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frozenpussy posted:When a building needs its connection overhauled, who pays for it? Generally everything up to and including the meter for electric, or their half of the demarc box for telephones (you can open one side to plug a phone directly into their end of the wire to see if the problem is on your side or not, but don't injure the box) is the provider's responsibility. Gas and water usually pay for repairs up to the main shutoff valve for the house which is right next to the wall (if it rotted out on its own, if you break it digging you're paying); but if something happens between the electric meter and your main breaker that's your problem. Not sure about cable, since there's no clear boundary between your equipment and theirs, but I'd guess they'd usually consider the exterior wall as the demarc point. As for landlord vs. tenant, which is probably what you meant, laws vary but it mainly depends on who hosed it up, ideally the landlord in most cases (sometimes legally), with the option to raise your rent with appropriate notice if you're breaking poo poo and costing them money fixing it. In the case at hand, if the landlord sold it as "perfect place for a machine shop!" but had crap electric service, it'd be on them, if it was advertised as office space and the machine shop rented it, that's on the machine shop. If it was adequate when they moved in, but technology has progressed to the point where they need more, then it's probably on the tenant to upgrade to fit their needs now, or the landlord to upgrade it to fit the needs of the next tenant when they move out. Though as with a fair bit of residential slumlords, it might end up being cheaper for the tenant to pay to have it fixed than to force the landlord to, even if it's the latter's responsibility (repairman's fee vs. time spent badgering the landlord, court costs, etc.)-- cf the last rental I lived in, where the A/C crapped out twice in midsummer in Texas -- the first time I called them every other day for two weeks and bought a bunch of fans and sweated my rear end off until they sent somebody, the next year I called my dad who was an HVAC tech and paid his boss for the Freon at cost, and gave him a case of beer for the labor.*) When the blower fan died the following winter (so no heat), I replaced it myself with a $50 motor from Amazon, because gently caress waiting until the landlord called their service company. I totally understand that they have a contract with a service company, and sometimes said company has too much non-discount work to fit the slumlord into their schedule, but when it's a hundred and ten drat degrees Fahrenheit inside from 11am-3am, you should have an emergency clause in the contract for that and fuckin' call the next guy in the phone book. Fuckin' Mickey Mouse operation, that was. When I called to tell them I'd moved out, they said "so that's the 4bed/2bath at [address], right?" "No, it's the 3-ish bed where you advertised the room between the kitchen and laundry room as a bedroom/1bath at [other address]." "Oh. And we were charging you that much for it? That doesn't seem right." Justifiably lost my security deposit on that one (I left it rather a mess), but they never sent me a bill or dinged my credit for the last month's rent that I hadn't paid. As opposed to the apartment before that, which had a guy out the next day when something broke, then sent me an itemized bill (that I never paid, with no repercussions) for all the cleaning/repainting/repair of four years' worth of wear and tear that's technically their problem (which ate up the security deposit), plus a charge for each (half-filled) bag of trash they took out and light bulb they put in, at ridiculously inflated rates -- something like $14 per incandescent bulb. (*--Actually Dad doesn't drink, he charged it as my birthday present, as it was a few days before my birthday, but "six-packs of beer" is the standard metric for paying a family member or buddy to do some fairly simple job that requires their professional license or expertise. It's good to "have a guy" even outside of professional networking. Like, say you have a friend who's a mechanic by trade: "Hey, can I borrow some of your tools so I can swap this engine? I'll buy you a sixer." He brings his tools and drinks the beer while watching/telling you what you're doing wrong; "Hey, can you help me swap this engine? I'll buy you a case of beer." He does most of the wrenching with you as tool-fetcher/muscle and gets it done in half the time you'd take in the first scenario. If my friend has a problem with his A/C? "Here's my dad's former company's number, tell 'em Bill's kid sent you, they'll give you a discount." I or a close friend need a car part? My father-in-law knows a guy that runs a junkyard, he'll sell it at cost to me and charge regular price but not collect sales tax for my buddy. Need somebody whacked? I've got a guy who's got a guy.) Chillbro Baggins fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Jun 20, 2016 |
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Jun 20, 2016 00:58
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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SynthOrange posted:Oh jesus christ that cottage. I think it’s time to post the foundation: 
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Jun 20, 2016 01:11
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I know in Australia, theres two standards- if you get your power off a suspended pole to your house, the electrical company owns the pole, the cable slung in the air and the service fuse and housing. The mount the cable hangs off your house on is the property owners, and anything from the service fuse to the meter is the property owners. If you have an underground service (Like I do) the power company owns all the lines in the ground, the boxes in the ground, the connector and service fuses in that. The cable from the power box in front of your home to your meter is the property owners. In both cases, the power company remains the owner of the meter. Telephone is a bit wierd now with the NBN. If you have an old copper service, Telstra own all the wiring and conduits until it enters your home, at that point its your problem. However with the NBN, NBNCo own the conduit to your home, the external patch box, the cable into your home and the Network Termination Device. The owner only owns the conduit inside his walls and the network and phone cables coming out of the NTD.
