Todd H. wrote:
dkhedmo writes:

Been in our new house coming up on two weeks now. (Our first house, an
early '50's ranch on a slab.) So far, an unexpected plumbing repair
has cost $1200, and today's chimney inspection has revealed a problem
with a fix costing $1200. Lemme guess what the electrician is going to
say on Monday to upgrade the panel: $1200?! I need an aspirin.

Well that sucks. Sorry to hear it.

Any reason to shoot the home inspector, or is it one of those failures
they couldn't possibly have observed coming? The chimney thing you'd
think an inspector could've at least noted as something requiring
a chimney specialist to look at.

If it makes you feel any better, as I type, $3700 worth of furnace is
going into the basement of a house purchased less than a year ago. I
don't hold the home infector responsible though--I'm sure none of the
heat exchanger he could visually see had a visible problem, you can't
see all of a heat exchanger in a viz inspection anyway, and I have my
suspcions about this crazy water test done by the HVAC folks who
recent came to clean the old furnace and informed me of leaks at the
sames of the heat exchanger cells and on the top of one of the cells.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

The kitchen sink and laundry room are back to back (opposite sides of
the same wall). First load of laundry, dirty water backed up into
kitchen sink (double sink, very large both sides) and was a hair's
breadth from overflowing onto the floor. Plumber's snake came back with
mud on the tip, meaning the pipe under the slab was rotted through.

It's unlikely the inspector would have been able to eyeball this
problem. Plumber was sure the seller must have been experiencing this
problem. Neighbor (retired plumber, no less) reported Roto-rooter was on
site weekly for a number of weeks, including 2-3 days before close.

Got four quotes on the job, and three of the four did not recommend
jackhammering the slab, because it couldn't be certain that the problem
was only under the laundry room, that it may very well extend under a
good portion of the house. (Young guys recommended taking up the
concrete just in the laundry room, just to see, but the guy admitted
that's what he would do if it were his house because he would have a
truck full of tools in the driveway and it wouldn't cost him
anything.)Quotes ran $1200, 2 at $1600+/-, and one at $2400.

So the fix they all agreed upon, was to install a tub for the washer to
dump into, a laundry pump (Liberty 403, for those who care), and 30-odd
feet of pipe going up into the attic, over, and down to where the
plumbing leaves the house to connect to the street. Took one guy about
1/2 a day. FWIW, it was the young guys who wanted the $2400, and claimed
it would have taken the two of them a day and a half.

-K-