Mike Holmes Transforms a Historical Gem into a Safe Sanctuary | Holmes Inspection 111

this world started with a hole in the ground that was covered by two bricks that the inspector didn't touch the inspectors basically said oh there was something there so we couldn't see it it's not our problem that beam was supposed to support this house the fact that I could take that out with my hand is nuts not the way to do a window folks we have mold in the front of the house we have mold in the side of the house the basement has a lot of mold like I feel like we really got duped on this house and it's just [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] Sarah bought their very first home downtown in a nice neighborhood now something different The Cellar had a pre-arranged home inspection to the buyer something I don't see too often I like that however at 100 120 years old something could be wrong obviously something is wrong and I'm gonna make it right [Music] the neighborhood was the first thing we we just happened to be walking through one day love the neighborhood it doesn't feel like you're downtown you know you see the beautiful big trees you see young children playing you see people walking their dogs it definitely felt like an area where you'd want to grow and where you'd want to start a family this is one of the sort of unmodernized houses so we thought well this is a great place for us to start and make it our own I loved that we there was a little backyard and there's area for us to sit outside and enjoy the outdoor weather you know we have a great size bedroom which was you know important for me I didn't want to feel cramps moving from a condo we have a great main the main bathroom we have an antique tub and I really love it I just thought it had great character the potential of this house was phenomenal the fireplace right behind me is one of the things that clinched it for me I love having a wood burning fireplace I've had one since I was a child and I think Sarah had one as well and it just it brings back memories and uh we kind of want to make this like our family space right here we basically went through you know making sure the house was sound and solid you know we had a roof inspection done we had a termite inspection done the previous owners did have the house inspected but we were able to pay for a walk through where they would go over the entire Report with us as well as walk through the home with us so in a sense it was almost like you know a second inspection going over everything at the end of the day we were told this was a solid house it was in good shape it was going to last for you know years to come they use words like solid and this is normal and this is good and exactly like Sarah was saying and just basically reassured us that we were getting into something that was um almost the way they put it it almost seemed like Flawless but unfortunately that didn't turn out to be the case [Music] Fred Fred pleasure to meet you this is a such a Charming neighborhood I really really like this can I come in yeah come on thank you we're cleaning out the air conditioner which was just filled with leaves and dirt and cleaning out the back uh the backyard a bit um so I was using the hose my dad was uh sweeping and cleaning and the amount of water we were using was not accounted for on the ground and then we found a pile of bricks which we thought were just spare bricks for the interlocking brick in the backyard I moved them and found a hole in the in the cement which you could see visibly that the foundation was damaged through this hole so we called the inspection company back and you know we told them the situation and we felt that this was something that they should have found the whole I mean it's a hole the inspectors basically said oh there was something there so we couldn't see it it's not our problem so the bricks were like this yes uh they were stacked up I put that passive egg just to help a little bit they obviously can't cut well it's not going to help a lot because the concrete runs in this direction and no matter how you look at this the downspout runs in this direction down to the weeper water is going to go down I'm surprised you're not flooding in the basement foreign [Music] there's a hole here what do we see in the hole what is that right there see the mesh there with the the that's the laugh and the stucco that they put over top of it at the time that's how the houses were finished here there were vague mentioned mentions of uh uh we can't see behind concealed this and concealed that but I mean this is this is not like moving tearing a wall down or even moving a heavy couch or anything this is just looking and maybe moving a rock since I have the tools to actually take a look oh dear oh that really goes deep okay that's uh that's a lot of water going down somewhere that's not in a drain let's go inside okay water coming into our house what does that mean does that mean molt you know that's that's a huge concern it's wet that's mold no that's okay well I you know what anything I break I'm gonna fix this is not a home inspection this is a Holmes Inspection foreign use purge valve on a gas meter electrical not allowed in this area if they move the bricks there's a hole here and with my camera showing all kinds of debris and all stuff that's falling down there and actually my camera went down pretty deep where the hell is that water going that fireplace it was immediately questionable yeah not a standard spot for a brick fireplace it's always on one side and never in the center I definitely want to see the basement and I'm kind of hoping that we have