Never underestimate cheap, easy or stupid in home maintenance

[ChoralScholar]

From the Seattle Times:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2008033829_hay05.html

Never underestimate cheap, easy or stupid in home maintenance


Oops! A roof drain pipe directed into a home flooded the crawl space and left an opening for rodents.



Darrell Hay
Special to The Seattle Times
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Quite regularly, as a home inspector, I see run-of-the-mill "bad" popping up. Occasionally "that was really dumb" makes an appearance. But you know you are in rare air when "Hall of Fame Stupid" presents itself. Now, gentle reader, is one of those times.

Do not adjust your glasses. Yes, that is a downspout drain from the roof gutter into the house. Water is efficiently directed from the roof into the crawl space. As one might imagine, the crawl space was full of water. Not just standing water, but A LOT of water. If this had been done on the other side of the home also, we could have termed it "sea trials," taken the bolts out of the foundation and checked the whole works for buoyancy.

My first thought, upon seeing this fiasco from outside, was that no one could possibly be that dumb, and there must be a piping system inside to carry the water away along the inside of the foundation.

<SNIP>

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2008033829_hay05.html

[Biscottiii]

1. This was a total mouth-dropper!!!

I live in Seattle, don't take the Times so I missed reading the article (thanks for sharing). This story is so unbelievable, beyond STOOOOPID! To give a sense of what kind of money for starters in repairs:

At present I've been dealing with mold abatement (remember, it's Seattle where it rains a lot). Old joke in Seattle is that people don't tan - they just rust.

In my case it was pipes inside the walls, leaking (long story that I don't wish to go into). But so far the costs are $5,000 for mold abatement (crews in hazmat suits tore out the kitchen and lower bedroom), I got lucky because the guesstimate was about $10,000 but mold hadn't creeped as far as expected. $800 dry rot repairs, again lucky because we caught it somewhat early.

This week after pipes were replaced, I have to search for plasterboard replacement folks after several walls have been torn out (now along with chunks of the bathrooms while replacing pipes). Still have to figure what the price of kitchen cupboards/cabinets and new kitchen floor will cost (I'm sure it will be a chunk). Have been washing dishes in my bathtub for 9 months waiting the pipe lawsuit settlement that only pays 60% of pipe replacement, no "secondary" damage or repairs. Can't even get a cat because of the staples sticking out of what's left of the kitchen floor to hurt furry paws. Thank heavens my former kitties didn't live to see this nightmare. Still, I'm just lucky to still have a house!

But thankfully, I don't have a CRAWLSPACE, just on a cement slab. Can anyone IMAGINE what the cost of the dry rot that's been going on so long to the structure in THIS idiot's crawlspace? One thing I have NO doubt that Idiot will find out is that their homeowners insurance won't pay for anything. As the WA Attorney Genl's office said, companies don't pay for those kinds of damages, none of them in this state at least.

Unbelievable story!!! I'm going to have nightmares tonight I think. Still, thanks for sharing. Thanks for letting me vent. That picture of the gutter just sent me over the edge.

[Frank Cannon]

2. Meth is a hell of a drug

And I thought I was all thumbs at home improvement.