Dream house

[Chad Fabry]

Another dream house deal gone bad...who's to blame?

O-S-B

[Richard Moore]

The inspector pointed out moisture problems and water penetration.

Hard to lay blame without knowing what that "pointing" amounted to.

The letter also cited another code violation – “the elevation underneath the house was lower than the exterior grade.â€

[kurt]

Interesting. The muni guy says the building complied with code when it was built. Somehow, the flashing must have evaporated. And, the muni guy says it was repairable. Sounds like the muni guy has his foot in the pie.

If it was Chicago, the builder would be back in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire by now.

I love the closing where they describe the realtors approach. They've "assured" everyone the future buyer will be notified, but there's nothing on the listing sheet indicating there's any problem at all.

[hausdok]

I'd say that blaming OSB for poor construction technique is like blaming the taillights of your car when you have a head-on collision.

OSB is used everywhere here and has been for about 3 decades. If it were such a horrible product how come the majority of homes built here in the nice "dry" northwestern corridor aren't falling down and full of bugs? Stop blaming products and start focusing on the horses asses with teeth that don't install flashings correctly, ignore instructions on products, use caulk as a substitute for good workmanship and never learned the job right in the first place.

Ditto what Richard said about the crawlspace. This idea that some folks have that the floor of the crawlspace can't be lower than the exterior grade or the crawlspace will fill up with water is asinine; it's people talking out of their asses without having the faintest idea of what they're talking about. Why? Because if drainage around a home and on a lot is properly planned for and configured, there won't be any water under the home - even if the house is on the "sucker" lot. That's a fact, not theory and we here in the northwest where crawlspaces rule can attest to that fact 'cuz we're in those things every day.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Chad Fabry]

Lawyer says hire a plumber to inspect the plumbing ...etc

I pretty much distrust any investigative report. Unless it agrees with one of my preconceived notions.

[msteger]

I am not saying the inspectors should or shouldn't be held liable but there is no way we can tell now what was visible and apparent at the time of the inspection. The news story doesn't mention this, nor do they mention that home inspectors are performing a non-invasive visual inspection. They infer that inspectors should be able to see rot and mold in walls. Again, we don't know if there were any signs or red flags in the visible areas that the inspector should have seen or could not have been seen.

This story only tells parts of the story and paints inspectors overall in a negative light. I guess you can spin something anyway you want. What they should have done was also interview some 3rd party local inspectors to see what they had to say about their own limitations during the inspection.

[hausdok]

Originally posted by SonOfSwamp

Have you ever noticed that there are never any comments left on TV station websites after an HI story? Nobody cares. Folks' eyes glaze over.

WJ

Duh, yeah! Jeez, Walter, why do you think we post stuff here? We're hoping that home inspectors will read this stuff and at least comment on it and help to straighten people out.

Of course, by doing that, we run the risk that home inspectors that respond will drone on about how they personally do great inspections, never whitewash a house, etc., etc. and get off point. Also, if the home inspectors writing and spelling skills leave a lot to be desired, they probably shouldn't respond 'cuz then their comments are liable to backfire.). [:-dopey]

Damned if we do and damned if we don't; aren't we?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Bain]

There's not enough information or camera footage in the television spots to cast aspersions on, or exonerate, the inspector.

Logic suggests, though, that with all the yuck along the lower edges of the walls, the sub-floor and joists in the crawlspace should have looked awful.

There was a crawlspace, wasn't there? Or did Richard and I misunderstand?

[ghentjr]

Originally posted by hausdok

Ditto what Richard said about the crawlspace. This idea that some folks have that the floor of the crawlspace can't be lower than the exterior grade or the crawlspace will fill up with water is asinine; it's people talking out of their asses without having the faintest idea of what they're talking about.

Mike

My grandfather's house had a poured concrete walled basement with 9' high ceiling. The basement floor had a trap door that went down into "Lizzie's Cellar" better known as a root cellar. That's the place gramma said she would put our asses if we were ever bad. But, neither the basement or Lizzie's ever had a drop of water. 16' below grade and always dry.