continuous structure right down to the basement floor underneath this have we used this fireplace we actually heard from our neighbors about having issues with her fireplace and so it kind of did make us nervous while I'm glad so normally what we do and it is in the report by the way is to have a fireplace specialist come in and take a look and make sure that it's usable it's safe before you light a fire did you do that we have not done that no okay that would have been highly recommended especially a wood burning fireplace this did catch my eye at the red you had the I take it you put it in here to stop a draft I put in there to stop the drop yes that wasn't in the report uh no okay that's an extremely wet rag so what it's doing is moisture is definitely getting in there and it's obviously rotted the wood the trim on the bottom on the bottom of the sill here is not directed down if you think about it the snow is going to sit on there right yeah it's like the rain is going to sit on and absorb that wet more than likely it's leaking under there which has now the possibility of mold in here and that's just one spot right here here the mold number one spots Windows bottom doors I see a brand new set of stairs yes there's no permit for the stairs on this house doesn't mean it's not good because these are actually very fancy expensive stairs but what caught my eye is walked that way was how they tied into the front where they cut see the throat that they've taken off here yeah it's a very tight throat on the top because they cut that throat out so much I'd rather see more against the top in this case it's this way we have less against the top and more on the bottom so that's a pivot point here that really pushes on the stringers they did it again on these stringers look at this there's nothing on these stringers that come up ties into absolutely nothing it's relying on the top tread to be locked against the platform too much weight on those stairs let's say these bolts are not good enough will actually collapse these stairs in now I noticed that in the report they say they're not responsible for structural issues or what to look at but I see this this is in plain view I'll tell you this talk about that window that's directly above here the point is that we know the moisture will continue to travel down here and right now I don't really see any signs oh yes I do you could see that the wall was actually starting to crumble away it was all starting to crack mainly because of the water damage the more that you know we looked at it you know you could touch the wall and you could feel that it was soft [Music] um you know Fred even touched it one time and his hand went right through the wall it was so soft and we actually ended up starting to see mold uh that's more I'm actually a cancer survivor and um so when I hear mold although I'm better now um the fact that there could be molds in our home uh the fact that molds could have been a contributor to why I was sick in the first place it's a concern let's not panic okay it's just a lot I'm not seeing anything yet that's a big worry for them all okay good that's good news nothing yet did you let her fire in this one we have um there wasn't any problems until recently our neighbor told us that when we did have a fire in here she could smell smoke in her house that's not a good sign no and that really scared us so we haven't so that's not a good sign since you're joined to each other and there's three houses that are joined how many houses in the middle okay so that if a fire started would burn down all three houses and I'm sure your neighbors wouldn't like it this is where water coming through when he was outside cleaning the house on this side here yes um you can see on the bottom of the wood um the bookshelf so you can't really see it across the floor though yeah I came in here and I stepped in a puddle of water okay we actually took down these um ceiling tiles definitely electrical issues too many wires in that box that's like way too many better than it was to be honest um I came in this room and we found exposed wires my dad is he knows a little bit about Electrical uh he's an electrical engineer and he he looked up and he just touched he's like I'm gonna touch this and you see what happens basically and then he touched it and I saw an arc and then the whole floor went black you know one thing's for sure a lot of electrical it's got to be checked in this house if they just stuck their finger up there and pushed that towel up they would have seen those wires just hanging there sitting there I'll leave it there I'm gonna get my tools so I'm going to go through this house and I'm going to show you what I found [Music] that is a as an air brick isn't it I see a face brick here a face brick here so the only real structure load on this is the floor and the floor can hold it these are solid bricks just wanted to see if I see a clear run out to the top let's build up okay you know what this fireplace may need to be cleaned so this is a recommendation I am going to bring in my people to take a look at it and they can tell me what they think foreign first things I noticed when I came in the house was the registers on the wall let's go down first holy cow that whole thing is actually what does that look plugged to you that looks plugged to me that's drywall strip from uh the edge of the two pieces of drywall we have drywall pieces in there so are we actually getting heat coming out of there so now I point this upwards look at how dirty the ductwork is it means they haven't been cleaned in quite a long time clean the duct works so we don't have fibers or spores