Spot Warning Signs of a Shoddy Flood Remodel
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We are now approximately seven months after Hurricane Harvey. As time goes on more and more remodeled homes are hitting the market.
This certainly is the case for the neighborhood where my husband is currently working on a full remodel. It is important to keep tabs in the market for a couple reasons:
- Keeping tabs on the finishes going into the current competition.
- It is also necessary to make sure the remodel stays within budget. You should track the price range of comparable homes on the market if you intend to sell right away.*
- Or in case we spot an opportunity to buy a nearby** house for him to live.
Two “remodeled” homes came up this last week.***
On first glance at the photos, alarm bells went off in my head.
If it is entertaining enough for me and my husband to go over it while we’re having a mini date at our kitchen table after the kiddos go to sleep, it certainly is educational fodder for this blog.
- It calls out the shoddy nature of some flips.
- Beware of some of the tell tale signs you should know before making an offer.
Again, the following pictures are from the MLS but I am not linking to the actual listings for anonymity of the listings.
Signs you should walk away from a shoddy flood remodel:
Stain in tile grout lines
Unknown. Photograph of kitchen with stained tile grout lines. Zillow, 31 Mar. 2018, Zillow.com
Unknown. Photograph of eat in kitchen with stained tile grout lines. Zillow, 31 Mar. 2018, Zillow.com
As we all learned in this blog post, old tile needs to be removed after a flood. You can’t help but notice the different colored grout lines in the tile above. New tile is more likely to have a uniform color grout. So there is probably still standing water hidden under the tile in this kitchen.
Old style tile
Old plumbing fixtures
Soap dish design
Oh boy! We can cover three in one here:
Unknown. Photograph of old shower. Zillow, 26 Apr. 2018, Zillow.com
There is no way someone remodeling a shower today would admit to choosing tile like that! Walk down the tile aisle of any big box store and tell me there isn’t some eye candy that makes you drool. There are too many absolutely stunning tiles on the market for someone to choose a four inch tile and the funky grey tile in the shower pan.
You could probably still find the the old style plumbing fixtures, but they really don’t match with the nice new bathroom faucet fixture. Sometimes it makes sense to go with an older style, but it is doubtful in this case. You would have to see the listing in person to verify.
The soap dish is the icing on the cake.
The tile and soap dish should be demoed out as should the water logged surface to which they are attached.
Original fireplace
Similar to the grout mentioned above–mortar and brick are porous. Brick may be salvageable if it is a higher quality like fire brick. However, if it is not properly dried and cleaned the moisture from the unsanitary flood water is still present (as are all contaminants in flood water). Even if the home is properly remediated, the fireplace may not be salvageable.
Unknown. Photograph of living space with the original fireplace. Zillow, 31 Mar. 2018, Zillow.com
It might be worth buying a hydrometer aka “moisture meter”. While the price tag may surprise you, it is certainly less than the price tag of demoing out the old fireplace and replacing or permanently removing it.
Droopy ceiling fan blades
I also noticed most of the ceiling fans are in motion in most of the pictures for one of the homes.
Unknown. Photograph of living space with ceiling fans in motion. Zillow, 31 Mar. 2018, Zillow.com
However there are a couple photos where they are not. Notice the slight bend down in the fan blades.
Unknown. Photograph of bedroom with droopy ceiling fan blades. Zillow, 31 Mar. 2018, Zillow.com
This picture shows the house sat for a while with moisture in the air from all the water captured in the walls and flooring. This causes the fan blades to bend down as the moisture penetrates. They obviously did not change the fans and they are contaminated.
Old style cabinetry
There is another listing where the remodeled kitchen design is just not quite en vogue. You certainly won’t see a kitchen like this on Houzz.com. Unless it is a “before” photo…
Unknown. Photograph of kitchen with old style cabinets. Zillow, 31 Mar. 2018, Zillow.com
Look again if you didn’t notice the upper cabinets do not match with the lower cabinets. I’m not sure where they got the wood to put alongside the kitchen sink cabinet. They look like they perfectly match the tone in the old pre-flood upper kitchen cabinets. Sketchy.
How about this built-in? Nowadays built-ins are not standard and if they are put in, it is for a half million dollar house or more. Anything that expensive certainly does not have this style…
Unknown. Photograph of bedroom with built-in cabinets. Zillow, 31 Mar. 2018, Zillow.com
No, the built-in was not replaced. Or taken out. Neither is the drywall behind it.
You should be concerned when you obviously see corners cut with the finishing touches. What is really behind the walls? Do you think someone hired a remediation company to properly tear out decontaminated materials and clean the framing when tile is left behind? Did they bring the house up to code? Did they even remove all the cabinets?
No!
Remodeled?
Questionable.
Is a shoddy flood remodel safe?
NO!
Run, don’t walk away without a second thought!
Like I said before, I would rather have a mold-infested house staring me in the face than what is hiding behind the walls.
Think of the safety of you and your family first. Make sure you look for any signs of a shoddy flood remodel. Is your gut is telling you something is off? TRUST IT!
Keep looking.
*I’ve done this for my own neighborhood for 9 years–since I bought my home.
**Think short commute.
***To be clear, we certainly do not want a remodeled home. We want a gutted or totally gross house that needs love. Not one made to look pretty, but still needs to be gutted and rebuilt as I stated in my rant ‘How to Spot Shitty Hurricane Harvey “General Contractors”‘. But it is fun to see what is out there.
