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05snopro440

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 18, 2012
Messages
5,141
Location
Sherwood Park, Alberta
A week ago I ordered everything for my new deck, and removed the old one. In anticipation of delivery Friday, we did a bunch of ground work and prep. When it came time to replace the Ledger board on the house, the board behind it was rotten. The more I dug, the more dry rot I found. So I'm looking at probably $5K+ over and above the original cost of the deck to repair everything properly and replace the patio door, which might as well be replaced while everything is apart as it's getting to that point. It's above what I'm comfortable doing so I'm getting a contractor... That's another challenge...

So to ease my pain, I want to hear others stories of their reno that turned into a much bigger deal than expected! Please share!
 
How much time do you have to listen....;) bought an old house that
was built around 1900.....and it had been empty for several years
before I got it...I'm just now getting around to putting the trim back
in and I bought it in 1990...need I say more....:eek:
 
Everyone I've ever done snopro.
I call it the "Mushroom" factor. All projects mushroom into a much bigger project.
You may have seen my recent bathroom remodel posts.. Rotted flooring as well as wall studs.
One time I was restoring our first house, a Victorian and I need about 500 board feet on a certain style of cottage board. I could only afford to buy half at a time so when I went back to get the second half, they had discontinued it as well as being out of stock. LOL Good times.
Patio doors are no big thing to replace. They are installed just like windows but BIGGER...lol
Helped a friend put one in about a month ago.
Good luck to you on the contractor search.
Torchie
 
You can do it if ya have the time :)
Start a build thread and I bet you'll get all the guidance help you will need [P
 
Rot stories we got. Bought an old fixer a while back. Lots of rot. After bogging down on repairs, hired a house mover to jack the house up so we could rebuild the structure. Then decided a new foundation was a good idea. My pocket book got bruised, but we sure knew what we had.
 
By the time I was done fixing the 1916 house I figured I should have rented a big a$$ dozer on day#1 :D Sold the place and moved to a 1838 house :eek:
cant fix stupid...

good luck fixing stuff. I hear the reward is great when yer finished and drinking a beer or two on the porch on a beautiful evening... :D
 
A simple bath remodel turns into replacing sections of rotted floor. No door level or plumb. When my Dad passed inherited his house, where my son now lives, a 1920s house where building codes were non existing. I am surprised it is still standing. I was going to fix some stuff but let it go. Figure it has been there this long and will be there when I am gone. Jim
 
In my 50+ years in the real estate biz... I've seen that can of worms many times! Water & termite damage can be hidden & it's always nerve wracking diving into the unknown! :eek:

BoB
 
How much time do you have to listen....;) bought an old house that
was built around 1900.....and it had been empty for several years
before I got it...I'm just now getting around to putting the trim back
in and I bought it in 1990...need I say more....:eek:

Oh man, that sounds painful!

Everyone I've ever done snopro.
I call it the "Mushroom" factor. All projects mushroom into a much bigger project.
You may have seen my recent bathroom remodel posts.. Rotted flooring as well as wall studs.
One time I was restoring our first house, a Victorian and I need about 500 board feet on a certain style of cottage board. I could only afford to buy half at a time so when I went back to get the second half, they had discontinued it as well as being out of stock. LOL Good times.
Patio doors are no big thing to replace. They are installed just like windows but BIGGER...lol
Helped a friend put one in about a month ago.
Good luck to you on the contractor search.
Torchie

I forgot all about your remodel posts, I'll have to go back and read them now. Seems like something like that cottage board always happens with renovation products, that would be frustrating!

I'm confident I could do the patio door, but with there having been existing issues I'm more comfortable with having a contractor do it, especially since it looks like the sill plate and stud beside the patio door might need to be replaced too. That way I have someone else to blame if I have future problems :rolleyes:

I've been stung a couple times like that too. :eek:

Good luck!

Beercan

Thanks!

You can do it if ya have the time :)
Start a build thread and I bet you'll get all the guidance help you will need [P

Yeah, I'd just rather not have the headache and I want it done quickly! The older I get, the more there are times I'm just willing to pay someone to do something that is over my head. Especially when it's on the most expensive thing I own!
 
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Rot stories we got. Bought an old fixer a while back. Lots of rot. After bogging down on repairs, hired a house mover to jack the house up so we could rebuild the structure. Then decided a new foundation was a good idea. My pocket book got bruised, but we sure knew what we had.

Wow, that sounds like a nightmare. Finding someone to fix it properly seems to be a challenge.