flying through the air that can infect your breathing great way to check your flooring to pull out your floor register a home inspector is not even supposed to do that but what do we see holy cow this has gotta be three inches above the original floor there's the original floor height right here we have the metal lath we have a definite concrete mixed thinset mix it appears to be a ceramic tile and then we have a void strap the floor all these layers should have been pulled out before they retiled we'll continue our voyage [Music] I'm not going to do anything in here I just know I'm going to tell Damon to pull this out pull this down pull this out the Glass isn't a safety issue for me the mirrors the reason I want this out is really simple this is where the water's coming in in the corner of the foundation I want to stand behind this that hole tells me there's enough water coming in that could warrant mold issues they did have mold checked at the bottom down here and they said it can easily be clean with surface mold but what they didn't check was behind it and I'm gonna the area where the gas line comes in and this is the area that opened up to outside well everyone's used it as a run for gas for electrical for communications for water it's an area that shows we have water coming in we want to keep the water out of the house that's for sure that wasn't in the report look at the junction box hidden in the corner there see that one right there never mind this one is right in front of us how about that one let's just slip right up in the corner I've seen enough of this place I need to call Damon [Music] when I first saw this fireplace my concern was that this was solid brick right I mean look at how well that's done yeah and I started knocking on it yeah oh it's yeah you can hear it and then I went you know what let's try one yeah and the Hearth at the bottom although it's not deep enough is solid brick and then the vents that I saw that came off it it hasn't been inspected okay okay they like the one in the basement the neighbor calls over and says uh we have smoke I smell small so you know they stopped it right away so what are we gonna do aim chimney we're going to bring a qualified person to check in yes we are okay so we're going to check this one and the one downstairs so lo and behold as I'm looking at all this look at this window on the outside here is the downspout there's a big hole in the concrete right in the corner there they covered it up with bricks we're gonna have to open this area first and let's see how bad it is I stuck my camera down I could see about two three feet down easy but I want to open this first right so what do you want to do you want to get down to the footing here is that what you're thinking well let's go as far as he thinks he's got to go they have rags in here that stop the cool draft in the winter right look at that so I grabbed the rags and they are soaked so what does this tell us I'm gonna need a new window first of all yes I'm also gonna have to tear off all the drywall yes pull the drywall from approximately here right down to the basement bring that down and continue that drywall cut I want to see there and open this up here I stuck my finger in the hole down there wiped the back of the drywall mold it was black yeah so gently take it off wear your mask and gloves let's bag it but let's document it I want to see pictures okay here's our second fireplace here now directly above this you're going to see in the living room that big bulkhead yeah I saw it that's a really big bulkhead yeah it wouldn't hurt to punch a hole in the bulkhead just to do a visual more than anything I want to know if it's fire rated from this side to our neighbors and just do a visual inspection we can do that personally for ourselves but we still want to our fireplace guys to take a look at this one as well okay there was a permit pull on this in 1958. this area here yeah is where we actually have the hole in the ground right here right and that hole in the ground is it did show some surface mold on the bottom yeah so you know what I want you to do you want to pull this out I want you to pull this up [Music] potential of this house was phenomenal we have mold in the front of the house we have mold in the side of the house the basement has a lot of mold [Applause] foreign yeah I guess it is leaking in there there's no sealant whatsoever of caulking up the glass none I'm going to need a new window first of all yes I'm also gonna have to tear off the drywall yes that hole has been undermined it for whatever reason somebody has broke this area poured the concrete running downwards silly fools but I want to open this first right so what do you want to do you want to get down to the footing here is that what you're thinking well let's go as far as he thinks he's got to go [Music] he's downstairs somehow the neighbors think it's leaking into their apartment they can smell smoke every time they start it I need to know what's going on I have uh Vince from Aim chimney coming today so I wanted this opened up right to about there all the way down to the floor okay [Music] I have an issue with this window this window is leaking water like you wouldn't believe okay so what I want is this opened up right to the basement foreign so also this is underneath the window okay so I want this opened up I want this opened up right down to the floor Mike stuck his finger in that hole yesterday his finger was black so we know there's mold I want to know how much and how bad [Music] as soon as you tore that drywall off you can smell it you couldn't smell it before so we're right there's mold okay