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So I go look at another house yesterday and everything is looking good. I really gave it the thrice over, checking everything. Nice house, newer construction and I'm saying ok this is actually looking like it's solidly built.
Then I notice the downstairs ceilings have been painted, in the kitchen completely, and then blotches throughout the rest of the rooms.
The listing agent then lets out that the owner's kid was playing in the bath upstairs one day and somehow it leaked into the ceilings below. But that doesn't explain the other rooms.
I can have my home inspector use thermal imaging to determine if water moisture remains, but it doesn't tell us what if any damage it would have caused to the sub floors, the joists, and whatever particle board and wires exist in between.
I looked on the seller's disclosure and I see no mention of this. This strikes me as a major omission.
Time to open another ceiling folks? Maybe I should start to collect pieces of plaster and hange them on my mantle, like a hunter hangs moose heads.
PS, The leakage would really have to be long term to cause damage to subflooring and joists. If you step heavily on the bathroom floor next to the tub, toilet, etc it should give an indication of the condition of the subfloor.
So I go look at another house yesterday and everything is looking good. I really gave it the thrice over, checking everything. Nice house, newer construction and I'm saying ok this is actually looking like it's solidly built.
Then I notice the downstairs ceilings have been painted, in the kitchen completely, and then blotches throughout the rest of the rooms.
The listing agent then lets out that the owner's kid was playing in the bath upstairs one day and somehow it leaked into the ceilings below. But that doesn't explain the other rooms.
I can have my home inspector use thermal imaging to determine if water moisture remains, but it doesn't tell us what if any damage it would have caused to the sub floors, the joists, and whatever particle board and wires exist in between.
I looked on the seller's disclosure and I see no mention of this. This strikes me as a major omission.
Time to open another ceiling folks? Maybe I should start to collect pieces of plaster and hange them on my mantle, like a hunter hangs moose heads.
If a kid overflowed the bathtub once, which leaked down and ruined a ceiling, it's not a big deal - provided it was fixed properly. That will not cause any damage to subfloor, joists, etc. - provided it was fixed properly.
That has happened in our house twice. It is just a plaster patch job to repair it.
Yoiu need years or decades of water intrusion to rot out the wood. When we woved our house, we had to cut it ih haf. A few days later it poured rain. We had two iinches of water running accross our walnut bedroom floor an then down into the parlor. The onlt damage was some plaster loss in yhe parlor cielind and a stain on our bedroom floor (barely noticable)
Yep, it is a sort of major omission with maybe lying......
Especially since their "Story" appears to make no sense.
One approach is attempt to relate the areas in the ceilings to the direct areas in the rooms above. Sometimes difficult to do but the drill is this spot in this ceiling is x feet this way, y feet this way from this reference point. Then go above and attempt to re-establish that same point. If the walls are directly over each other is fairly easy to do, if not it can be a bear. Sometimes this approach can tell you something. Reference points can be windows that are directly over each other.
What is the plumbing hot / cold water lines made from? Copper, PEX, PVC, etc. Leaks at joints could be an explanation. How many blotches in the other rooms? Are there multiple ones in the same room? In general how big??? Are we talking plaster or drywall here????
The real problem here is probably not being completely truthful, followed by amateur hour in the hiding of the problems. Not enough to kill the sale if all else is OK. In the end it all comes down to the final price, this is relatively minor, use as a bargaining chip to get the price down. It is never the minor blip, it is always the lying about it, once your imagination kicks in and the various scenarios of what it all means unfold. Forget some agent, they always lie, have the owner tell the complete story exactly.
But as I say, until you actually get eyeballs behind those walls in some form, you know nothing. A spill in the bath does not typically run long distances horizontal in many directions, even if it is super major.
Actually at some point I would want some inspection holes. It ain't rocket science, the right contractor can do it, so you never will know it happened. Yeah, probably do have to repaint the ceiling but that comes with the territory. If you keep the same paint extra as originally used can sometimes get away feathering in the patch and can not tell if it was a flat paint.
I like that idea of a plaster collection on the mantle. You got to have something to tell as war stories.
Now that I think about it, maybe a better explanation is they had a dog and it pee'd in a lot of places. That would start to make a lot more sense and I sure would never tell the true story to the new sucker buying my house. Blame the kid.
Yep, dog **** would be a better guess for openers. Maybe check the basement for stains in the undersides of the first floor if it is not a finished basement.
Grill them completely, keep the tongue in cheek and remember the game is to drop the price quick. Is there carpet, is a lot of it new???? O' I am so, so worried about the plumbing, yep......$5K deduct could make it better........ could we maybe make it $10K.
Dogs left at home alone, will go wild, they do what comes naturally to make various points. Friend of mine just had his tear up all the window blinds when left alone over the weekend.
Cutting holes to check for dog **** would be a real chuckle, especially from the other guys point of view.
Now that I think about it, maybe a better explanation is they had a dog and it pee'd in a lot of places. That would start to make a lot more sense and I sure would never tell the true story to the new sucker buying my house. Blame the kid.
Yep, dog **** would be a better guess for openers. Maybe check the basement for stains in the undersides of the first floor if it is not a finished basement.
Grill them completely, keep the tongue in cheek and remember the game is to drop the price quick. Is there carpet, is a lot of it new???? O' I am so, so worried about the plumbing, yep......$5K deduct could make it better........ could we maybe make it $10K.
Dogs left at home alone, will go wild, they do what comes naturally to make various points. Friend of mine just had his tear up all the window blinds when left alone over the weekend.
Cutting holes to check for dog **** would be a real chuckle, especially from the other guys point of view.
Whoah! Dog pee? You know what? They have a dog and two cats. And the basement smelled a lot from pee, which I just chalked up to the litter box. But upstairs didn't smell at all, and there's carpeting all up there, so it would be hard to hide that smell. And would pet pee really go that far down from the sub floor into the ceiling below? It's just not that much volume.
But I agree you'd need to grill the owners hard. Right now the house is a big backup because it's on less than an acre.
This is a really interesting town you are moving into. Either that or only the nutjobs want to sell their houses.
Seriously, are there geologic issues in this area that account for all the settling and other structural problems?
Well, NH is on a major fault line now that you mention it.
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Yep, it is a sort of major omission with maybe lying......
