Been in our new house coming up on two weeks now. (Our first house, an early '50's ranch on a slab.) So far, an unexpected plumbing repair has cost $1200, and today's chimney inspection has revealed a problem with a fix costing $1200. Lemme guess what the electrician is going to say on Monday to upgrade the panel: $1200?! I need an aspirin.
-Karen-
What was the plumbing problem?
Well that sucks. Sorry to hear it.
Any reason to shoot the home inspector, or is it one of those failures they couldn't possibly have observed coming? The chimney thing you'd think an inspector could've at least noted as something requiring a chimney specialist to look at.
If it makes you feel any better, as I type, $3700 worth of furnace is going into the basement of a house purchased less than a year ago. I don't hold the home infector responsible though--I'm sure none of the heat exchanger he could visually see had a visible problem, you can't see all of a heat exchanger in a viz inspection anyway, and I have my suspcions about this crazy water test done by the HVAC folks who recent came to clean the old furnace and informed me of leaks at the sames of the heat exchanger cells and on the top of one of the cells.
Best Regards,
-- Todd H.
I repeat this when I hear the words 'heat exchanger'.
" You have been punked!
There is no such thing as a bad heat exchanger. It is just a ploy by hvac criminals to get your money.
Think about it. So what if the heat exchanger leaks. There are millions of homes heated by natural gas and propane that dump 100% of the flue gases into the home.
And funny thing is, they have been using this heating system for a couple of hundred years without a problem.
The only precaution I suggest you use is to buy a couple of detectors and hang one near your bed and another in your living quarters down low. Many are made to plug in the wall socket and are just the right height to give you an early warning.
Their solution: $1500. Mine: $40. "
YOU think about it, maybe. There are design differences between a normal furnace, and a unit made to work without exhaust.
The kitchen sink and laundry room are back to back (opposite sides of the same wall). First load of laundry, dirty water backed up into kitchen sink (double sink, very large both sides) and was a hair's breadth from overflowing onto the floor. Plumber's snake came back with mud on the tip, meaning the pipe under the slab was rotted through.
It's unlikely the inspector would have been able to eyeball this problem. Plumber was sure the seller must have been experiencing this problem. Neighbor (retired plumber, no less) reported Roto-rooter was on site weekly for a number of weeks, including 2-3 days before close.
Got four quotes on the job, and three of the four did not recommend jackhammering the slab, because it couldn't be certain that the problem was only under the laundry room, that it may very well extend under a good portion of the house. (Young guys recommended taking up the concrete just in the laundry room, just to see, but the guy admitted that's what he would do if it were his house because he would have a truck full of tools in the driveway and it wouldn't cost him anything.)Quotes ran $1200, 2 at $1600+/-, and one at $2400.
So the fix they all agreed upon, was to install a tub for the washer to dump into, a laundry pump (Liberty 403, for those who care), and 30-odd feet of pipe going up into the attic, over, and down to where the plumbing leaves the house to connect to the street. Took one guy about
1/2 a day. FWIW, it was the young guys who wanted the $2400, and claimed it would have taken the two of them a day and a half.-K-
Welcome to the wonderful world of homeownership. A house of that age, which has not been maintained properly will require repairs. Depending on the level of maintainace previoulsy performed will result in the cost of the repairs now. Take your time and check the home over and determine what needs to be done now and what can wait. If this is your first house, then your about to learn alot. After you prioritize your repairs, talk to several contractors about the repairs and get written estimates. This, of course, is if your not going to do the work yourself. Find a competent contractor, don't just look at the cost and you'll be happy with the repair.
Be glad it's not a boat, also known as a hole in the water into which you pour money. :-)
Awwwwww... shit.
I know I've had inspectors run every single sink quite a bit to ferret this out and run an empty load of laundry if appliances were included in the sale to help ferret that out. But that was a bit more of an above and beyond guy.
Man that sucks.
I'd be curious what a real estate attorney might say about that situation of a latent defect that couldn't be detected on inspection yet is such that the seller had to - to a reasonable experienced person's view-- be aware of the problem. Then again for $1200 it's probably not worth litigating over.
-- Todd H.
So the seller had roto rooter out and did they disclose the problem before or at tme of sale?
If they didnt get a lawyer....... The seller bby NOT disclosing the problems is responsible for ALL repair costs for anything they knew was bad and didnt tell you.