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Jun 20, 2016 01:16
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RE: Cable, in my area Time Warner runs a drop from the pole to a splitter they provide on the side of your house and whatever you connect to it from there is on you. My service actually corroded so badly at the utility pole end that it fell off into the street and they replaced all of it no questions asked the next day. Back in the old days did Ma Bell own all the telephone wiring inside customer premises? I'm just old enough to remember we had to rent the telephone from them when I was a kid.
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Jun 20, 2016 01:29
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Delivery McGee posted:Generally everything up to and including the meter for electric, or their half of the demarc box for telephones (you can open one side to plug a phone directly into their end of the wire to see if the problem is on your side or not, but don't injure the box) is the provider's responsibility. Gas and water usually pay for repairs up to the main shutoff valve for the house which is right next to the wall (if it rotted out on its own, if you break it digging you're paying); but if something happens between the electric meter and your main breaker that's your problem. Not sure about cable, since there's no clear boundary between your equipment and theirs, but I'd guess they'd usually consider the exterior wall as the demarc point. Tree limbs knock my cable wire down every two months or so and the company comes and tacks it up again at no cost, so I think what's outside the house is on them. We are in talks to bury the drat thing, also to no cost to me.
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Jun 20, 2016 01:34
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frozenpussy posted:Thanks You know, now that I think about it there weren't really any hints in the later discussion of that announcement as to whether the issue on our end was having to pay for the replacement or just the lost machine time. Or, I guess, whether we have to pay for the replacement, since the lost machine time is always going to be an issue. I wish I could take some pictures of our building; the company's been at this location for like eighteen years or something, eventually bought the building next door to the first one, which is now offices, and that building is about 1/3d of the floor space of my current workplace. Over the years that original structure was Frankensteined together with the next one down the street by an addition, and then another long, narrow one was erected against the far wall of that which now houses our inspection and assembly departments (assembly is actually a low-grade cleanroom). Also, there are actually two exterior power services, each with a placard announcing this fact and the location of the other one; I have no idea if this is unusual, but I suspect it might be. I really like working there, though, it would be pretty lovely if the power junction situation is indicative of the honchos' overall approach. It doesn't seem too much like it, but mostly my goal is to keep my head down and make good parts. They just bought another building across the street, maybe I'll keep an eye on the renovation project for telltale signs.
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Jun 20, 2016 05:26
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When I look at that cottage I have to wonder who sees two converted porches and thinks that house is in good condition. I see converted spaces like that and run the hell away. I've never once seen a porch or garage converted to a room that was anything but a shoddy mess.
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Jun 20, 2016 14:09
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How to spend way too much effort on trying to fix up something that should just be bulldozed and built over. Part 1: http://imgur.com/gallery/vZjMd Part 2: http://imgur.com/gallery/5gTzU
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Jun 20, 2016 16:36
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Collateral Damage posted:How to spend way too much effort on trying to fix up something that should just be bulldozed and built over. *or had some kind of caretaker that actually checked on it, not just turned off the water. I've seen bank-owned foreclosed houses where all they did to "winterize" it was turn off the water and board up a couple of the windows, and not do things like drain the hot water heater and the pipes, even though it had barely been above freezing for a month.
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Jun 20, 2016 16:42
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Well that at least isn't such a big concern when the previous owner just rips out the heater and pipes for scrap cash  also seriously that is a lot of turtles.
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Jun 20, 2016 18:03
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That house is right out of silent hill
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Jun 20, 2016 18:34
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They could probably get done quicker if they weren't chasing down every drat animal in the countryside for imgur points
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Jun 20, 2016 18:51
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My Lovely Horse posted:...seriously that is a lot of turtles. New thread title?
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Jun 20, 2016 19:11
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400 pounds of turtles and as many posts about them.
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Jun 20, 2016 19:52
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Geirskogul posted:400 pounds of turtles and as many posts about them. But will they stop a motorcycle thief?
