"100% of people who do not save money do not have any!"--Dave Ramsey

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by JSH

Likely that when they replaced the electrical panel they sized it for future expansion and put in a hot water tank large enough for a 3 bedroom house (and the extra people that come with it)

perhaps differently: they needed an additional circuit for the water heater because the current one is only 30 amps and that Rheem probably wants 50. Since the current box probably only had room for the 30, they had to install either a sub box like oilpan4, or took the easy homedepot way out and hung a bigger box. The guy next door spent $125,000 rewiring the 70 year old brick house so I'm guessing these people didn't go that far, but you never know.
I myself still wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole.

[JSH]

I wouldn't touch that house either. Way overpriced and likely shoddy workmanship.

It is the same reason I have no interest in a spec house or recent construction. We ended up having our first house build. The builder carried the construction loan but we specified a lot of the details. EVERYTHING in the original spec was the cheapest contractor grade crap you could get. We ended up adding about 10% to the price with some basic upgrades. I finally had to tell the builder to stop telling me what was code. I explained that code was the legal minimum allowed by law and I didn't want the bare minimum.

Our second was a spec house be bought 7 years after construction. When it was 10 years old all the major systems started failing: Roof, heat pump, water heater, etc.

Our current house we specifically looked for an older house that would at least have good bones. It needed some work but I could have it done right instead of having to rip out someone else's "renovation".

[Piotrsko]

If you ever want to annoy a builder, show up with a 6ft level and a plumb bob. The level is long enough to show all the dips and protrusions they hid and the plumb bob shows all the walls, doors and windows racked out of square.

I've been asked to leave in some model homes.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

If you ever want to annoy a builder, show up with a 6ft level and a plumb bob. The level is long enough to show all the dips and protrusions they hid and the plumb bob shows all the walls, doors and windows racked out of square.

I've been asked to leave in some model homes.

Oh, I annoyed our builder plenty. I inspected the house almost every day and usually had had a list of things to fix. Things like (hey, for these 4 trusses they completely missed the stud with their nail gun - fix it. Or when they framed they had a bedroom wall 3 feet from where it was suppose to be and the room had no doorway.

[redpoint5]

I've been spending the last year ripping out the sprinkler systems in the front and back yard. People tell me that I should just call a professional, but that's who put it in wrong in the first place. I don't understand how people can do something all day every day for a living and suck at it.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I've been spending the last year ripping out the sprinkler systems in the front and back yard. People tell me that I should just call a professional, but that's who put it in wrong in the first place. I don't understand how people can do something all day every day for a living and suck at it.

1.Day labor were everyone claims they know how to do the work even if they don't.

2. Contractors purposely cutting corners to save money knowing that by the time it fails they will be long gone and not be held responsible.

[Xist]

Mom always says that the guy who built her house went to prison. She also always gets upset when I point out that it had nothing to do with building houses.

A house on the next street from the two for sale for $245,000 is for sale for $230,000. It has 1,043 square feet and a 1-car garage: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5.../8411112_zpid/

[Piotrsko]

Sprinklers are a 6 th water DARK ART. Too many variables to predict so you get stuck adjusting which is another tedious dark art. Harder than rocket science unless you intentionally over water.

How do you miss a truss with a nailgun?

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

How do you miss a truss with a nailgun?

Pretty easy. You lay a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood that forms the roof sheathing on top of the truss. Then you pop, pop, pop, pop, pop across the plywood where you THINK the truss is but get it off by an inch or so. The nails either split through the edge or just miss altogether. There is no tactical feedback like when you are driving a nail with a hammer. There is a slight change in the pop noise and you should notice the head of the nail sinks deeper but most contractors seem to be more interested in speed than quality.

The same thing happens putting sheathing on the side of a house. This is from my Tuff Shed. Notice the 6 nails that missed the mark? That panel was built in a factory so their is zero excuse for this shoddy work.

[Piotrsko]

Oh floor truss. I had the mental impression of a roof truss on a top plate with toe nailing. How do you miss a truss top plate?

All the places I carpentered in had a nailing inspection on the backside to look for those air nails. More than 3 in a sheet of plywood and it failed inspection and any closing done without said inspection was torn out. The tuff shed: they aint got any excuse for that crap assembly except you get what the builder pays for. A $7 hr nailer doesn't care and neither does his $10 hr boss or the owner of the finished shed