What was your worst home renovation fail!?!
Most Popular Reply
I had a mobile home and we had to remove some decorations from the ceiling, not realizing that was what was holding the ceiling up, the whole living room ceiling collapsed.
115 Replies
- Property Manager · Lindenhurst, IL · Member since 2016 · 854 posts · 506 votes8y
Almost 8 months later after the purchase of this house, the roof has been replaced, but everything else is the same or in worse condition (floor ripped off, ceiling taken out, etc.) than when I bought it, due to not passing the city inspection and having a super hard time finding the right licensed contractors do the job.
- Rental Property Investor · Aurora, CO · Member since 2018 · 288 posts · 117 votes8yThat time I saw a $81k foreclosure and ran the numbers and knew it probably only needed $40k in Reno and would sell for $180k........but I was cash Poot and not confident in my numbers enough. Oh 2009.......saw the exact same house sell for almost $300k a couple of years ago. The one that got a way.
- Real Estate Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2017 · 172 posts · 47 votes8y
Originally posted by @Joseph Berhane:
Thinking I could get away with hiring cheap contractors. Even when everyone said not to I still did! Now I have 2 licence contractors that I love! The cheap contractors were nothing but problems bought the wrong materials, over used mud, over used liquid nails. I have spent more money in wrong and unreturnable items rather than hiring a professional licenced. On my townhouse if I would of hired the right guys to do the job I would have saved over $6,000, job done right the first time, sleep, and my sanity.Are there simple things , that you thought anybody can do ? or is it best to always use the best guy
Also - will having a high quality licensed guy manage these low skilled guys - might help?
I have no practical experience just asking these qns from my experience in my day job ( a diff profession )
- Decatur, GA · Member since 2017 · 1 post · 3 votes8y
"Quote of the Day: Micromanage your contractors. Watch them closely or you will pay."
Yep, been there. I put way too much faith in an unproven GC and got ripped off. In the beginning, you want to play nice and give the benefit of the doubt. Now I know better. Don't gotta be mean but definitely stay on top of what's going on and be very firm.
I didn't have clear enough milestones and wasn't on the job site enough. Dates got pushed, over budget, too many shortcuts by the workers which required redoing a lot. And I missed early signs of trouble with the GC not being on the up and up.
- Lender · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2016 · 61 posts · 84 votes8y
@Steve Hodgdon - that is an interesting way to structure it outside of the standard incentives for a contractor. We had incentives in place based on timeline and budget, but he blew both of those out of the water. I'm learning a lot on this first flip, and hope the next one is a bit smoother.
- Member since 2018 · 8 posts · 2 votes8y
Trying to tile a new garage. I spent a lot of crazy days, I measured wrong. In the end I wasted about $5.000.00
- CA · Member since 2016 · 145 posts · 53 votes8y
Buying a house (putting it in a contract) to find out from my end buyer that the home was burned to the ground after he did a site visit. I looked freaking awesome that day.
- Rental Property Investor · Knoxville, TN · Member since 2011 · 701 posts · 531 votes8y
Originally posted by @Kumar Tummalapalli:
Originally posted by @Joseph Berhane:
Thinking I could get away with hiring cheap contractors. Even when everyone said not to I still did! Now I have 2 licence contractors that I love! The cheap contractors were nothing but problems bought the wrong materials, over used mud, over used liquid nails. I have spent more money in wrong and unreturnable items rather than hiring a professional licenced. On my townhouse if I would of hired the right guys to do the job I would have saved over $6,000, job done right the first time, sleep, and my sanity.Are there simple things , that you thought anybody can do ? or is it best to always use the best guy
Also - will having a high quality licensed guy manage these low skilled guys - might help?
I have no practical experience just asking these qns from my experience in my day job ( a diff profession )
First rule of construction, it always looks easy when the tools are in the hands of someone who knows how to use them. I vote for letting the pro's be pro's but it's ok to do some stuff yourself in the beginning to learn a little. It will help you relate better to the trades and have a better understanding of why things may take longer, cost more, etc.
It's hard to find good people. So the trades often have a steady flow of new faces on their teams, working through people until they find the good ones. I have found that not every tradesman wants to be a supervisor. If you have a good, knowledgeable tradesman who also doesn't mind managing people then you've got a true rockstar. However, some just want to come in and do their job and then go home.