come on in here guys now I'm not going to bring you all in but this wall has been leaking it's been molding you can smell it there's a vent back there we don't know what's going on behind this I want this whole cabinet out today possibly go wrong huh wasn't me that's seven seven years of bad luck what did I do to deserve that I can name a few things no I'm at 21. really yes Mike recently wants this down this is what's been deteriorating from water we want to know why we want to know where it's coming in and we want to get rid of the mold look at this everything is holding mold down here there's a lot of moisture down here it's a bathroom I don't think there was that much moisture caused by this little bathroom there's no shower in here it's got to be coming from other sources so I'm going to tear this down take a look at it [Music] [Music] all right oh my gosh well we're wondering where the mold issue is coming from I think we found it we have a gaping hole in our foundation wall right here 125 year old house we're dealing with here This Old House is built by block on the back end here and what they do is they use a structural beam it's a wooden beam that they used to use that runs right through here I have wood underground right now which means it's soaked up moisture over the years which means it's rotted out my structural support water was coming right down here was like a chute this concrete was sloped into the house it's like a chute right into this corner and the water was going right in how they didn't get a flood in that basement I have no idea at this point so what type of tests did you do to figure out uh the level one mold what we started off with and probably the most important part as a as a good visual inspection of the area where the water damage occurred yeah we took a look there that you know and you can clearly see some rot on some of the wood framing you can clearly see you know little bits of mold growth on some of the little pieces of drywall that are left to confirm that there was mold growth present we did a tape lift sample from uh from the material that looked visually moldy and essentially we're just taking a police a clear Scotch tape yeah we're pressing that gently against the substrate that we think is molding that gets placed on a piece of wax paper sent to the lab the lab lifts that off the wax paper look it through a microscope and they can see what kind of structures are there and the other thing we did was we ran an air sample the results from that sample indicated that yeah you've got fairly High Airborne sport concentration down there that are certainly indicative of mold growth or some disturbance during that tear out so which means what in terms of cleanup well I mean essentially it means you know the workers should wear ideally wear a suit and a respirator while they do the cleanup work yeah you don't necessarily need a specialized cleaning agent the important thing is that you get the surface clean so you know detergent water is going to be a very good thing to clean up all the hard surfaces and then cleaning up things like carpet or upholstered items that sort of thing with a with a HEPA filtered vacuum that's going to pick up that construction dust yeah that's what's needed there excellent just to be safe we use the spray that not only cleans but kills the mold as well but unfortunately the second air test showed very high levels of mold I did have pinch had come in they did a couple of test holes in the rest of the basement we have mold in the front of the house we have mold in the side of the house the basement has a lot of mold so we have Alliance in here to do it properly they're going to get the whole thing cleaned out they're going to take out all the drywall all the carpet so that we get a positive air test so we can get in there and actually work so they're going to clean the furniture for us and our guys are going to remove it [Music] oh my God it's a full out bed holy crap okay put your hand down that's it gotta go off on its side be careful of fish how did this thing get in here let's flip it this way no all right yeah like swing it up like that he's going this way no there's no way to get it in and then turn it that way enough you got it we started that bike cleaning the mold by uh first setting up the enclosure and we do that just so we can monitor and keep all the dust inside of the area the Lions came in today and set up a level three which includes a double Decon at the front door the first chamber which is your clean chamber your second chamber would be where you'd bring out contamination you get changed and the third is your actual work area where you'd remove the contaminated substrate which in this case would be drywall carpet and mold can spread from contaminated area to a non-contaminated area this is why we set up the poly walls and put it under negative air pressure to prevent spread [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] mediation all the mold is gone and we have a clean air test from Pinch and environmental now we can move on to the next problem which is that hole in the foundation [Music] this is what we tore down you know it took us uh 15 20 minutes to tear down it's going to take us days to fix all right I'd like to hear what the engineer says I'd like to see what everybody puts together on this one okay the most important part uh for this place is this back wall right uh the kind of parallel to the house itself and then a return wall these both have uh retained Earth on both sides and the retained Earth uh and the moisture is just essentially given us that big rotten beam right if it doesn't get