Hard to know. Its a lot like buying a modded car. If you know what you're looking at and can tell it was done right, go for it. But often times the term "renovation" is used when a more accurate term would be "flip." Those can be like buying a car with a fresh paint job. Looks great, but what were they covering up? I bought a flipped house. Fortunately I really know what I was looking at and so far haven't had any surprises.
In the case of a fixer-upper, triple what you think you will be spending. A little bit of bad plaster can quickly turn into a whole room of drywall, stud repair, and insulation pretty easily. One bad outlet can reveal an entire electrical system upgrade. If you're doing the work yourself, it can get discouraging and become hard to know how far to go. If you're contracting the work, it gets expensive.
Look for the three F's to find if it has good "bones": Framing, Floor, Foundation. Then look at electrical, roof, plumbing, and sewer. I draw the line at a house with tile/terra cotta sewer lines. They get roots grown in them, collapse, and have all kinds of places for things to get caught. Cast iron is better. PVC is sweet. I can do my own plumbing and electrical, but I'm not keen on 3 days of excavation to fix sewer lines.
Boost_Crazy said:
One thing I'd point out is that different houses can be vastly different to work on, much like cars.
My old house was a single story, comp roof, raised foundation, with easy attic access that ran across the whole house. Everything was easy to reach or access. Plumbing underneath, electrical above, working on the roof was no big deal. Very easy to work on and upgrade.
The new house- complete opposite. Slab foundation. Steep, high, slippery tile roof that is a lot more complex. I don't want to be up there. No real attic to speak of due to vaulted ceilings, not an easy place to work. Two story. Simple things like cleanly running speaker wire become big jobs. I better like the layout because it's not as easy to change. Even interior painting is more difficult. Old house- 8ft ceilings. New- over 20 feet in some places. Heck, changing a light bulb can be a chore.
Regarding working on the roof! Don’t do it!! Rental places rent out all sorts of man lifts. Straight boom knuckle boom articulated and swing. Once you’ve work on a roof wit proper equipment you’ll wonder why people climb on roofs.
How much life of a roof is lost because guys are walking up and down it, back and forth wearing out shingles stressing the nails?
My main roof was 17/12 pitch with the West Wing at 27/12 pitch. ( really steep ). That was the easiest part of doing the roof. Because it was so steep it was like leaning over and putting wall paper on a wall right at the perfect height, finish a row, move the lever a little bit and raise to the perfect height for the next row. Not once did I step on it and risk hurting the shingles.
You cant believe how fast it is and how easy it is, Working with the right equipment. Not to mention not once did I ever worry about falling.
SVreX
MegaDork
5/10/18 2:11 p.m.
In reply to frenchyd :
Do you live in a church? Why does it have a steeple? 
27/12 is nearly 70*. That's not a roof, it's a wall that's leaning.
SVreX
MegaDork
5/10/18 3:30 p.m.
In reply to mtn :
Mansards don't have main roofs that are 17/12
mtn
MegaDork
5/10/18 3:31 p.m.
SVreX said:
In reply to mtn :
Mansards don't have main roofs that are 17/12
Details, details. I don't like reading all of the posts. Makes things less interesting.
Bluntly getting a fixer upper can be something you can get in way way over your head. A lot of people consider themselves handy and cant fixup an entire house. Its not like a project car, you cant park it for a year when you are busy unless you arent living in it.
Personally, i prefer something that has not been remodeled mostly because about 50% of remodels are done poorly by people who havent done construction but sure are "handy". Seriously, the E36 M3 ive seen.....
My current house is a 1902 victorian. The guy selling it was a moron and didnt upkeep it like he should mostly. Luckily he seems to know he was an idiot and didnt tackle much in the way of big things. What he did do in 3 years is put on a new roof, put in a new furnace and a new water heater, He also replaced the upstairs sink and vanity but got bored once he realized that the base trim meant he couldnt push it up against the wall, so he filled the gap with expanding foam....finished it up with expanding foam....ffs. He didnt clean up the house for sale or anything.
All this meant that we offered him a third less than his asking price and he took it. In exchange we got a house in a historical district for very little, in a place thats growing and the value raised 27% in the year we owned it. Its filled with the stuff you do see (nice trim work, an archway etc) and with stuff most people dont see (cement plaster, oak floors underneath bad carpet and a garage that was used to grow....stuff.......that has all new wiring, 220 everywhere and is climate controlled). Its had a few issues i didnt see when we started (sewer line is clay pipe and it had collapsed in one area, had to didg it up and repair an 8 foot section) but its a solid house.
Frenchy you didn’t walk on your roof because you couldn’t! There’s no way a human could walk on a 27/12 roof. Some day I’d like to see pictures of this place man. You still live there??
My roof is 8/12-12/12 pitch and it’s scary to walk on.
dculberson said:
Frenchy you didn’t walk on your roof because you couldn’t! There’s no way a human could walk on a 27/12 roof. Some day I’d like to see pictures of this place man. You still live there??
My roof is 8/12-12/12 pitch and it’s scary to walk on.
Spiderman can.
I think Frenchy is still working on the house. But, another forum member has said it was nice.
Anyway, I have nothing to add. I just opened the thread because I knew Frenchy would post in it. Houses and Jaguar catches the FrenchyD
dculberson said:
Frenchy you didn’t walk on your roof because you couldn’t! There’s no way a human could walk on a 27/12 roof. Some day I’d like to see pictures of this place man. You still live there??
My roof is 8/12-12/12 pitch and it’s scary to walk on.
Yes I’d love to show pictures but when I follow the procedures I fail I’m such a Luddite when it comes to computers.
However during construction of the roof I was putting white pine planks on top of the beams for the ceiling in the billiard room. Cold January day minus 20 with a minus 40 windchill and the equipment I had that day didn’t have sufficient reach so I climbed the 27/12 roof that was close to 40 feet above the brick driveway to put on the planks. Oh I cheated, putting on toe cleats as I climbed. Still it was a bit thrilling looking down.
Much younger then, late 50’s so it wasn’t as physically challenging. But got it finished that day so I could go on to the next project on schedule.
Given the experience I had a few years ago having a bathroom remodeled (turned into a nightmare in a 1 bathroom house), the house I live in now (just purchased in September), everything was done.
The house had smoke damage from a ballast fire in the attic area over the garage.
New floors, carpet, tile and granite in the bathrooms, matching granite in the bar area and kitchen, new paint, new roof, etc.
Only thing to do is get the landscaping looking as nice as the inside of the house. And they seem to be fixing up more houses in the neighborhood, a new edition just down the road, and lots of shopping and everything near by.
Hoping to be able to sell in 2-4 years and be able to break even and get out of OKC.
In reply to z31maniac :
If you still have a problem of smelling smoke a trick I was taught is to give everything a pressure wash and then spray shellac ( or Kilzs ) which is primer with shellac it it over everything exposed to smoke.
frenchyd said:
In reply to z31maniac :
If you still have a problem of smelling smoke a trick I was taught is to give everything a pressure wash and then spray shellac ( or Kilzs ) which is primer with shellac it it over everything exposed to smoke.
Nope, no smoke smell. We didn't even know that's what the remodel until after I met our neighbor.
All the big restoration companies have had products for well more than a decade to prevent that.
z31maniac said:
frenchyd said:
In reply to z31maniac :
If you still have a problem of smelling smoke a trick I was taught is to give everything a pressure wash and then spray shellac ( or Kilzs ) which is primer with shellac it it over everything exposed to smoke.
Nope, no smoke smell. We didn't even know that's what the remodel until after I met our neighbor.
All the big restoration companies have had products for well more than a decade to prevent that.
That’s who told me about it.
