Charles Buell Consulting LLC

Consulting on Building Science and Forensics in the Seattle Area (Formerly Charles Buell Inspections INC)

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Another house commits suicide!

Headline in the paper reads:  “HOUSE COMMITS SUICIDE!”

Apparently the house just could not take it any longer and decided that enough is enough.

I mean really, what is a house to do, when no one ever cared enough about it for the last hundred years to put a proper foundation under it and has allowed a river of mud to attempt to carry it down the hillside.

It is actually somewhat amazing that the house put up with such difficult life circumstances for as long as it did before deciding to go over the edge.  It had to fight off infestations of structure crippling fungi and insects for most of its life and had the same injuries bandaged over and over in many places.

But some lives can’t be fixed with band-aids.  Sometimes the things that “bug” us get the best of us.  In this case the bugs are Anobiid Beetles and Dampwood Termites.  Forget about all the wood decay/rot eating away at many areas.

Mud slide under the house
A mud slide under the house

Eventually nature always reclaims its own—-all we can do as home builders and as home owners is to put it off as long as possible.  The best homes are given protection that does not involve someone’s plan for job security.  It is likely that many of the under structures have been replaced multiple times due to the conducive conditions that have never been dealt with properly.

PS—-those things sticking out of the mud are “horsetail” starting to grow.

 

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Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

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Siding too close to the ground—it’s vinyl—isn’t that “final?”

Siding materials need proper clearances between finish grade and the siding—regardless the type of siding.

This requirement is not just to prevent damage to the siding—–it serves a couple of other functions as well.  Maintaining proper clearances reduces access to wood structures behind the siding by wood destroying insects or damage from water that might find its way behind the siding.

It allows for inspection of the area.  In other words inspectors can see what type of foundation is there, whether flashings are there and whether insects are moving into the structure behind the siding.

It is likely that in all parts of the country there is some reason to follow these principles—-not just the wet North West—and this is reflected in the building codes.

I have had builders tell me that if the siding can’t be damaged by water, that there is no problem with bringing the siding right down to the ground.  While it is possible to design a wall cladding that could get away with this approach—–as a general rule it is not a good idea, and proper clearances are required.  At an inspection a while ago,  I was fortunate to get perhaps the most perfect example of why the builder’s logic is not sound.

Take a look at the concrete patio in the following picture.  Notice how the patio is poured right up to the house and the siding comes right down to the patio.  This in vinyl siding and is in no danger of being damaged by water.  However, as an inspector I can not tell what is behind this connection.  Flashings? Concrete? Treated wood?  Untreated wood?

The point is—-who knows?

Vinyl siding---and what is it hiding?
Vinyl siding---and what is it hiding?

Of course sliding my knife under the siding at the concrete I didn’t hit anything.  Whoops—this is not going to be good, I thought to myself.

This next picture was taken in the crawl space.  The entire rim joist was bug infested and rotted away over the whole length of the patio connection with the house.

The vinyl siding shows on the inside of the crawl space as well
The vinyl siding---as seen from inside the crawl space

The grey color visible in the picture is the back side of the vinyl siding.

Maintaining good clearances between finish-grade and siding materials of all kinds is crucial to preventing this kind of damage.  In most cases it doesn’t make any difference whether the siding is wood, vinyl, aluminum, stucco or brick.

Of course, creating proper clearances may require creating proper foundations first.

 

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Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

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Stumped again!

While not exactly what a Home Inspector strives for, it can sometimes be fun to be “stumped” by things we find at an inspection.  It was particularly interesting to be stumped on a house that was only 432 sq ft!

I mean how difficult could it be?

This cute little structure started out as a fishing cabin in 1921—–and now the structure leaves everyone fishing for answers—-lots of answers—-to lots of questions.  Aside from needing an all new foundation (because there was none in some areas), a new floor structure (due to Anobiid Beetle damage) and a new roof (due to water damage to the roof structures); the home would still qualify as “cute”—to hopeless romantics and otherwise uninformed buyers.

Can one actually sell “cute” all by itself?

Most of these issues, while problematic, did not really amount to Rocket Science, so what had me stumped?

 

 

Stump foundations
The original "Stump" foundation surrounded by newer foundation structures.

 

Well actually it was the house that was stumped.

 

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Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

If you enjoyed this post, and would like to get notices of new posts to my blog, please subscribe via email in the little box to the right. I promise NO spamming of your email :-D