replaced it would have continued to rot until the whole thing was gone like you've seen on the inside right and what happens then what happens if that Timber uh rots out then the entire this entire side of the house sags and it could be significant sagging to the point where it's it's not really inhabitable because things things have dropped six eight ten inches the other issue with uh that Timber rotting out is that we end up with a foundation wall that has zero support laterally it's never been designed for that and suddenly it's retaining all of this Earth at the back of this building so the worst case scenario would be that this foundation wall would end up collapsing into the basement so basically you want us to use block just doing solid block right up to the original structure supporting it that way what I'll do is I'll just do a support wall inside first with Jack posts I'll do a 2x6 header and just bring it right off the Jack post support that side and the bathroom side yeah we just talked about hopefully doing it in segments just so that we don't uh have any part of the wall without kind of lateral down right yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] Sherry myself and Kate are putting in a support wall here so that uh when the Bones start digging out outside we can take some of the weight off the beam relieve some of the lateral pressure from the dirt outside is on the wall and prevent anything from caving and also give us the room to work and support the house while we take out the rotten beam [Music] this is the pivotal point this is where we move forward I can get to this beam the structural beam once I replace this I can finish this house what we originally came here for I can have colors guys waterproof on the outside once we get the Block in I can actually take this down start restructuring the walls in here start drywalling you know cleaning this up insulating it allows me to go forward on the whole job wow [Music] the beam was supposed to support this house the fact that I could take that out with my hand is nuts oh yeah foreign [Music] we're sistering up these beams here the uh the old floor joists originally they would have sat on seven inch wood beam that has since rotted out a replacement the masonry so we're gonna sister them up with some new wood just you know to help strengthen the rotted ends here and uh then it'll tie that that'll sit on the new masonry which is then also holding in the top plate of the uh the original upper two stories foreign [Applause] [Music] there used to be a block window here that somebody covered up over time so we're going to be blocking in this window well all the way up to the top so the window isn't being in use anyways and um that way when we excavate for a waterproofing we can have one continuous seal all the way down the wall [Music] foreign so my issue is I have to fill in the old coal shoot window and I have to fill in the window right but whole Chute has gas lines running I just need to know whether we can bury these lines bring them through the concrete do we need a sleeve do I need to change these connections I just need an answer on that what I'm going to suggest at this point is we disconnect the gas I'll get everything taken out I'll cap the meter off okay we got to do what we got to do I got to bring this up to code so if I'm burying this we got to do it properly okay [Music] foreign [Music] so far just from a first Glimpse we've looked at the older chimney manufactured system here and we've noticed some holes and you can see here doing the rust and how weak it is but this system is literally falling apart worst case scenario this chimney could set the house on fire this chimney system is not much better this is for the main floor fireplace when you're looking down you'll see the roof decking is a little too close doesn't have the proper two inch clearance as well as there's all kinds of insulation there's a little bit of weathering there's possible smoke stains there's definitely heat scorch there's hundreds of chimney fires hundreds of structure fires caused from chimneys but they're all preventable it comes [Music] foreign [Music] okay boys so you told me there's nothing we can do to make this work I can't use a gas insert I can't bring the wood back unless I rebuild it and bring it back to Wood is that correct yeah so you don't want to put an insert inside a manufactured fireplace they're not listed to go that way it's not an approved method this system is too old they don't make these actual components anymore the only thing you can do is remove them and put it back New Again Timber there's too many things to bring this thing back to code to even make this work again I mean it's so much nicer just to you know take this down give them something a little smaller it'll open up this room let more light in and they'll still have a you know a nice living room it'll look good in the winter I mean it'll still have a fireplace this fireplace did look it looked really nice when you first walked into the house but it took a lot of space in their living room and it's really fun to bring down [Music] I now have to expose the neighbor's side and fix it we're not only waterproofing at this point I actually have to fix it because I can see the inside of her house as well I'm a week into the job I should be moving ahead I'm still walking backwards it's freaking me out a little bit thank you the last thing they want to do is put in a hundred two hundred thousand dollars worth of work in the house that they did not expect what we're actually doing here is we're putting a temporary patch uh on this unit but we're basically