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Jun 20, 2016 19:59
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It's some teenager with wealthy parents who bought him a nice new car and now a house. A really really lovely house they've just wasted a lot of time putting a roof over, which will never ever be mold-free. Their interior demo leaves a lot to be desired, too. It's going to be another hundred hours of scraping all the little scraps and remnants off of that wood, most of which is already ruined by all the mold and moisture and rot. It doesn't look like they've even considered the foundation or most of the floor joists, other than in the one bedroom where he fell through the floor. I especially love discovering the PO just stuck a roof over another roof and instead of doing anything about it, just go ahead and slap a metal roof right on top of all of it, no consideration of insulation, removing the old roof and whatever is under it, the probably inadequate pitch they're left with, or whatever. Just gently caress it, roof it all over.
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Jun 20, 2016 20:08
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It sounds like he's probably planning on living there while he's in university and renting out the rooms, in which case the standards for a student hovel are probably lowish, and I guess he can sell it on to an aspiring slumlord when he graduates?
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Jun 20, 2016 20:24
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Leperflesh posted:It's some teenager with wealthy parents who bought him a nice new car and now a house. A really really lovely house they've just wasted a lot of time putting a roof over, which will never ever be mold-free. Their interior demo leaves a lot to be desired, too. It's going to be another hundred hours of scraping all the little scraps and remnants off of that wood, most of which is already ruined by all the mold and moisture and rot. It doesn't look like they've even considered the foundation or most of the floor joists, other than in the one bedroom where he fell through the floor. I took measurements for a possible HVAC install job at a house like this. I could see the old roof through the ceiling of the add-on, asphalt shingles and all, and by the light of my flashlight it was really creepy. It looked like a darkened movie set at Universal Studios.
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Jun 20, 2016 20:41
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Ashcans posted:It sounds like he's probably planning on living there while he's in university and renting out the rooms, in which case the standards for a student hovel are probably lowish, and I guess he can sell it on to an aspiring slumlord when he graduates? My folks were looking to buy a house near the university where they do football stuff in the fall, and bailed on the idea because the market was all but taken over by parents doing just that. They all expect to sell the house at a profit after the kid moves out, and maybe if they were buying on the shittier, grad-student, renegade frat side of town they could. But they were buying up the cheaper old professors/university staff houses, handing them over to a bunch of college kids to wreck for four years, and then asking as much as the high-end, well-maintained houses in the neighborhood. Also if anyone didn't read the whole thing, one of the Olivebridge house posts goes into why people don't just tear down the house, even when it's all but unsalvageable. It's a neat look into a very literal sunk-cost issue.
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Jun 20, 2016 21:26
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there wolf posted:Also if anyone didn't read the whole thing, one of the Olivebridge house posts goes into why people don't just tear down the house, even when it's all but unsalvageable. It's a neat look into a very literal sunk-cost issue. Do you have a link handy? That sounds interesting. I know I've seen houses that got torn down entirely except for one or two rooms, so that they could be rebuilt as a "renovation" instead of a new construction. I've heard of houses that were torn down entirely except for a single wall, for similar reasons, but that's all hearsay. Is this something similar?
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Jun 20, 2016 21:32
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there wolf posted:the Olivebridge house posts goes into why people don't just tear down the house, even when it's all but unsalvageable. It's a neat look into a very literal sunk-cost issue. I would like to read about this, but I don't know where this Olivebridge house post is e:fu, faster poster person
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Jun 20, 2016 21:32
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Do you have a link handy? That sounds interesting. My neighbor across the street has a free-standing garage too close to the property line. It was grandfathered in and legal. He wanted to tear it down and build a a new much bigger garage, but wasn't able to get the building permit. So he did exactly that, "renovated" it over two years as two separate projects leaving the one original wall that was on the property line, all on the up-and-up with proper permits from the same building department that rejected the complete rebuild. It definitely cost him more time and materials since each stage had to be code-compliant by itself. Front, rear, side wall and roof were all replaced/resized. He's a construction guy by trade and knew all the loopholes.
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Jun 20, 2016 21:44
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Do you have a link handy? That sounds interesting. It was linked upthread with a couple teaser pictures. I am relinking it here because I just read it and it's worth it. I feel really bad for the people that bought this place.
