In escrow – Overreacting to inspection/disclosure/water issues?

[ucodegen]

[quote=exsdgal]
Without knowing if the standing water under the house is a big pool or just small puddle(s) it is difficult to state the severity of the problem. Here are some general thoughts about the crawl space. Most crawl spaces have high humidity, generally from the lack of air circulation/ventilation[/quote]
There is a building code requirement for crawl-space vents to prevent humidity buildup. There should not be any standing water, which would cause black mold on the flooring joists.

I am seeing the approx amount is one 4×14 vent every 8 to 10 feet of crawlspace wall.

It is actually based upon area; approx 1 square foot ventilation per 150 square feet of crawl space.

[ucodegen]

[quote=Balboa]
For the low hanging fruit — There are no visible cracks anywhere on the property; there are no gutters at all; there are no large green anythings on the property; the *entire* place is hardscaped with the exception of a couple of planter strips and an 8×10 grass patch at one corner of the lot. The grass patch is surrounded by concrete and does not touch the house. The concrete is all in good shape.[/quote]
Hardscape actually worries me. Is is concrete to the side of the house? Is it to the side or to the foundation (do you know how to tell). Is the sill covered by concrete? Which way does the concrete slope (use spirit level – should read a tilt away from house).

[quote=Balboa]We’ll have to ask about the pressure regulator. The plumbing was upgraded to ABS, but somewhat half-assed. That said, the guy we had out yesterday said none if it is actually leaking right now. Just poor quality work that wouldn’t pass inspection.[/quote]

That it won’t pass inspection worries me. The ‘inspection’ is not a beauty contest. It involves specs including how the lines slope (run vs drop for sewage). Type of materials for potable water. etc.[quote]

Inspector list from Daly City (no every city decides to put this online).
http://www.dalycity.org/Assets/Departments/Economic+and+Community+Development/building/forms/DC+Code+Requirements+Plan+Notes.pdf

There are actually more involved specs – but you have to pay for the full building codes ‘book’ for the area.

[ucodegen]

[quote=Balboa]
For the low hanging fruit — There are no visible cracks anywhere on the property; there are no gutters at all; there are no large green anythings on the property; the *entire* place is hardscaped with the exception of a couple of planter strips and an 8×10 grass patch at one corner of the lot. The grass patch is surrounded by concrete and does not touch the house. The concrete is all in good shape.[/quote]
Hardscape actually worries me. Is is concrete to the side of the house? Is it to the side or to the foundation (do you know how to tell). Is the sill covered by concrete? Which way does the concrete slope (use spirit level – should read a tilt away from house).

[quote=Balboa]
We’ll have to ask about the pressure regulator. The plumbing was upgraded to ABS, but somewhat half-assed. That said, the guy we had out yesterday said none if it is actually leaking right now. Just poor quality work that wouldn’t pass inspection.
[/quote]

That it won’t pass inspection worries me. The ‘inspection’ is not a beauty contest. It involves specs including how the lines slope (run vs drop for sewage). Type of materials for potable water. etc.

Inspector list from Daly City (no every city decides to put this online).
http://www.dalycity.org/Assets/Departments/Economic+and+Community+Development/building/forms/DC+Code+Requirements+Plan+Notes.pdf

There are actually more involved specs – but you have to pay for the full building codes ‘book’ for the area.[/quote]

If curious why all ‘spec’y here – built 4 houses, 2 with crawl space, 2 slab only. Mod 5th house that is old tech crawl space – added more rooms almost doubling sq footage.

[CA renter]

I always enjoy your posts, ucodegen. You seem to have a lot of knowledge and experience in a variety of technical fields. It’s always fun to learn from your posts.

[ucodegen]

[quote=CA renter]I always enjoy your posts, ucodegen. You seem to have a lot of knowledge and experience in a variety of technical fields. It’s always fun to learn from your posts.[/quote]
Thanks. I try to add constructively. I have done, learned and read much. Now it is time to start passing it on.