doing the exact same process there except that'll be just uh permanently capped off there's no new chimney coming up through that location we'll be able to take this off uh later and then allow for the new pipe new flashings so just for the meantime this will be capped off you know against the weather and such [Music] foreign [Music] we have electrical we have plumbers we have my guys the only thing we're missing is Gary and the Bros which I don't think they'll fit this is a 120 year old home and this is the problem with dealing with 120 year old home that's attached on both sides with a foundation problem that's wood I mean I'm dealing with great issues in the back I'm trying to leave one side alone while dealing with RSI which I can't do at this point I now have to expose the neighbor's side and fix it we're not only waterproofing at this point I actually have to fix it because I can see the inside of her house as well where am I running my gas do I have a fireplace going upstairs that's going to be gas at this point where do I run into I have the new gas line coming in at this direction here I have to somehow root it that way I'm trying to bring a laundry room into this area now I have no drains I'm going to have to Jack open the floors at this point I have no drain by the furnace the trades are working great with me right now they're coming up with Solutions we're all trying to think right now but I'm walking backwards I'm a weak into the job I should be moving ahead I'm still walking backwards it's freaking me out a little bit oh my God this is frustrating assuming this was the AC line right uh yep that's the AC line there okay did you guys junction box up here no I do now yes well look at this not even two feet away oh man this is an Old Wire and the water damage is uh totally uh decayed this wire it will send you power down to a plug that was in the hallway there and just take a look at it you can see with your own eyes if there's wood here there's damage here uh pipe copper pipes here absolutely can start a fire I'm taking out the rest of this beam I gotta go right to the corner of this house so piece by piece four foot section by four foot section I mean that's all I can take out I can't try and take out a 20-foot beam all right now I'm just cutting into sections I'm going to knock it out [Music] [Music] holy crap [Music] this is called non-shrink Road and what we're doing with this stuff is replacing it underneath the stringers and on top of the foundation block and what it does is it carries the load so that our walls are properly supported on top of the foundation we've wrapped the joists in plastic so that no water is going to get in stuff here at bonds nice with the plastic and the block and it dries just like Steel [Music] but we're at waterproofing stage which is great it means I can backfill this I can stop worrying about the back of this house I now have to remove soil by removing soil I'm going to bring down my grid I cannot have snow and ice built up onto my wood this is what caused the problem initially this is why we're here Foundation issues I want to lower grade probably maybe eight inches from the top of this block down allows me to finish the outside lower grade means no ice and snow buildup that gets into the wood again rots it and gets me back here in a year foreign it's scary to think that if Mike wasn't here and the crew wasn't here in Damon then we we'd be pretty screwed [Music] it's completely above and beyond what we even in our wildest dreams could have imagined had to be done to this house crap loads of money this is gonna cause craploads craft blows is a lot Sarah good to see you again Fred hi how long have we had you out of this house four weeks where are we where you've been staying mom's couch I'm really sorry about that you want to see the problems I don't know if you want to hear about it come on in both okay we're just going to show you bit by bit so you don't have a heart attack all at once come on over here walking in and seeing the first fireplace completely gone and that space empty it's it's a lot to take in this isn't so much of a structural issue for the fireplace because it was fake break it was all about a fire hazard both fireplaces actually decommissioned taken right out knowing that it was unsafe uh after you intake that information it's better that they took it out completely and they're gonna do it properly now the reason you've been out of this house for four weeks is because it started off with a little mold as we started taking the bathroom out downstairs got further into mold we did more tests the tests were failed so we continued to take things down until they removed all the mold there was definitely mold within here we're gonna have to replace this window this was all removed all the way down let's go downstairs and we're still doing exploratory which means you're still going to be out of the house this is going to be a long haul okay okay this is what I call a money pit that we all fell into and there was no money on the bottom man okay we can see that this wall has had issues over the past this is exactly where our void is out there this is where we put a new cinder block picking up load saving the foundation this was all wood here and completely rotted out again this was behind the wall but remember when I first came in there was a hole in the bottom of the wall what did I do stuck finger in it I went down stuck my finger in and wiped the back of the drywall and when I pulled my finger out what was on it that was black okay so right away I know there's mold the question was how much mold was here this fireplace is right