The Home Improvement Thread

[Taco Loco]

Had a foundation company come out and look today. The house is basically splitting in two and the two sides are falling away from each other. So far they're thinking a re-shim will be enough but they won't know for sure because they weren't able to get to the far side of the house to check because they found mold on one beam. So now I have a mold remediation company coming in the morning to take care of that (I'm sure that's going to cost a retarded amount of money). Then they'll come back and give me a final quote once they see what's going on on the far side of the house. But as of now... mold removal, complete re-shim and re-level, and replacing at least two beams. I'm sure this one is going to hurt the bank account.

Do you have any major cracks in the inside of house, between those 2 sides of the house that are falling away from each other?

I would get under there with a respirator and some bleach/water in a pump up sprayer and get after it, you might have a very slow water leak causing the mold and contributing to blocks/soil movement. After treatment, might get a second opinion on leveling the house.

 

[balakay]

I'm definitely having a couple other companies look at it before I do anything. As for the mold, that's not my wheelhouse. I'll let the professionals take care of it. They're going to remove it, test all the other areas of the crawlspace for anything that isn't completely obvious, and try to find the cause of the excess moisture that's causing the mold. I haven't been able to find any leaks down there. The company yesterday said it could just be from improper ventilation and adding fans could help. I'll see what the other guys say.

 

[balakay]

Mold has been treated and it's been deemed safe for work to continue down there. They did find an AC drain line that was the cause of the excess moisture and mold. Picked up a new 90 fitting to get that fixed. Luckily since it was just the one area of one beam that had mold and the rest of the crawlspace didn't have any issues, it was much much cheaper than I anticipated. $250 and I have documentation that it's been inspected and treated. And the beam that had the mold is still in good shape and won't require replacement. So hopefully no more surprises pop up on when the foundation company comes back to finish their inspection. And I have another company coming as well to give a second opinion/quote.

 

[CowboyTaco]

Mold has been treated and it's been deemed safe for work to continue down there. They did find an AC drain line that was the cause of the excess moisture and mold. Picked up a new 90 fitting to get that fixed. Luckily since it was just the one area of one beam that had mold and the rest of the crawlspace didn't have any issues, it was much much cheaper than I anticipated. $250 and I have documentation that it's been inspected and treated. And the beam that had the mold is still in good shape and won't require replacement. So hopefully no more surprises pop up on when the foundation company comes back to finish their inspection. And I have another company coming as well to give a second opinion/quote.

That's awesome. Best possible outcome for that situation.

 

[balakay]

More (hopefully) good news. Went down to fix my AC drain line and just happened to have my washing machine running at the same time. After a couple minutes down there I heard water running. Looked over and soapy water was pouring out if several spots of my main drain line. Called my insurance agent and he's sending an adjuster out. Hopefully they will take care of most of the bill for the repairs.

 

[PSU Taco85]

More (hopefully) good news. Went down to fix my AC drain line and just happened to have my washing machine running at the same time. After a couple minutes down there I heard water running. Looked over and soapy water was pouring out if several spots of my main drain line. Called my insurance agent and he's sending an adjuster out. Hopefully they will take care of most of the bill for the repairs.

insurance covers a drain line? First time I’m hearing of that, I’d just go down there with a sawzall and a coupling and have it fixed by the time an adjuster comes out

 

[tx_shooter]

Thinking it is the secondary damage to the house level.

 

[balakay]

insurance covers a drain line? First time I’m hearing of that, I’d just go down there with a sawzall and a coupling and have it fixed by the time an adjuster comes out

And then I'll still have to pay $7k+ out of pocket to have my foundation leveled, the rotted beams replaced, the tile shower fixed, all the cracked drywall fixed, etc. It was determined my foundation was sinking due to excessive moisture in the crawlspace. If that's caused by a pipe that froze and broke back when we had the big ice storm, then it's all covered. I'll take a $1700 deductible over dumping half my savings account into the repairs.

