"Stare into the abyss long enough, and it starts to stare back at you." This house is the abyss, and the tenant's standing at the door, staring out at me. :/

The floor in the front room started sinking. The contractor opened it up, and found this:




There's some new wood where we did a repair previously, but EVERYTHING else is rotted out. I shudder to think what the labor cost on the repair is going to be...

At least I was able to snag some of the hardwood floor planks they pulled out of the room.



There's a lot more where that came from; I should go back to pick up some more. I have to go by tomorrow to look over the work before the floor guys come back anyway.

Did the tenant cause that damage? If so, will you re-coup you money?

My guys pulled out the floor. Im afraid I'm footing the bill on this one.

Back in 2015 the tenant complained that the floor was sinking in the center of the room. We cut open the floor, and jacked up the joists that fell. At the time, the crossbeams that we'd exposed looked aged, but otherwise in pretty decent shape. The hardwood floor guys came in, and wove new wood in, stained and sealed it.

Fast forward to last December. Tenant calls, and says the floor is warping, and it's getting hard to shut the front door.

I go out and look at it, and sure enough, it's warped from moisture. We put 2 dehumidifier sin the room to try and dry the floor out, so as to avoid pulling up the floor unnecessarily. (At this point we didn't have any idea it was so bad.) That worked, but the floor started sinking again. When we shined a light down in the crawl space it looked like the floor lumber the contractors used last time to level the floor had gotten knocked askew somehow, so that's what I thought we were dealing with. We finally got everyone's schedules aligned to get the workers out there to cut open the floor to repair it, and once they started cutting, they just kept going and going as more and more rotten subfloor and joists were discovered.

It's all rotted out. We can't figure out where the water came from, though. The dirt in the crawl space is dry as a bone.

On the bright side, my tenant loves me. Said I'm the best landlord she's ever had because I don't like quick fixes over proper fixes.

Just make sure you solve the problem and not just treat the symptoms this time. Need to find out what is causing the rotting.

I know what you are talking about


Except mine is not a rental but the family homestead built in the 20s. I need to get down there and button it back up.


Is that a boarded up fireplace in the picture?? That very well could be your culprit for water entry.

Yes it is, and yes, that's what I've been thinking (either the chimney or the roof around it, though the latter would have evidence elsewhere). I'll be asking about that when I go back today to check on the repair to the subfloor.

Just to mention- we had another rental back in the 90's that developed floor rot and it traced back to where the side porch was attached. They had aligned two seams of wood right at the foundation sill joint and attached porch directly to wall. Water was running off the porch inside the wall and along the sill and flooring.
That one was a joy to fix...

quote:

Originally posted by vulrath:
Yes it is, and yes, that's what I've been thinking (either the chimney or the roof around it, though the latter would have evidence elsewhere). I'll be asking about that when I go back today to check on the repair to the subfloor.

Yep. Make sure the chimney is capped and the flashing is done properly. Good luck with all of that. How about a composite joist to avoid a repeat 5-10 years from now? If the dirt is dry, there's no drainage problem - only a cumulative soaking one.

-Rob

The contractor used pressure treated lumber. Should give us quite a bit more time. Bid came in for the floor repair, too. It's not unreasonably expensive, just expensive.

This lady is going to drive me up a wall. She calls me up yesterday: "Are you going to put the brick back in front of the fireplace?"

No. The fireplace is sealed off, anyway.

"I want to eventually unseal it."

No, you're not. You may be (slowly) making preparations to buy the house, but as long as my name is on the deed that's not going to happen. The fireplace doesn't have a bottom, anyway, so any attempt you make at building a fire will roll directly underneath the floor I just agreed to spend gobs of money on to repair.

quote:

The fireplace doesn't have a bottom, anyway, so any attempt you make at building a fire will roll directly underneath the floor

Sounds like you should open the fireplace, pile up some wood outside and hope for a cold snap!

Maybe the renter did what I did years ago. Set up the waterbed in the bedroom with wood floors, put the hose in it and went and laid down on the couch. I woke up an endetermined amount of time later with at least an inch of water on the floor and the bed was swollen up like the hippo-dome. I'm surprised the wood floors didn't warp more than they did. I'm really glade the bed didn't end up in the basement.

Do you have a moisture barrier between the dirt and the wood? Can't see anything in the photos.

There was one between the floor and subfloor everywhere except the one spot where I had a similar repair done on a far less reaching scale a few years ago (for some reason, the hardwood floor guys decided to skip that step). The black sheets on the slats in the front room are what they hadn't yet taken up when I was there Saturday.

They've dropped off the wood already to let it acclimate before they start laying it. They're supposed to be starting work Saturday, so I'm planning on checking in Saturday afternoon. I know to raise holy hell if they don't put it down this time.

You'll hate me for suggesting this but you should really consider opening up the wall near that chimney. Doesn't have to be large holes but they do need to be large enough you can see if you have an issue with that wall being as rotted as that floor.