GO GET EM!:)
This happened to a neighbors home the seller knew the entire main sewer line was bad, had plumbers out frequently.
didnt disclose to buyer, sewer backed up. new owner called plumber who already knew what was wrong since they had already given a estimate.
anyhow new owner sued old owner and won, actually it didnt go to court sellers lawyer advised to just settle.
new owner got 10 grand to cover brand new sewer line.
YOU CAN DO IT TOO!
Buying a house is NOT "Buyer Beware!" Look at the papers -- there should be one stating the seller in unaware of any problems not mentioned in the documents. The purpose of an inspection is to discover problems NOT KNOWN to the seller.
If the seller knew of a problem that he did not disclose and such problem caused the buyer to experience an unanticipated expense, the seller has perpetrated a fraud upon the buyer. Slam, dunk, black-letter law.
I sure wouldn't eat over $6,000 worth of repairs foisted on me by a sneaky, corrupt, goblin of a seller! I'd sue that sonofabitch and everybody he ever knew!
Moreover, since you can PROVE he knew about the crappy plumbing, it is reasonable to assume he knew about the crappy fireplace, the crappy wiring, the crappy roof, the crappy foundation, the crappy carpet pads, the crappy crabgrass, and generally everything crappy on your side of town.
In legal parlance, he does not "have clean hands."
Trust me on this: He's a goner. He, or his homeowner's insurance, will settle for big bucks.
You should just hope he hasn't left town.
If nothing else, it will make everything in your house dirty. The combustion of oil is rarely perfect, aiui, and certain in a furnace so old that the heat exchanger leaks, it probably isn't.
Gas is supposed to be cleaner even when the oil and gas furnaces are in pretty good condition. I can only guess if the HE is broken.
CO detector very important. My brother talked me into getting one, an d 3 months later it went off. The pipe heading to the chimney was mostly clogged with soot. Only a 2 inch empty hole at the end. My detector is about 10 feet from my head, a foot above the floor (though they say it doens't much matter) and it was loud enough to wake me up. It displays the amount of CO and it would have I guess taken 3 days to kill me, but otoh, it woke me up at 2 in the morning. Maybe the sun and alarm clock wouldn't have woken me at 8. Then I'd be in bed 3 dyas until I died????
I turned off the furnace and opened the bedroom window. I wanted to close it because my bedroom was getting colder and colder, and there would be no more heat that night. but I didnt think I could. I think I waited 30 or 45 minutes and closed the window. Eitehr I didn't think of looking at the numbers on the CO detector or I didn't trust them, and the number disappears when it is below a certain level.
No, double that amount to $2400.
I don't know the details of your electrical work, but, a few years ago a neighbor had his panel replaced. It needed replaced (it was in bad shape), and he also upgraded to 200A.
The cost was about $1,200.....
Welcome to the joys of (not quite) "new" home ownership.
We moved into our 1969 two-story home a few years ago. Since then I've replaced the electrical panel, water heater, a bunch of the plumbing, and am currently working on replacing the windows. Roof will need shingled in the next few years, and the A/C is about 20 years old.
I've been able to do the work so far (saves a little $), but roof and A/C will be hired out.
Mike O.
Try more like 2500.00
you know the old saying.... things come in threes...
Two months after we bought our house and money was tight, the electric panel in our natural gas furnace (original to the house - nearly 40 years old) went up in flames. Fortunately the blower was still going and we were home so we were immediately alerted to the fire and pulled the power to the system. So while the furnace & closet was toast (literally and figuratively), nothing else was damaged.
Things I learned:
1) Burning the furnace is an inefficient method of heating one's house. 2) One of the requirements for being a HVAC installer is a deer hunting license. The fire occurred a week before the start of deer season, our new high efficiency furnace was delivered to the HVAC shop the day before the season opener. Unfortunately we had to wait another week for the furnace to be installed because all the HVAC guys were out in the woods hunting Bambi. 3) Sometimes there are silver linings to clouds. Even though we weren't happy to be hit with such a sudden big expense, the new furnace is much more efficient and comfortable than the old one. We compared our gas/electric usage to the previous owner's records and there was a dramatic decrease in gas/electric consumption after the new furnace was installed. According to the HVAC guy, our old furnace was oversized (IIRC 140 BTUs). It would alternate big blasts of hot air with nothing so the heating was very uneven. The new (well it's now almost five years old) furnace is 80 BTU, gives out constant heat and is very quiet.Chris
Another "crazy water test" victim. Sorry to hear that.
I'm sure that if you had a lady friend over and she lit a cigarette after sex, your alarm would have went off sooner.
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