I have a theory, that seems to have been backed up by history. Man’s evolution increased dramatically when written language was developed. Unfortunately, the priesthood kept most of that to itself. When printing presses with movable type came along (thanks Gutenburg), it allowed the printed word to reach the masses, and Man’s collective knowledge increased even more dramatically. This allows the older generation to pass its knowledge down collectively to the younger generation, which allowed the younger to benefit without having to go through inventing/discovering or developing it (which takes considerable time). I just hope the next generations have the wisdom to apply the knowledge.

NOTE: Not saying that you are of the ‘younger generation’.. I guess getting older, one starts thinking of such things particularly when certain ‘young ones’ in the family decide to take a less than healthy and productive path in life.

[CA renter]

You are right about the written word and the ability to pass down information. You’re also right about young people not always taking advantage of it.

I’m often disturbed by the way older people are disregarded and disrespected in our society. They are the ones who know best. Even in the workplace, it seems that the most experienced and knowledgeable workers are the ones who are most easily discarded, especially in some sectors. I think this trend has been accelerating over the past couple of decades.

Not sure why we treat our elders so poorly in our country (marketing & consummerism? easier to control the masses if they don’t know about history?), but it’s a very negative cultural trend, IMO.

I look forward to more of your informative posts. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Cheers!

[exsdgal]

[quote=ucodegen][quote=exsdgal]
Without knowing if the standing water under the house is a big pool or just small puddle(s) it is difficult to state the severity of the problem. Here are some general thoughts about the crawl space. Most crawl spaces have high humidity, generally from the lack of air circulation/ventilation[/quote]
There is a building code requirement for crawl-space vents to prevent humidity buildup. There should not be any standing water, which would cause black mold on the flooring joists.

I am seeing the approx amount is one 4×14 vent every 8 to 10 feet of crawlspace wall.

It is actually based upon area; approx 1 square foot ventilation per 150 square feet of crawl space.[/quote]

ucodegen, good info. I agree standing water is a problem. As for the air vents I assume existing homes were built to some code standards and have ventilation. The problem starts after an accident. In our case a water leak partially flooded the crawl space, and had a bear of a time cleaning the mess. It took a few months, and eventually combination of heater and air mover from costco did the trick.

[Balboa]

Thanks again for everyone’s comments! This will absolutely be useful if/when we decide to attempt this again. It’s already useful for lecturing our friends on house buying as if we know something about it! On Monday we are cancelling escrow. For the curious:

The foundation actually checked out okay, but there is even more water under the house than there was a month ago and the source is still not evident to anyone who has been under the house, including the seller (unless he does know, and isn’t telling us). Per the plumber we called in, the seller replumbed the house without sufficient cleanouts so we can’t run a proper pressure test. Our person said he did not recommend starting the pressure test at the street because of how it could affect the the neighbors’ properties. (This house’s access is not directly in front or back, but around the corner on a different street.)

We had estimates of $3,500 to fix both the clean out situation and a pipe that is two inches too short (there is some concrete involved), plus $1,000-1,500 to run the pressure test, and after that we’d *still* have to spend god knows what to actually resolve the standing water issue, whatever it turned out to be. We were quoted at least $800 to repair roof tiles and that told the roof felting has 1-3 years left on it, so another $4k or so, not including gutters. The tankless water heater was installed without a service valve, so our assumption is that its very poor performance is due to years of deferred maintenance .

Seller offered a $2k closing credit and it just wasn’t enough. It’s not our dream house. Plus, this guy’s credibility is just shot for us — he’s got two public citations from the licensing board, one with pending disciplinary action, and he actually told my husband that the tub spout was *supposed* to be that loose, otherwise you’d get hurt if you hit your head on it.

I’ll be interested to see if he puts it back on the market or just starts renting it again. It’s been for sale since December 2013 and this was the first time it had ever been pending.

[svelte]

With this new information, I think you’ve made the right decision.

Too many needles on the dashboard pointing the wrong direction – time to bail out.

Congrats on keeping a level head and thinking it through.

[CA renter]

Agreed, great move on not moving forward. The seller doesn’t sound trustworthy, so who knows what else you might have found once you moved in there. Clearly, he was taking a lot of shortcuts. Well done!

[Author]

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