 5/8") sheetrock on the ceiling, then 2 sheets of 4' wide sheetrock on the walls. That gives you an allowance of 1/2" at the bottom. 8'-3" gives you an extra 2 and 1/2". Who wants to cut 2" slices of sheetrock to attach to the wall, who wants to tape and float the extra joint throughout the entire house?

Pouring a concrete slab in sections defeats the purpose of the monolithic slab. Each section will lift or sink individually and cause an uneven floor. You'll have construction/expansion joints here, there, and everywhere. This 'double wall' you're talking about, the existing wall and the 'new interior wall'. The 'new interior wall' will need a solid footing not broken up with 'joints'. Same would go for your load bearing walls, they would need at least an 8" thickened slab that would be continuos with #4 or #5 rebar.

"skid-steer", I guess that is a Bobcat with bucket attached? Yeah, you would have to find someplace that you could open up, especially if this is a raised house like you say it is.

You're basically gutting the entire inside of the house, how great does the outside look for you to try and salvage this piece of shit? Did you look in the attic? Whats that look like?

All Granny really needs is a little Studio Apartment type living space. Is this really for Granny, or for some resale value after Granny checks out? Or, ... are you just drumming up business for yourself?
Click to expand...

The plates and rafters are most likely devoured and or rotted too.

Dark Stool has obviously never really "built" anything beyond paper or a cad program.

8'3" ceiling height and "sectional" slab, Lol!
 
Last edited:
Leonthecat said:
His screen name used to be"Right", and like he is now, he has always been wrong.

He is literally bragging about taking the son's money for a lost cause before "Granny" dies.
He knows this house will never pass code or be lived in.

A greedy psychopath. That is what he has demonstrated himself to be over the years.

BTW the asshole joking as he watched his cat suffer and die was him.
Click to expand...

So, 'Dark Soul' is an unscrupulous con artist that roams the countryside drumming up business from unwitting people, ... it all starts to make sense now. :(
 
Leonthecat said:
If the doors are falling off, the studs behind the lath and plaster are like sponges as well and the only thing holding the roof up is probably the brick veneer.
Termites don't stop at the wood that you can see. The rotten smell isn't dead animals, it is the frame of the house rotting and disintegrating from wet rot and insect infestation. You will soon find there is nothing to nail new studs to.
If you were honest you would tell the son to knock it down and sell the lot. There is nothing left to salvage.
To try and fix this mess will create a bottomless money pit he will never recoup.
Granny should be living with junior, if he cares about her at all. Get the poor woman out of there. It is not a healthy place to live and is no doubt contributing to her decline.

I have heard of people so insensitive, stupid and cruel that they make jokes about watching their geriatric cat dying,day after day, instead of doing the Right thing and putting the poor suffering beast down.
You remind me of him.
Click to expand...

Mr. Owl loves those house flipper and fixer-upper shows on HGTV. This scenario reminds me of my own solution whenever a flipper encounters massive defects, infestations, etc. in a house.

jO23a0m.jpg
 
Leonthecat said:
The plates and rafters are most likely devoured and or rotted too.

Dark Stool has obviously never really "built" anything beyond paper or a cad program.

8'3" ceiling height and "sectional" slab, Lol!
Click to expand...


Yeah. The ' 8'-3" ' was a red flag, warning light, siren, that went off immediately. I thought he had some valid reason for going with that.
My primary thought was the House Drain. If he drops everything 17", will it still 'flow'? When asked about the elevation of the sewer connection at the street, his response was "It's underground". Yeah, no shit. You know, what's the elevation of the sewer connection in relation to the new elevation of the lowered house plumbing. (?)

So ... Free911, ... is he like the 'Trumps' Wesselburg', the guy with the Contract with pen in hand?
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Mr. Owl loves those house flipper and fixer-upper shows on HGTV. This scenario reminds me of my own solution whenever a flipper encounters massive defects, infestations, etc. in a house.

jO23a0m.jpg
Click to expand...

Oh never let those people touch your house if there is something structural being done. They have a bad history of leaving houses falling apart the second the camera stops filming.
 
Jack said:
Yeah. The ' 8'-3" ' was a red flag, warning light, siren, that went off immediately. I thought he had some valid reason for going with that.
My primary thought was the House Drain. If he drops everything 17", will it still 'flow'? When asked about the elevation of the sewer connection at the street, his response was "It's underground". Yeah, no shit. You know, what's the elevation of the sewer connection in relation to the new elevation of the lowered house plumbing. (?)

So ... Free911, ... is he like the 'Trumps' Wesselburg', the guy with the Contract with pen in hand?
Click to expand...

Dropping the floors is an easy task on a cad program. Termites don't destroy virtual studs and plates.

They have been butt buddies here for many years. Both are tacit racists at heart and always backing one another up. Usfreedumb and Dark Stool remind me of those two losers on Fox and Friends.
 
Last edited:
Oh. OK. For some reason, I had them pictured riding around the countryside together selling aluminum siding to older couples. :|
 
Kacper said:
Oh never let those people touch your house if there is something structural being done. They have a bad history of leaving houses falling apart the second the camera stops filming.
Click to expand...

Those shows amount to nothing more than reality TV with artificial deadlines, invented personal conflicts and phony drama in an attempt to make it interesting to people who are not in the building trades.
Everything in them is scripted, rehearsed acted and heavily edited.
Dark Stool thinks he is one of them
Lol
 
Leonthecat said:
The plates and rafters are most likely devoured and or rotted too.

Dark Stool has obviously never really "built" anything beyond paper or a cad program.

8'3" ceiling height and "sectional" slab, Lol!
Click to expand...

I doubt he knows how to draft a set of plans or use a CADD program either.

Probably can't even read blueprints.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top