Need Advice w/regard to Rehab
Hi Everyone!
I just purchased my first investment property in a decent up and coming neighborhood in FL. The prop is a 2-story 5/3 detached duplex that was originally built in 1940. The prior owner was a flipper and, as a result, did an absolutely horrendous job renovating. He cut corners any way that he could; what do you expect, right?
I started correcting his mistakes and renovating the main house. I hired a contractor to fix holes in roof, electrical, plumbing, etc. who told me that everything was gonna go smoothly... until it didn't.
I opened up the kitchen wall which happened to be load-bearing. What the contractor promised was that he would use jack posts for the support beam and put down two cement columns and then insert a permanent thick wooden or steel beam once the wall was removed and columns set. However, this initial plan slowly morphed into "we're not gonna use cement for the support columns since the foundation is pier beamed..." to "now that we've removed the wall and put in support wedges (instead of jack posts) and nothing collapsed, we're gonna patch everything up." In addition, he's offered to put in a 2x4 beam "for aesthetic purposes" rather than as support for the second floor, which was the original plan.
And I'm afraid that while the house is currently standing straight, my fear is that eventually, the support may start to give way (if, for example, a hurricane blows by).
What are your thoughts, recommendations? What can or should be done at this point? Does this look like a load-bearing wall to you or maybe it wasn't load bearing altogether?
We're already way over budget on this house and would like to try not to lose any more money at this point. But, safety, of course, is my number one concern.
Here's the space that used to have a wall separating the kitchen and the rest of the living/dining area:
Here's where one of the support columns were supposed to go:
Here's where the support beam was supposed to have gone:
Thank you so much to anyone and everyone reading this and lending their expertise opinions on this matter!