Friday, March 25, 2016

126 Springfield Ave

126 Springfield Ave is nearly finished, aside from carpet installation. Home Depot is scheduled to measure carpet middle of next week and should be installing soon after.



Exterior after pressure wash & Landscaping


Exterior after pressure wash & Landscaping


Living room

New Toilet (free add-on)
New Vanity
New Medicine cabient & light fixture
New Tub Surround (glue is drying in this photo)

Bathroom Floor
**This was upgraded to ceramic tile for free**
We had to remove a 4' x 6' section of rotten wood under toilet... and replace 3x sheets drywall.
**No sur-charge for extra work**


Bedroom


Bedroom


Front entry floor
Wrought-Iron painted


New kitchen floor & quarter round
Kitchen cabinets receiving their 3rd coat of paint.


Basement with ceiling tiles fixed. Crew replaced 3x tiles after this picture was taken.










Thursday, March 24, 2016

1381 Montezuma

1381 Montezuma is a good house that needs some preventative work done this year. Water needs to be redirected (fixing gutters and downspouts), and a termite treatment should be done. There was some mud and significant wetness in the basement as a result of the gutters. This extreme basement wetness can eventually cause the joists to sag (the same as soaking wood in water to bend it).



Downspout isn't connected to anything. Water pools near foundation and erodes sidewalk and foundation. Should be fixed to prevent foundation damage & slow termites down.

Roof appears to be an overlay. Black algae seems to indicate the gutter is leaking in the corner. I didn't see any damage on the inside. Not a huge necessity to fix.

Chimney should have counter-flashing. Roof looks like an overlay, likely 1, possibly 2 layers underneath. Next re-roof will be expensive for double, or triple tear off. Chimney will likely leak w/in 10 years. Doesn't need to be addressed right away.



Dirt splashing against siding indicates that the water is overflowing from the gutters. It should be addressed. I recommend cleaning the gutters and downspouts, along with directing any downspouts away from the foundation. First it would be good to check-flow on the drainage pipes currently hooked up.


Downspout dumping right by foundation. This will cause foundation problems down the line and should be addressed.


Cleaning and then caulking these cracks will likely extend the life of the porch concrete. Salt and ice will cause the cracks to grow over time.


The circuit breakers need to be adjusted in the box, and blanks should be installed so fingers cannot reach through to live wires when flipping breakers.

Some electric issues like this should be addressed. Box needs a cover panel on it at a minimum. I recommend having an electrician in to check things out.

Stair seems unsupported. It's old and has been around for a while, but could break if someone stepped on it wrong.

Hole in plaster from leak above. No signs of wetness when I was there. Seems to be an older problem. Ceiling certainly would look nicer patched.

Termite damage in basement. Termite treatment should be gotten. Eventually, you may want to replace some of the wood. I am not sure it is eminent at this point in time. Some significant rot is noted (my entire key went into a joist).

These visible tunnels indicate termites.






Wednesday, March 23, 2016

5437 Rosetta St

5437 Rosetta St - Overall seems to be in decent shape.

I am not a house inspector, nor a structural engineer. I am giving my opinion based of 5+ years of contracting and dealing with distressed houses in the Pittsburgh area.

As seen from Rosetta Street.




Newer Panel, with breakers

Foundation looks good in basement


Foundation looks good in basement



Capped off HVAC supply to under Kitchen
There was no way to see under the kitchen. I assume there is no basement there.


Here you see a hump in the foundation exterior wall. Looks to be superficial as the siding and interior show no signs of shifting. Likely it is the parging falling off.


View of back. Back roof in bad shape.


There is some chance the front of the house would sustain damage with heavy snowfall, as the collar-ties are cut in order to make use of the loft space. 
Looks to have been done a while ago with no signs of failure to date.

Stairs are fairly weak & loose. If getting new carpet or fixing plaster under them, it would be good to shim & glue them to stop any further loosening / potential breaking.

Living room

Parging (concrete applied to exterior of foundation to smooth it out) is de-laminated in spots.
When knocking, there is a hollow sound rather than a solid sound.
This will be a maintenance issue at some point in the future... 1 year or 10 years is hard to tell.

House looks straight and true.