Foundation
The Termite Situation 2
Nov/17/07 11:20 PM
I had thought that this situation could possibly end up going horribly awry. I couldn’t have been more wrong...
First off the original quote for the termite situation had been grossly over estimated, thus when the sellers found someone else that would do the job cheaper, they offered us more money to fix the foundation. Originally they could only afford a portion of the $10,000 it was going to take to fix the foundation.
Friday, I had the new termite guy and our foundation specialist meet and I have to say, it couldn’t have gone any better. Both the foundation guy, and the new termite guy confirmed that, while there was evidence of past termite activity, only superficial damage had occurred to the structure. The termite guy noted that it was possible that the termite activity was over 50 years old. He also agreed to do the dig-out for what the seller was paying him and discussed this with the foundation guy. He too agreed that it should be done.
The foundation guy indicated that the sill, where the supposed damage had occurred, was solid oak and completely intact. In fact, I witnessed him smacking the hell out of it with a hammer. While there were bits of termite mud-tunnels flying everywhere, the sill and joists were solid. Apparently with real termite damage, you could pierce the wood with a screwdriver. This, in turn, indicated that no carpentry needed to be done to repair termite damage. It would have been easy enough for anyone of them to convince me that there was indeed termite damage to the structure and that thousands of dollars in work needed to be done. This is the benefit of having good recos. And also having multiple subs inspecting the problems at the same time, keeps them straight.
So as it turned out. The new termite guy will put a policy on the house, prior to closing. He will dig the dirt out from under the low porch. The seller will pay for it. The termite guy will spray after the foundation guys are done. No major carpentry is needed for damage repair. My foundation guy gave me the approval on the work the termite guy is doing. On top of all of that, the seller is giving us 2g more...
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Quotes
Nov/02/07 11:12 PM
Well
the price quotes are coming in, The electrician
brought in a quote for $4,000 which is $1,000
less than I budgeted. But the plumber, the
plumber I’ve been using for years, quoted me
$15,000. Yikes I’d budgeted $8,000 tops. Then
good Ol’ Randy Johnson of Johnson Brothers
foundation specialists called me with a quote
yesterday. Remember when the inspector told me
it could cost $40,000 and then Randy said to
expect 10’s of thousands. Well, he quoted me
$10,000 for the foundation. I have to say I
never expected to be happy about someone telling
me that it was going to cost me $10,000 to fix
something. Honestly, while I should shop around
for this I think that having someone so thorough
and good at what they do, worth it. We’ll see
after it’s done.
Lost & Found-ation
Oct/28/07 11:09 PM
Randy
Johnson of Johnson Brothers foundation
specialists showed up today. And after having
spoken to him on the phone, I knew this guy
meant business. When, we spoke on the phone, he
said, “Lemme guess, it has a crawl space with
some standing room in parts of it and it’s got
too few girders sitting on top of rock and
mortar piers that have no footings and joists
that are rolling in the direction of the slope.”
I told him that if he’d said “cobwebs
everywhere” he would have hit the nail right on
the head.
When Randy showed up, 5 guys jumped out of the truck and took to measuring, drawing, and a whole lot of shouting in between. As soon as they’d walked through the door, they were pointing things out, that I wouldn’t have noticed if I’d lived in that house since it was built. Anyway, once Randy and the boys finished measuring and drawing and filling my ear full of country-boy common sense, they proceeded to the basement. The first ten minutes were spent criticizing how some jack-ass had tried to jerry-rig it all and fix it, that in my mind was the equivalent of using duct-tape to patch the Hover Dam. Well, at the end of the inspection, Randy told me that he’d be calling me with an estimate. He said that it wasn’t going to be cheap, that I shouldn’t expect a few thousand dollars, he was talking 10’s of thousands. That familiar lump in my throat returned.
The Termite Situation
Oct/14/07 11:16 PM
Originally when we wrote up the contract, the seller disclosed that there was some termite activity, and that the termite policy had expired some time ago. Normally this isn’t a problem for a buyer, as the bank won’t actually lend you any money without a termite policy. Therefore it falls upon the seller to renew the policy, which can be in the thousands of dollars. In turn many termite companies won’t cover a house that has current activity or conditions that promote termite infestation. Well, for the seller to get a policy on the house they have to replace all the current termite damage, meaning they could end up spending several thousand in repairs and fixtures that allow proper ventilation in damp areas.
So now the ball has been put in our court. The seller has found a termite company that will cover the house on the promise that the house will be fixed. Thus they have offered us money in the amount of the least of the estimates obtained for the work (Ironically from the guy who owns the company that is going to cover the house with the termite policy). While it may not sound like a good deal for us and that we should just make them fix it, we however are fixing the foundation anyway. And since our foundation guy is going to be down there doing all that work, we are hoping that he might tack on just a little extra to go ahead and fix it. If that is the case then we could come out a couple thousand ahead. The seller won’t have the headache of fixing it, my foundation guy gets a little extra and the Termite guy still gets his policy. And we get to supervise and make sure it’s done right, instead of as quickly and cheaply as possible.
We set up a time this Friday to meet with the foundation guy AND the termite guy. Mainly because we aren’t EXACTLY sure what the problem is, we just know that there is apparently a lot of dirt to be moved. If it turns out that Randy is going to charge us more than the termite guy, then we will put the ball back into the seller’s court.