By the time I was done fixing the 1916 house I figured I should have rented a big a$$ dozer on day#1 :D Sold the place and moved to a 1838 house :eek:
cant fix stupid...

good luck fixing stuff. I hear the reward is great when yer finished and drinking a beer or two on the porch on a beautiful evening... :D

That's going to be one pricey deck but the beer will be worth it! Unfortunately at this rate I'll need a snowsuit to enjoy that beer.

A simple bath remodel turns into replacing sections of rotted floor. No door level or plumb. When my Dad passed inherited his house, where my son now lives, a 1920s house where building codes were non existing. I am surprised it is still standing. I was going to fix some stuff but let it go. Figure it has been there this long and will be there when I am gone. Jim

My grandma's old farmhouse is well over 100 years old. On a cold winters day you can make out the frostline on the walls because the sawdust insulation has settled...

In my 50+ years in the real estate biz... I've seen that can of worms many times! Water & termite damage can be hidden & it's always nerve wracking diving into the unknown! :eek:

BoB

Luckily I don't have the carpenter ants that my neighbor had! I had a "carpenter" yesterday tell me the rot was no big deal and just to replace the stuff closest to the outside and leave the rest :eek:. He also told me after I left work to meet with him that he wasn't taking on any extra work. [S

Luckily I've so far got at least one that would take on the job.
 
That's going to be one pricey deck but the beer will be worth it! Unfortunately at this rate I'll need a snowsuit to enjoy that beer.


that sounds ambitious.... I bet you will find more along the way. Might be summer after all.... :D

took me 15 yrs to get my house finished. By the time I was done (with it) I stuck a sign in the yard and sold it within 1 day.
 
Few years back, we started a bathroom redo.....usual rotted floor, joists were rotted on the ends, even had to replace a sill on the outside wall. Where do you find a railroad cross tie sized sill? Why, from my then next door neighbor of course, who just happened to be sawing cross ties on his band sawmill! One huge piece of oak, I had to cut it down to fit lengthwise, then used the cut off in another place.

My house is probably 150 years old, it was moved to this location in the mid 1960's. The walls are rough cut 2x4 pine, a true 2x4, wall caps are 6x6 rough cut. Walls are planed 1x4 tongue and groove, inside and out as is the floor and ceiling. Roof was taken off to move, then rebuilt into a hip roof with 2x8 rafters and 1x6 decking. All floors except bathroom are also 1x4 hardwood on top of the 1x4 pine, bathroom is two layers of 1/2" plywood.

When it was wired for electricity probably in the 30's or 40's, It had a two fuse panel, one outlet in every room, and one ceiling light in each room. That was it. It now has a inside and outside breaker box with about 20 circuits, outlets in more places, 220v service in 3 places, all installed by me and my Pa in law.

Just had a steel roof installed over the shingle roof at the first of the month, got enough steel for a 24' x40' carport addition I'm working on getting the other materials up for. Should be able to get 4 cars under it and still have my current carport open for my shop.
 

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I'm a sucker for punishment. I've owned and lived in three "war time" homes, built for returning WWII veterans... anyhow, I've repaired or rebuilt major portions of all three. I'll save you the gory details and say, "The deeper you dig, the deeper the hole." :eek:

I've been fortunate to know people who know better than I... carpenters, plumbers and contractors have guided me properly to do the job(s) myself.

If there's a point to this post, nothing in home construction or repair is rocket surgery. If I were in your shoes, I'd beat the bushes for an "old school" contractor, "Seventh Son of the Seventh Son."

.
 
I thought I wanted to add a pool room to my house. Nothing fancy, just an 18x24 box on the easy access side. Holy cow! This building boom in my area is making little jobs uninteresting to anyone with a license to build anything. Maybe I'll ask again later.
 
I thought I wanted to add a pool room to my house. Nothing fancy, just an 18x24 box on the easy access side. Holy cow! This building boom in my area is making little jobs uninteresting to anyone with a license to build anything. Maybe I'll ask again later.

That's the problem here, these guys want to build houses or do big projects, not the little quick jobs.
 
That's happening everywhere! It was hard times not long ago. Now the building industry is kicking again and these guys that were really scratching to survive are now cherry picking...My neighbors out here now are both trying to build and they are having hard times locating somebody to work out here.
 
It's that way all over.
I was the 5th largest builder/developer here, when the sh*t hit the fan, I lasted 2 years without one dollar income. That was brutal.
The only things I didn't loose was my wife and my house. Thank God
 

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