A Sign of the Times?

[hausdok]

Hi All,

This place has been under construction on West Lake Sammamish Drive NE for maybe 4 or 5 years. For at least a year it was an OSB shell without any windows and nothing but felt covering the roof, just sitting out there in the rain. It looks like someone finally got around to resuming construction.

Now I have to wonder what all of that OSB and framing looks like inside. You can see where the bottom of the wall at that deck has turned black where rain had been splashing up against the structure. Wonder if I'll eventually get a call to inspect this one?

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ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[John Dirks Jr]

There's one like that in my area too. This one has been sitting long enough that all the OSB has the blackened shade.

[Marc]

It was smart of you to take the photos. The house wrap is supposed be installed before the windows.

Marc

[fyrmnk]

There's a whole subdivision outside Branson, MO just like that. Multiple high end homes in various states of construction just abandoned and wasting away the past several years. Developer went bankrupt and it all got tied up in legal, and is just frozen. Not one is completed.

[Richard Moore]

I don't think Mike was actually inspecting it...just driving by. I've seen it many times myself over the years. It sticks out like a sore thumb on a road of lake-side and lake-view McMansions. I'm sure the neighbors would really, really like to see someone finish it. Here's the Google street view...

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[John Kogel]

It just needs the pink stucco sprayed on and it's good to go.

[Marc]

I don't think Mike was actually inspecting it...just driving by.

Sure, but if later he's asked to inspect it, he has those photos to justify some big-time recommendations.

Marc

[Ben H]

I can't understand how anyone with enough dough to "finish" a house like that would want to roll the dice on potential problems from sitting exposed all those years.

[Tom Raymond]

It's open to the elements, it gets wet and so it dries out. That assembly is as robust as it's ever going to be. As long as it's dry and hasn't delaminated it's fine.

The trouble with OSB comes from all the vapor closed stuff it gets buried under and sloppy detailing that drowns it.

[John Kogel]

It's open to the elements, it gets wet and so it dries out. That assembly is as robust as it's ever going to be. As long as it's dry and hasn't delaminated it's fine.

The trouble with OSB comes from all the vapor closed stuff it gets buried under and sloppy detailing that drowns it.

On the sunny side the OSB may be alright. It really depends on the location. It is disturbing that he hasn't put the house wrap on, step one.

The 15 year old shed in these pics needs OSB repair along the lower north-facing wall, basically where the sun has never hit and there is splashing every time it rains. The OSB there is like mush. But the rest of it is fine.

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[Richard Moore]

A bit more on Mike's house.

The owner has it listed on Zillow for $1.5 million (!!!) with the following, somewhat terse, language...

"For sale by owners, no listing solications please. If selling agent has buyer ready, willing and able, then I will consider 1 day dual agency agreement. House is half built and not complete, selling as vacant land AS IS with no warranty on the half built house. I live next door, no tresspassing. View by apointment only. I support equal oportunity housing." (sic, my italics, my bold)

So, for only $1.5M you not only get an unfinished house, but also this semi-literate charmer as a neighbor. I'll pass.

I found a couple more photos online. The first is of happier days when the future must have looked brighter.

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And then much, much later.

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[hausdok]

Hi,

I stopped because it had windows and garage doors. The last time I went past it there weren't any. I took the frontal shots by standing on my ladders on the bed of my truck. The hay in the front yard had to be at least five feet high. Then I trespassed by walking up the drive about fifty feet to take the semi-side shots from a sedan parked off the side of the drive that I'd assumed belonged to someone working inside or a neighbor. Now I think it was the neighbor's/owner's car.

If it weren't for the woodrot fungi spore that's ubiquitous and blowing around in the air here, I wouldn't be too concerned with the swollen OSB. However, woodrot loves OSB because of the good-to-eat stuff in it. One isn't supposed to leave OSB exposed to weather and UV for more than about 90 days or that protective coating/sheen you see on the product disappears due to UV and weathering and the underlying product is exposed and becomes food. There's a good chance that there is a coating of spore all over that OSB happily munching away at all of those sugars, starches and carbs and that sporre will eventually multiply into one giant structural-softening mess.

I think if it were me buying it, I'd strip the sheating, dry it out in the summer sun and allow the UV to kill off all of that spore, coat the framing with BoraCare and then re-sheath it and proceed from there.

As for the price. For a lot that close to the lake it's probably not an outrageous price as prices in that neighborhood go, although I'll never be able to buy anything in that range.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Jim Baird]

As a local AHJ I had an abandoned job like that...talked to composite makers reps...usually that stuff is rated, forget rite now the stamp ID, for one year...I think it is called exposure 1 or something.

One brand was more positve, only because the rep lived close by. The other one said an engineer would have to evaluate. My rough-in corrections were ignored after they put siding on, and stop-work was issued, then silence.