now inoperable has been severed at this point right here and we'll continue to sever it all the way up now the main reason about both fireplaces they were so built up with the crystal on the inside I'm surprised it didn't burn the house down but a home inspector coming in to take a look is not able to see all this he's going to look at a visual and he's going to hopefully tell you get these fireplace checked you know that's what I'm hoping he says did he say that by the way no no I didn't say anything like that okay that really is a pain because that was really important get them checked now really generically it is in the report and this is what this is what home inspectors do they make sure you must read this report like take a look at the report whether or not it's full of crap or not read the report so you try and understand it if you don't understand it pick up the phone and go Hey Joe George whatever your freaking name is explain this to me so I understand this so you did have a major fire potential with both fireplaces so I'm glad you didn't use them now let's get to the meat and potatoes we've got everything to do with the bathroom here and this looks again this doesn't look that big but when we opened it there was wood structure you see this new block here yes this is all new block there was wood structure that came across at a corner here and I'll show you outside what we had to do we actually had to dig right down here and this turned into a catastrophe to be honest with you that downspout went into the ground okay and I collected all the water from all the rain and rotted out the structure on this side of the house so we had to bring in our foundation guys and you'll see it from the outside remove the beam get permits reinforce all this so we could lift that not lift the house but hold the house to reinforce the the cinder block wall to carry it up so structurally this has been a disaster having everyone in here trying to determine Engineers what we can do with this what happened here affected your neighbor we had to structurally fix your neighbor's side as well to this point right up to about here both houses there was a problem with them we had to call them out look at we've got problems here we've got to solve this problem we thought it was cosmetic we didn't know that there was going to be these huge huge issues that they some they may not even found yet and they told us it was they told us it was a solid house yeah I mean the inspector actually went so far as to say it's a good host not not to say that there may even be problems it was this is a good house to start in and that's uh it's a little Annoying at this point [Music] you're good okay Damon he knows how to get down here okay picture this this was great right here yeah that's what I was gonna say now you can even see just how bad all this is yeah grade was right up covering the bottom so all of this had to be restructured this hole was dug down once we came in now we have problems with the neighbor we had to fix the neighbor's side this fall started with a hole in the ground that was covered by two bricks that the inspector didn't touch the amount of work that has been done already and the amount of work that sounds like still has to be done it's scary the president of the company came back since we had problems we said you didn't do it right you missed this hole and the president came back for a third time sand and oh oh that's that's not that's not our issue as Mike explained it it's a money pit and there's no money at the bottom of the pit you know it's just we're trying to find that ladder to get out so it's kind of you know and but at the same time to have Mike and Damon here in the crew I think what he didn't say was that he's providing that ladder for us yeah yeah he's he's they're all helping us out everybody's and I can't yeah we can't imagine them not being here now you're gonna be home let's go get a coffee please okay or water yeah or I'll pop or like a a beer a beer yeah all right we thought we did everything to protect ourselves in this house and still the problems is just problem after problem after problem and it's it's hard it's hard because and it's scary because we supposed to be our first home and to see it like this and to see like I feel I feel a little bit dumb like I feel like we really got duped on this house and it's just yeah it's just hard let's just say a box gas insert it comes up and then another box now that we're actually seeing movement seeing progress it's definitely exciting it's definitely you know a good feeling to know okay well we have the right people on their job I want to run a drainage pipe underneath in the center and create a cold that the water comes to and feed it into this I'd say that's not connected where does that go oh no you gotta be joking [Music] oh my God I found a quarter this house is paying off I'm not your father oh they shouldn't drive me freaking nuts this was the right fireplace to take down right uh I certainly hope so [Music]

Channel: HomefulTV

Views: 241,371

Keywords: house flipping, house renovation, home remodeling, fixer upper, home makeover, home design, real estate investing, house transformation, home improvement, house makeover, before and after, home decor, kitchen design, bathroom renovation, Mike Holmes, electric disaster, home inspection, Best of Holmes on Homes, Holmes Inspection, construction, home construction, contractor, renovation gone wrong, roof repair, basement, homeful, design, interior, hgtv, house shows, house hunter

Id: ALdm6Nl9I_s

Length: 44min 5sec (2645 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 21 2023