- Investor · Tempe, AZ · Member since 2018 · 1k+ posts · 731 votes8y
Some good responses! Entertaining.
Luckily I haven't had the worst of luck, however on my first rental renovation my tools were stolen during the day. I had been workin afterhours. It made the rest of the project more difficult as I had to hire my cousin to help me finish and also use his tools. That unfortunately put me behind schedule.
And every time I try installing flooring on my own, it's a miserable experience.
Not a 'fail' on our side. But our partner wives for our flip (& for one of my apt upgrades) went to finalize the design & buy all the kitchen cabinets, island & granite.
However, someone was having a bad day.....our wives did go elsewhere but then a few weeks later we got this email...
Marianne,
I’m so sorry I was so abrupt and such a bi$%#h last time you and Kathy were here. I was very frustrated with my programs and all the things I was trying to complete that day and I know I took it out on you. I hope you’ll forgive me and I hope you got a great deal on your cabinets!
- Investor · Austin, TX · Member since 2013 · 49 posts · 17 votes8yI once bought a house for $15,000 without ever getting inside. I thought, "How bad could it be"? Well, $35,000 later I had a $50,000 house in a $30,000 neighborhood. (Makes it very hard to sell.) But ooohhh the education; new plumbing, sewer, drywall, electrical, insulation, house leveling, windows, doors, exterior siding, adding HVAC, and roofing repair. I had the best house in the neighborhood for several years. Now there are several new construction houses. I look inside all of my potential properties now. But, ooohhh the education. 😁
- Rental Property Investor · Buffalo, NY · Member since 2018 · 4 posts · 2 votes8yEnded up buying a mobile home property for 19,000 thinking it would be a quick flip as it’s small and easy to work on (not the case). Especially because other comps were selling at 30-35k. So my business partner and I started working on it and had some friends come over thinking it would get done faster, but they didn’t have any skin in the game so the care and concern painting, flooring, etc they had wasn’t the same as ours. As we were moving along we thought everything was going smoothly and we were making progress but little did we know that we had been there for long 12-16 hour days steadily over a month and our view of the property was skewed because we wanted it to be done so bad that we thought it looked good. It was obvious that we were working on the property with the trucks and tools outside, and one day another mobile home owner stopped by and offered us 2 other properties for 20k; a little smaller and more run down; but we thought it was a steal because of what we payed for the other one and wanted to keep jobs going for our friends. Unfortunately, we did not analyze the situation too well. The carrying cost on all three was terrible and overwhelmed us because it was now 3x the price and we couldn’t keep on the work. It stretched us thin and forced us to borrow money from other people. The nice takeaway from it though was that we met our other business partner. Work spread about what were doing and how much we were struggling and through that we met a general contractor who has 40+ years of experience under his belt and came to the job site to help us. He had us take our friends off the job because they weren’t doing a high standard job, and came in and showed us how to do the job the right way. All said and done after working on there for a few months and paying the carrying costs we now rent them out and net about 700 from two of them and are selling the one for 28,500$. We made the best we could out of a bad situation. All of this happened between October-End of April. It still is going on as a water line pipe just burst the other day (lol) but we learned a lot from it. We were very discouraged around Christmas time as all this was going on but kept up on it. We knew that if we had grit and kept working that it would work out, and it did. We learned how to paint the right way, carpentry, flooring, drywall, and some plumbing and electrical. All of which people go to school for years. Additionally through it we met our other business partner and acquired a two unit with him all of which is now the highest rented unit on our street. The best thing I can say about going through the hard times, is knowing how much more wisdom/knowledge I will gain going through them. It was the biggest peace of mind going through all of this.
- Member since 2018 · 3 posts · 1 vote8y
Please be advised it is a gross photo... don't look if you are grossed out easily. This was a present that one of our evicted tenants left us on our 12-unit deal in Central Phoenix on his patio.
Him and other tenants were upset that we had to empty the building in order to bring in a higher caliber tenant class so his way of getting even was defecating on the building.
We almost doubled the rents on the property so they might have won the battle but I would argue they lost the war.
