Plan a home remodel carefully: the past may come back to inspect you

When homeowners are considering a home remodeling project, they plan ahead diligently so there are no surprises. They work hard to find a reputable remodeling contractor for the home renovation job. Homeowners almost always have concerns about the quality of the work and how well the prospective general contractor will perform. These are legitimate concerns, such as whether the work will be of quality; Will the work be within budget and meet local city or county code requirements? These are all important concerns, however there is another important consideration that is too often overlooked: will the work of the past be a problem in the future?

Many homeowners never consider that in order for new renovation work to meet local code requirements, they will also be inspected on previous work completed on the home. For example, previous renovations done by a bad contractor, or even a weekend DIY (do-it-yourself) project, can jeopardize the integrity of the new renovation job being approved by a home inspector.

I recently came across a very good example of this in a recent garage remodel. I was hired as a general contractor to do a series of improvements to the garage. My remodeling company was contracted to put vinyl siding on the exterior of a garage along with additional work to repair old rot and dormant termite damage to the interior of the garage. Then he had to finish the interior of the garage with drywall, trim, and paint. After replacing all of the damaged wood in and out of the garage, we ran into a complication when it came time to inspect the structure. Obviously the beams in the garage had been repaired several years ago and were unfortunately not up to current codes. Although repairing the beams was outside the scope of our project and not in the owner’s budget, we had to replace the previous repair work before the home inspector would consider approving our portion of the structural rehabilitation work. In this case, the view of the city building department was that we had to bring all the structural framing up to current code in order to get approval for our repair work that was on the walls below the attic and joist assembly.

The worst of the situation? The beam repair work was done before the current owner purchased the home. So we’re not sure if it was a weekend DIY project or the work of a bad contractor who possibly didn’t have the proper permits and inspections at the time. So the lesson learned I want to pass on to those looking to complete a remodeling project themselves or hire a remodeling contractor. Before you do DIY patchwork around your house or hire a questionable contractor to do the job, be careful. These decisions have possible consequences that are glimpsed in the future. Sometimes the consequences can take years to present problems for you. These issues could prevent you from making future renovations or even prevent you from selling your home. The most important lesson is to get it right the first time or it may hurt your wallet in the future.