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Jun 20, 2016 22:10
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Collateral Damage posted:How to spend way too much effort on trying to fix up something that should just be bulldozed and built over. Welp. Call the local FD and offer to let them burn it down for practice, then 'doze the site and drop a manufactured home on it. They paid $60k for it anyway, which shouldn't be too much below what two acres in the 'middle of town' might be worth without the house on it. Also, why the hell are none of them wearing masks in a mold-infested 70's house where all the insulation has collapsed.  Edit : Okay, he is wearing one later, but still. Also, for those of you familiar with code, please tell me it is in no way acceptable to keep the roofing structure they did there. Please? Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Jun 20, 2016 |
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Jun 20, 2016 22:18
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Thanks for the Olivebridge relink. The reasons for not bulldozing are at the end of this entry http://manhattan-nest.com/2016/03/30/olivebridge-cottage-from-bad-to-worse-and-worse-and-worse-and-worse/ The short of it is you probably paid a nonzero amount for the existing structure after believing it was structurally sound, and the whole thing is tied to a mortgage. There are also possible issues with being allowed to rebuild at all.
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Jun 20, 2016 22:51
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Do you have a link handy? That sounds interesting. quote:It's a series of blog posts. You can browse the relevant tag, or here are the posts numbered: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Here's the original post with each entry linked. The one where they go over remodel vs. teardown is post 5, but I recommend reading the whole thing because it's genuinely funny and well-written. there wolf fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Jun 20, 2016 |
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Jun 20, 2016 22:55
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Yeah basically it comes down to, you're underwater by so much that you have a choice: bulldoze, sell the land, and lose every penny you put into it with nothing to show for your loss; or just pour money in until you have a house, irrespective of how much more you've spent than it's worth, still be underwater, but at least you have a house. It's a house you paid way too much for, but that's better than an empty plot of land you can't live on that you paid way too much for. Anyway going back to that imgur remodel: This is the poo poo they're just putting a roof over because gently caress it:  I mean, you have the rest of the house down to the studs, you're installing new roofing directly on joists on half the house, but why actually demo the oldest part of the house's roof and find out whatever might be under it? 
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Jun 20, 2016 23:07
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Leperflesh posted:
When the house came with the land practically free, I guess it serves as a jig for placing new materials. I can't easily tell whether the red roof is coming or going, and it looks like it's being put in. Will it remain red like a Pizza Hut, or does that normally get covered
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Jun 20, 2016 23:18
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i'm the guy roofing in sandals. the op of that said after they finish that and cleaning out rooms then they plan to start replacing supports inside and having someone look at it. the amount of black mold that must be in that house is amazing and i wouldn't be surprised if someone died from it by the time they finish.
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Jun 20, 2016 23:59
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The red roof is new steel roofing. Love that 1x4 with 3 screws in it acting as a structural span in that steel hip rafter (I guess you could call it that?)
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Jun 21, 2016 00:03
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I got the impression that the metal crap latched onto the old roof was put up by the previous owner, and they're just putting a new roof over those old supports because the old one was rotten. Seems like just delaying the inevitable not to bust up the whole thing and do it properly, but I guess then they might have to remove the stupid addition that relied on that stupid parasite roof
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Jun 21, 2016 00:39
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 Chainsaw dreadlocks is a good band name.
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Jun 21, 2016 02:41
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Elsa posted:Will it remain red like a Pizza Hut, or does that normally get covered
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Jun 21, 2016 03:28
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Go back and look at the wall framing in the master bedroom. The headers have no king studs/jack studs under them. The studs look like they are 36-48" apart. That place is a teardown.
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Jun 21, 2016 03:29
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Nice little piece of property. Too bad the new owners are about as loving stupid as the last ones.
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Jun 21, 2016 04:55
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DreadLlama posted:
Jesus Christ, buy a circular saw, they're like $50 at Home Depot.
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Jun 21, 2016 05:26
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Dillbag posted:Jesus Christ, buy a circular saw, they're like $50 at Home Depot. I think he realizes the futility of the whole thing and is hoping for the sweet release of kick-back.
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Jun 21, 2016 05:27
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Slugworth posted:It'll stay red. Fairly common color for steel roofs - It's available in far worse colors. lol. So the place is a glorified shack then
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Jun 21, 2016 06:13
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Ashcans posted:It sounds like he's probably planning on living there while he's in university and renting out the rooms, in which case the standards for a student hovel are probably lowish, and I guess he can sell it on to an aspiring slumlord when he graduates? I wonder how much of his motivation is I am going to gently caress so.many.bitches in this place, resulting in hand-waving advice from the older gentlemen who look like they have some experience.
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Jun 21, 2016 06:19
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th vwls hv scpd posted:Go back and look at the wall framing in the master bedroom. The headers have no king studs/jack studs under them. The studs look like they are 36-48" apart. That place is a teardown. I'm still holding out for a structure fire.
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Jun 21, 2016 07:25
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