Gut renovation issues, house shakes and water enters the basement

Gut renovation issues, house shakes and water enters the basement

Member since 2022 · 1 post · 0 votes

We did  gut renovation two years ago, currently have a leak in basement from side of house and the house shakes on windy days, it’s a 3 family house detached, 20x60. had many issues come up, more recently had walls opened for spray insulation, and noticed the corner post is rotten from first to second floor. Same contractor recommended we have the post and studs reinforced from the outside, which I would pay for and he would pay for replacing the siding insulation styrofoam and water proofing…. This job is not cheap and we aren’t sure if this will fix the two issues we have now… we originally thought our gut renovation would’ve addressed everything from the foundation and above…. During construction the foreman told me and GC all the wood was fine…  Apparently after the work, now we are having issues… GC is trying to work with us, was wondering what are thoughts on fixing and options to address


will add more thoughts as they come to me… we did have water issues before construction and GC was aware, the one corner had a lot of rotten wood when they opened it up… the internal structure was sistered and reinforced from basement to third floor. What are chances house would collapse..?

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  • Bruce WoodruffPro Member
    Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
    4y

    When you say a 'gut renovation', you mean that the house was taken down to the studs - inside and out - right? Because that's what that means. So in that case, the damaged wood would/should have been obvious, meaning this is on your GC....

  • Member since 2022 · 3 posts · 1 vote
    3y
    Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

    When you say a 'gut renovation', you mean that the house was taken down to the studs - inside and out - right? Because that's what that means. So in that case, the damaged wood would/should have been obvious, meaning this is on your GC....


    This isn't exactly true for NYC construction - I will assume this is a townhouse by the size of it - in NYC, gut renovation generally refers complete interior renovation, while the exterior remain intact. So in this case part or all of house's exterior walls would be left untouched.

    I would say to make sure the structure is sound, you might need to find a structure engineer, and it isn't cheap...
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