Sagging ibeam....

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spenceallegra

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My husband and I are looking at a house to purchase, but we found something in the basement that is making us want to just walk away and never look back. :hide:
The only thing is that this is almost everything we want in a house.

This is the beam that runs the center of the house. The basement has heaved a little bit over time as the house is almost 16 years old and the soil isn't the best where it is located.

What exactly are we looking at? Is this something we can fix without having to replace the whole beam? Can we just push it back into place, or is that going to cause more problems?

Thanks!!!

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My husband and I are looking at a house to purchase, but we found something in the basement that is making us want to just walk away and never look back. :hide:
The only thing is that this is almost everything we want in a house.

This is the beam that runs the center of the house. The basement has heaved a little bit over time as the house is almost 16 years old and the soil isn't the best where it is located.

What exactly are we looking at? Is this something we can fix without having to replace the whole beam? Can we just push it back into place, or is that going to cause more problems?

Thanks!!!


How is the dwelling held, IE. Bank, foreclosure, short sale?

Is the condition reflected in the floor above?

How many stories?
 
How is the dwelling held, IE. Bank, foreclosure, short sale?

Is the condition reflected in the floor above?

How many stories?

It is a foreclosure.

The condition to me is reflected in the floor above, there is some cracking in the drywall, and minimal separating where the wall and ceiling connect in places.

It is a one story home.
 
I’m not sure what I’m looking at in the photo? Is the I beam in two pieces and joined under the column? Is one I beam larger? Is the floor in sections or is that carpet laid down? How do you know the soil is bad? How eager are they to sell? What is a comp house worth in the area without the problem? What are you going to offer? What are your DIY skill levels?

Two years ago we bought a short sale home for about one quarter or less what a home fixed up would sell for, and put a year of part time DIY work into it and have a nice house now without a house payment.
 
Well almost anything can be fixed...at least that's what you see on TV. The real question is how much grief can you handle while all the problems are rectified. I am amazed that there isn't significant damage upstairs from that sagging beam. And I'm wondering how it got like that. This may be a symptom of a larger problem. The folks here will probably ask a ton of questions before any answers are suggested. But in the end, you will need a home inspector or an engineer on site to give you a true assessment. The conversation here may help you ask the right questions or give you some background knowledge.
 
It is a foreclosure.

The condition to me is reflected in the floor above, there is some cracking in the drywall, and minimal separating where the wall and ceiling connect in places.

It is a one story home.

Thank you.

How amenable is the financial institution to allowing access to a structural engineer and/or a competent local builder experienced in the soil conditions?

Not withstanding time constraints, an offer reflective of, and conditioned upon, an engineering report may be tendered.
 
From what I can tell it is two pieces but not joined at the column...(i would have though would have welded them together) they are the same size width wise but the one without the problem is longer than the one sagging. The floor is all one piece that's just carpet that they had down. I know the soil is bad because my mother lives in the same subdivision and neighbors have had settling issues in their basements as well.
the median selling range has been 112,000-270,000. We only want to offer 125,000 because of the problems. Our DIY skills together are pretty good.

I think that's a smart plan!
That would be our plan if we did get this property, get it good enough to make it livable and then fix up as we go.
 
We would absolutely be getting a thorough inspection done if we were to go forward with this.
I agree everything is fixable, but only to an extent.
 
I believe that the bank would allow us to bring someone in to take a look. They have been nice every time I have talked to them.
 
A few more questions and a few tips. How long has the property been for sale? Many buyers will see the problem and run not looking for a project like that. Most banks wont lend money on a place that has serious problems and that rules out a lot of people. The bank holding the paper is looking to get out from under it and not sink money into it to sell it. Someone walked away from the place and stuck them and they may be holding a lot or a little of the value but more than likely they are holding more than it will sell for as that’s the reason the last owner walked.

What was the asking price? How many times have they come down? Getting a pro to look at it is a good idea but you will have to pay them.

Forget what your mother said about the area and such that may or may not be true. Look at the outside poured walls and do you see any cracks etc?

Something doesn’t add up with two beams and not connected and only one resting on the post.

What ever you do don’t mention any amounts of an offer or seem like you are super in love with the house. Act like you know it’s a big project and can take it or leave it. If the house was the 270k in the area the 125 might be a good deal if it was the 112k it wouldn’t be so hot.
 
From what we can see right now. The fix would be to jack up the beam and with some kind of temp support, remove that post, remove the concrete footing, have a geo-tech engineer look at the soil and he writes a report on what he wants done as far as size and depth of new footing.
The problem is with the soil and footing size, jacking up the house with the concrete floor on the same soil could be another problem. The floor could be broken by time it is done.
The alternative would be to put a new larger footing on each side of the old one and then jack it one.
You need an engineer to write the report on what needs to be done and then you can get quotes from contractors, double that cost and subtract that from your offer. You double it because there is always extras.
 
I would like to know more, what is holding up the high beam, is the floor sagging down to match or is it just floating or what.
 
By the height of the windows the basement isn’t too far below grade so if someone wants to see what the soil is like they could dig along the wall outside a little I would think. You should be able to look and see if the footing dropped under the column. I’m also not sure what’s up with a beam split in half in the middle like that. Until we see some better photos of the joint etc its just guess work.
 
Geo-techs want to inspect the soil at the spot, footing may have been to small or they may have put it on fill but he might say it has settled enough and just lift it up so he would be the guy for the first inspection.
 
Impossible to tell must as mentioned many times with that poor picture.
Beam really should have been one piece.
Something just looks really wrong with that whole thing.
Way to small a post and the wrong type, the side that looks like it's failing is the one under the post.
Any two piece steel beam I've seen had 1/2" thick steel plates on each side that where through bolted and another 1/2' steel plate under it with a concrete filled steel post to support both beams between the two.
 
The floor does not look like it has sagged the amount the beam is hanging low. Some further investigation is needed.
 

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