- Lake City, FL · Member since 2018 · 16 posts · 7 votes8y
Sheesh, @Tyler Watkins, that brings a whole new meaning to being crapped on by tenants! I found "presents" left behind by cats in our newest property we picked up last week, but never human gifts!
I think one of the biggest fails I have made is one we all probably have made. Relying too much on insider information. House is going to foreclosure auction 2 weeks ago. A realtor we work closely with is the realtor who sold this property last, only 3 years ago. She tells us that when she sold it, she personally oversaw the renovations to make it more attractive, since the owners lived out of state. She says the exterior cedar was repainted, new roof, new AC unit and air handler, new ductwork. All electrical work was brought current. Brand new premium carpet installed, and interior painted. The only thing the house needed would be a kitchen remodel and she would list it at 110-120K. The previous owner being foreclosed on passed away about 3 months after she purchased the house, so I figured the inside couldn't be bad.
Picked it up at auction for 65K. Entered the house that afternoon and damn near vomited. Apparently after the lady passed away, the family allowed her 6 cats and two dogs to have free reign over the house for what must have been months. They did attend to them to feed and water, but no effort appears to have been made to relocate them for quite some time.
Two weeks in and all of the premium carpet we had no plans to replace has now been ripped out. The tack strips on the corner were rotted and sticky from cat urine. We have bleached and scrubbed the entire concrete floor several times. The kitchen "remodel" was basically a complete tear out. Cabinets were rotted and falling apart. Bathrooms haven't seen any updates since 1960. Back screen porch had rabbit wire nailed to the interior to keep cats from clawing out of the screen. It was attached to the porch with roofing nails. Every two inches.
We are still in good shape though. Reno is going well and ahead of schedule. Got great deals on cabinets and other stuff, but dang, we would have been in fantastic shape to make a lot if things were as they seemed from the realtor.
Realtor felt awful when she saw it after we bought it. I really feel she had no idea the interior would have been that bad in just a small amount of time. Lesson learned though, we are making the best of it and it will look great.
- Member since 2018 · 3 posts · 1 vote8y
@Derriel Cribbs no kidding! Sounds like you won't be doing business with that realtor ever again... it amazes me how short-minded some people can be just to make a quick buck.
- Lake City, FL · Member since 2018 · 16 posts · 7 votes8y
Originally posted by @Tyler Watkins:
@Derriel Cribbs no kidding! Sounds like you won't be doing business with that realtor ever again... it amazes me how short-minded some people can be just to make a quick buck.
I really think it was an honest oversight on her part, she feels terrible and had no idea that it would have gotten that bad. Blame on me too for not doing my own checking into it! She works hard for us so I will keep her around, but no more deals like that! (unless we end up making a pretty penny on this one, haha)
Reminds me of the one we bought in '87 from an old hoarder who literally heated cans of food on the electric stove rings. Food splattered all over the place & the kitchen sink, fridge, bath tub & toilet were biological hazards. My sister walked through it then rushed out the back door & lost her lunch. But to me it was an old classic & had all the old classic curved ceiling plaster work, wide oak flooring etc etc. I rehabbed it wearing chem respirators from work & didn't touch it again for 30 years. Then we did a more complete rehab again in 2012 spending $30k Got it for $67k still own it & was offered $600k 2 years ago.
- 8yMike ReynoldsPro Memberconstruction · Nacogdoches, TX · Member since 2011 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Absolutely nothing has ever gone wrong on any of my jobs. ;) BTW, if you guys are pro or plus members I have some Gulf front property just outside of Santa Fe for sale real cheap listed in the BP marketplace......
Man where to begin. I have had the thinset down the drain and have even used a blower to get S/R dust out. Neither do I ever recommend. I guess to be honest, every job has at least one gotcha. Lets start on the last job I completed. I did a commercial redo and took out a bathroom. Well it was an old build and had cast iron pipes. The plumber took out the bathroom and ALL??? the pipes. What I didnt catch was he didnt want to pay a roofer to take out the vents in the EDPM roof. He cut the pipes and capped with a rubber end cap. On the bottom of the roof. It was about 2 feet of cast iron pipe sticking under the roof.
Wwweeeellllll, after a 6" rain one day it filled up with water (2' cast iron pipe filled to the brim with water) and fell through the acoustic ceiling. Barely missing the African Mahogany display cases close by.
