All Forum Posts by: Connor O'Brien

This sounds like an awesome project- I’ve seen some commercial buildings in west loop where it looks like they bolted a new sill to the existing wall and then dropped in new trusses. Keep us posted!

Beautiful building

@Harinder Singh it's block by block but yes I think NWI as whole is a great investment. Personally I doubt you'd see as much appreciation in single family as you would in small multi(there are a lot of quality brick 2/3 flats that will last a long time as opposed to a tiny 800sqrft 2 bedroom SFH of which there are also many)

also the corner of Hammond where I work (right off Indianapolis is particularly well situated) I like the more inland portion less but also probably great for cash flow

There is a free cic webinar to discuss this:

https://www.cicchicago.com/pro...

My 1880s Chicago home doesn’t have a traditional sill plate but rather a 12x12 beam that sits on the foundation. I too worried about this in the beginning but I’ve since seen other buildings with similar construction. 

I’ve worked in Hammond for the past 5 years- it’s an manufacturing town with 2-4 light industrial plants (Cargill, Unilever) and also serves as the inland neighbor to BP whiting (the largest oil refinery in the Midwest). When oil is booming you’ll see many Craigslist ads for seasonal worker lodging. 

@Chris Bernardo my inspector didn’t actually even go in the crawl space because we didn’t have access. I’d like to think a good Inspector would catch that tho. I paid a structural engineer a couple hundred bucks to come do an evaluation later

That fear is something I think everyone struggles with! I would search around for a good inspector with old build experience and I’m sure you’ll be fine

John has much more experience than I do so I’d stick to his advice- I did purchase an 1880s frame a couple years ago and it has served me well so far. In addition to staying away from oddball carpentry I’d look for one with updates completed in the last 50-100 years. Mine was under pinned sometime in that time frame. Originally It was supported by tree trucks with out footers for the center beam support! Interior was also rehabbed in 2008 so electric and plumbing was already updated. This was huge and if I buy another frame I’ll be looking for something similar

Do you typically pour new footers for the new post?