 

[balakay]

I'm not worried about fixing the drain line, that's an easy fix. I'm worried about getting all the other damage it caused fixed. Which is the same reason I didn't even fix the AC drain line while I was down there. Leaving everything as-is until I figure out what they're going to cover and what they're not going to cover.

 

[PSU Taco85]

And then I'll still have to pay $7k+ out of pocket to have my foundation leveled, the rotted beams replaced, the tile shower fixed, all the cracked drywall fixed, etc. It was determined my foundation was sinking due to excessive moisture in the crawlspace. If that's caused by a pipe that froze and broke back when we had the big ice storm, then it's all covered. I'll take a $1700 deductible over dumping half my savings account into the repairs.

I guess if you are saying that the leaking pipe caused the sinking then yes I guess I'd leave the evidence be and let them check it out. I didn't know any of this stuff was covered under insurance. Frankly, insurance is just a scam as far as I'm concerned and they've never covered a damn thing when the time came from what I've seen. Not from personal experience but from seeing others deal with those cork soakers. Hopefully they let you pick out a suitable contractor and not tie your hands to one of "their people" to make the repairs.

 

[PSU Taco85]

Thinking it is the secondary damage to the house level.

that could be, maybe the house sinking caused the pipe to crack. I'm not super familiar with post and beam foundation we are lucky enough around here to have dry basements, adds to twice the square footage for most homes. I've never done anything with my basement or plan to though because I've seen too many disasters from water damage either from a burst line or rainwater. I know if I finished my basement that would be the first time the flood gates opened for my basement, literally

 

[balakay]

The pipe isn't attached to the house so the house sinking definitely didn't cause the pipe to crack. Either way, they're going to come check it out. If they say fuck you, we're not covering it, then I'm not worse off than before. Except I have to add fixing/replacing the drain pipe to my list as well.

 

[xJuice]

I guess if you are saying that the leaking pipe caused the sinking then yes I guess I'd leave the evidence be and let them check it out. I didn't know any of this stuff was covered under insurance. Frankly, insurance is just a scam as far as I'm concerned and they've never covered a damn thing when the time came from what I've seen. Not from personal experience but from seeing others deal with those cork soakers. Hopefully they let you pick out a suitable contractor and not tie your hands to one of "their people" to make the repairs.

The two times I had my roof replaced by insurance, the insurance company was the least of my worries. Paid out no problem. All work done by whomever I wanted. Only issue I had was the first reroof had a leak, but that was the contractors fault and they fixed it no problem.

 

[Taco Loco]

The pipe isn't attached to the house so the house sinking definitely didn't cause the pipe to crack. Either way, they're going to come check it out. If they say fuck you, we're not covering it, then I'm not worse off than before. Except I have to add fixing/replacing the drain pipe to my list as well.

Might want to get up underneath there again and have someone run water through all the pipes/faucets/bathrooms and drains etc.

 

[balakay]

Might want to get up underneath there again and have someone run water through all the pipes/faucets/bathrooms and drains etc.

Yeah I'm going to.

 

[PSU Taco85]

The two times I had my roof replaced by insurance, the insurance company was the least of my worries. Paid out no problem. All work done by whomever I wanted. Only issue I had was the first reroof had a leak, but that was the contractors fault and they fixed it no problem.

Not sure why your roof was replaced twice (did a tree fall on it, or wind damage?), and a sinking foundation due to a bad design/construction fall into two different categories I'd think. I don't see how insurance would cover shoddy contractor.

 

[tex]

The pipe probably froze in the extreme cold we had in February and broke. Then making the ground a swamp and causing the piers to sink.
And roofs here in Texas last 10 years TOPS due to hail.

 

[PSU Taco85]

Damn, so insurance covers hail damages too. Maybe I need to sign up for your guys insurance companies!

 

[Silverback]

yeah, its a racket. My roof was $49,500!!

 

[PSU Taco85]

Holy shit, I could probably do my own roof for 1/10 of that cost. I never heard of insurance companies covering pipe breaks due to frozen pipes either. I don't see how a proper drain line routing could have caused it to freeze. If it had a poor slope or a low spot I'd be hard pressed the insurance would cover it, but damn if they do that's some good luck.