We’re about a week and a half into the rehab on The Poor House, and while things are going a bit slower than I had expected, I’m very pleased with the work.
We brought in our GC from The Sunglasses House to do the bulk of the exterior and basement work, and so far, things are going well. On the exterior, they’ve replaced the roof, torn off all the original siding, wrapped the house in preparation for the new siding, and torn down the front steps and back deck.
In the course of tearing down the back deck, we also ran into an issue that we hadn’t expected — because of termites, bad flashing, and a lot of wood rot, the band joist (the piece of wood that sits above the foundation and creates the outside frame for the floor joists) was almost completely rotted through. This is a major piece of support for the house, and had it failed, the corner of the house likely would have fallen, causing significant structural damage to the property.
Our GC quickly brought in a couple guys to jack up the floor joists and replace the rotted wood, but that added a few hundred dollars to the budget that we hadn’t figured. Given that our projected budget was already a couple thousand dollars too high, this just means we’ll have to get even more creative later in the project.
On the interior, the water-proofing company finished the basement water-proofing, the termite company treated the house for termites, all the moldy drywall and framing was removed, and our GC and his crew have already framed the new basement wall, combining the previously finished and unfinished areas into one large room with a small closet. This should allow us to market this property as an official 4 bedroom/2 bath house, which will help our resale value and our appraised value.
Here are some pictures of the renovation:
Replacing the Rotted Band
House Wrap and New Siding Started
New Basement Wall Framing
Front Deck Steps Torn Down
New Roof
That wood siding is pretty nasty looking.
Interesting fix with the band joist. We are purchasing one next week that the band joist has buckled, cracked, and is pulling away from the floor joists. This happened because the house had four layers of shingles and the weight of the roof collapsed the joist. We’ll be jacking the whole house and replacing it. Fun Stuff!!!!!
Hey Matt –
First, I’ve seen your guy’s rehabs and love your work!
Things like this are the things that keep you and me in business. Other investors get freaked out because of the “structural issues” with the house, without realizing that a qualified contractor can likely fix the problem in a day for a few hundred dollars. Hopefully my competition will NEVER figure these things out… 😉
As for the siding, it’s amazing how bad it can deteriorate in 20 years. Unfortunately, much of the neighborhood is like that — if it weren’t for the bad siding that was used on the original construction, this entire neighborhood would still be beautiful. Hopefully the replacement will be down in the next couple days…
Thanks J Scott,
Love your work too…. tell your wife I’ve borrowed some of your guys staging ideas for a few of our houses!
The owner of the property with the damaged band joist thought the problem couldn’t be fixed and that she was going to have to tear the house down. She was so grateful that we were willing to buy it that she started crying after signing the P&S because it was her parents house, and she was so happy that someone was going to be fixing it up.