Revealing the truth behind the lies...pt 2.

To add a little visual perspective to my wife's earlier post, I though it would be help full to add a few photos to illustrate our findings.

This all began with trying to repair the floor in the now infamous add-on section of the house. This proved to be a little more of a challenge than I thought.



If you look closely you may notice the the floor is listing to the left.




After removing the floor boards we discovered lots of nifty things. That were listed the earlier post.

1. The joists were of uneven sizes.
Yes, they where and I am not sure why but they were. I unfortunately removed them before I took a photo but you can get the idea.


2. The joists didn't overlap across the center beam.
This was particularly odd to me. Although not necessary as I have heard from some of the carpenters that I have spoken to. I think this is a think it is a good idea in this house due to the size of the center beam.





In this you should note that the joist barely sits on the beam and not nailed to the beam but rater it is nailed to the block of wood that makes it even with the other joists




All of the joists had this problem. It was a cause for some concern. I was thinking shear, a joist on top of a block of wood on top of a beam with 3/4" overhang does not seem safe if the ground starts to shake. (which tends to happen in the bay area.)

Chips and blocks where all over the place. I was as surprised on how much "board footage" was in the house. Why the floor board where different sizes deifies my comprehension. My guess is that the previous owner used what wood was available. Either it was not going for work for me.

Another nice find was the notches on the joists to make room for the water pipes. This I know for a fact this is BAD BAD BAD. There are rules and calculation about how you can but I go with DON'T.
Things like this may happen:











This split as my brother sat on it. If you can see the wood split right along the grain of the wood starting on the notch. If you want my advice, do not make notches in wood on the underside at all.

Here are some slick files that explain it:

Notching_&_Boring_Guide_A11.pdf
Fig 11 cut floor.pdf

After looking at these issues I admit I was a little muffed. I had some friends that are in the trades to take a look. Most of them said the same thing "This is some really shoddy carpentry I would not bother to try to fix it." I was rather sad to hear that because that is very much outside of my manpower and skill-level. It is hard to ignore the a carpenter and engineer and two stage hands.

Needless to day I had to look for a general contractor.
Lesson learned: It is surprising what can be hidden under Sheetrock.

We've got a new roof!!

And it couldn't have happened at a better time. Turns out that we're in for a deluge of rain which should dump an entire years worth of water in the span of a few days.
I gotta say I was so happy once the roof was completed, and in record time (2 days.) This is also an exquisite example of when to know your limitations, and when to hire a contractor.

I mention this because in previous posts, I enumerated about the prior state of the roof. The few rains that we had before we were able to get the contractors in, showed both me and my husband how shoddy of shape it was in. There were several indoor waterfalls that we discovered during those cloud bursts.

The reason we decided to go with a contractor rather than attempt to do it ourselves was:

1. My 70+ father in law and 75+ aunt were far to eager to do the work themselves.
2. My Brother-in-law insisted that he was a "mighty-mighty stage hand" (his words, not mine) once, and therefore heights and danger were in his second nature.
3. The 2 story height from the ground was just high enough to create broken limbs, or other possible broken bits.
4. No one in the extended group of family or friends who wanted to help knew the complete process for building a roof, as they had only done bits and pieces of the actual repair or construction.

...That and my mother-in-law, my mother and I were all in agreement. Too risky, too long to complete with novices, so get a contractor.

Contemplating the cost/benefit breakdown it was the smart decision. Here's our calculation:

1. Demolition of the existing roof:
a) We do it: Cost ~ $300- 2K. Time line for completion: 2 - 4 weeks
b) They do it: $2k - 6k. Time line for completion: half of a day.

2. Putting on new plywood
a) We do it: Cost $ 200- $400. Time line for completion: 1-2 weeks
b) They do it: (same as above, and included in the price) Time line for completion: the second half of that same day.

3. Completing the roof, including felt, shingles, flashing and tar.
a) we do it: cost $2k - 3K. Time line for completion: 4-6 weeks
b) they do it: cost $4k - 6k. Time line for completion: the 1 day.

The math is generalized, and you shouldn't use it for anything other than just guesses. But the numbers won me over:
a) We do it it would cost anywhere from 3- 6k. Approximately completed in 2-3 months
b) Contractor does it, could be anywhere from 12k - 22k. Approximately completed in 2 days.

Yep. Contractor, no doubt.

The case of the cripple wall. Pt. 2

After the demo was completed. I was able to talk a look and to my surprise there was not as much damage as I thought. The majority of the framing of the in that area was not rotten. The only wood that needed urgent attention was the last joist in the corner. The other wooden joists (uprights) were not rotten.

Our good fortune was due to the fact that my brother an I turned the water off and stopped the dripping before we closed escrow. The California Indian summer in the bay area made for fast drying wood, but there was still some damage left over.

The here is what we did:





Inserted a Sister joists next to the stud in question.














Removed the Rotten Stud.











Replaced the rotten stud with a new pressure treated wood.
( The pressure treated wood is not necessary but I had a piece laying around.)







That was about it. Due to some of the faulty work that was done in the past there is some additional work that has to be done. This will be scheduled for summer of 2010 when the second phase of this project begins. However this did take care of the the water damaged upright. There is however the root of the problem that still remains... the leak that caused the damage.

The case of the cripple wall.

As some may or may not know there where two major concerns with this house, the roof and the wall in the basement. As per the inspectors notes “There is evidence of rot damage to the cripple wall framing along the left rear of the structure." I, as with anyone, found this to be of some concern. Taking heed of the building inspector’s advice to “have a qualified contractor look at it,” I did.

First I felt it would be best that I remove the obstructions to get a better look to see what I was going to be dealing with. That is why the demolition of the house began in the basement. Once we'd finished demo, I had my father’s neighbor Kenny, who happens to be a contractor, come and take a look for me. His words to me were encouraging “I have seen worse, but it is do-able. I can help you if you like but you can do this yourself.” I took that grain of hope and ran with it.



This was the room, and the wall in question at the close of escrow. Not a pretty sight.







With the help of my wife and my trusty nephew Dex, we were able the get demolition to this point.



Still not beautiful but I can see what is going on now.


After taking a closer look. The project didn't seem bad, so I dove in. I ran to the book store to get started.