The moral is, no matter how many you do there will always be some kind of uh oh. Learn from it and try not let it happen again. I love to see everyone else's and see how many I have done and how many I wont do from here on out. Keep up the posts. Good stuff.
- Contractor · Fenton, MO · Member since 2018 · 4 posts · 2 votes8yHi One of my worst renovation fails was having the HVAC system replaced before we had the demo guys come in and rip down all the old plaster. Boy it was a mess, thank you very much Shop Vac. I spent over 10 hours cleaning everything out but I learned my lesson about demo guys.
@Clayton Evans reminds me of the complete plumbing/HW tank & laundry rehab I did for my partners kids.
I had to have all the whole house plumbing done before the contractors came in to tear out the old bathroom above the complete basement laundry rehab I had completed. Pex'd & PVC'd the whole place in 4 days.
The the guys hired by the kids arrived to tear out the entire bathroom to the studs & these $10/hr guys swept most of the tear out debris through a hole in the flooring down into the rehabbed laundry, & onto the new tub, new dryer, new washer & HW tank??? I bet the top load washer still has drywall dust in it.
I then had to show these guys how to lay porcelain floor tile. They used the premixed mastic but the 300lb guy (who left his cell phone on the window sill) couldn't believe the mastic had not set in 3 hrs so he could walk on it. They had to tear it up & redo it. Then they spent half a day troubleshooting the new 3 electrical switches they were installing for lights & exhaust fan.
The wiring was a mess & they had installed 3-way switches???
The kids paid the 'lower priced' bidder of $8k for that bathroom rehab & had already bought all the fittings, tub & tile etc.
- Investor · Lakeland, FL · Member since 2016 · 105 posts · 61 votes7y
About 10 years ago, I remodeled one of my bathrooms in my primary residence. I used 16 x 8 travertine with rough edges. I had never worked with rough edged stone before, so it was new to me. Everything went great until I did the grouting.. When I tried to sponge off the grout, I was unable to get the grout off the rough edges of the travertine as it stuck to it like glue.. Ended up with a ugly huge grout line... :-(
Luckily, I learned from my mistake and I use sealer on the travertine BEFORE grouting.. That way, the grout does not stick to the rough edges...
- Rental Property Investor · Columbus, OH · Member since 2017 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes7y
In the middle of our bathroom remodel we decided to move the toilet... on a top bottom duplex, where the toilets were on the same stack...while the tenants were still living upstairs.
It turns out that replacing and rerouting a cast iron stack is hard. Its even harder when your tenants are still trying to poop above you. After encountering close calls with poop 2 times, we decided to say no more on this DIY. We hired a plumber to help reroute and replace the stack quickly, he was well worth the money!
- Investor · Member since 2018 · 31 posts · 13 votes7y
Kitchen renovation. Thought I could save money using a huge slab of granite I found for $7/sqft at a Habitat for Humanity. Got a truck and went to pick up the slab at Habitat. Had to cut it there because it was too big to move. Went through the work of getting it to my house and realized it wouldn't fit my base cabinets, so I needed to hire someone to cut it to fit, which also meant polishing and smoothing the edges. It turned out to be $72 cheaper than if I had just went with a granite company for all of it. Lesson learned: some things are just not worth the potential saving.
reminds me of one rehab we did. Friend wanted me to re-plumb the 3 story stack. We all agreed NO-ONE uses the up stairs toilet until it's done. So we're all in the basement tearing out what remained of the old stack. We hear a door open & a set of high heels running up the stairs & before my friend could get out of the basement through the crawl space area the toilet flushed.
Her #2 was all over the newly sanded BUT not yet stained living room floor. She NEVER returned to the site while we were there.
The same woman was tasked to wash the grout off the newly grouted floor to ceiling shower stall walls. She decided that it was quicker to throw small buckets of water over the tile. It cleaned the tile but also washed away the grout. I reminded my friend to dig out the grout residue from the compromised P-trap before it set.
- Rental Property Investor · Sedan, KS · Member since 2016 · 125 posts · 92 votes7y
@Hilary Catton i lost the pic. But tomorrow I'll get a new one. For lack of a 40 cent pex elbow i used over $100 in sharkbite fittings to fix a leak.
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