Hypothetical home rebuild

It's very early in the process, I've not talked to any professionals yet, but from some recent revelations from poking around in my walls and ceilings, I may have a severe problem with my house.

I'm exploring worst case options before I call anyone in just to be prepared.

If the damage is too deep, how much would a tear down and rebuild run, roughly?

Is anything major able to be saved to cut costs, like the roof or siding? The wiring and plumbing are better off scrap, the windows could also be saved they are not that old.

Should it come down to it, the thought is tear down, leaving the garage and laundry room standing, prebuild walls, floors, etc then put it all back up. In theory, about a month. I'm guessing $50-75k, but I'm pretty out of touch with material and labor rates these days.

The house is on a slab, so limited to the original footprint, but open with the floor plan to a point. Electrical access and the well are kind of stuck where they are.

I'm just looking at a worst case scenario, or possibly the easier option than a partial rebuild.

RevRico wrote: I've not talked to any professionals yet, but from some recent revelations from poking around in my walls and ceilings, I may have a severe problem with my house.

What kind of severe problem?

In reply to pheller:

A termite problem, ignored as "flying ants" for over 30 years.

Lets talk about some other details:

Do you like your property and the general design of your house? Like, if you were given $100k tomorrow, would you rebuild the house as it sits, or would you build your house somewhere else?

This might be the type of thing where you get a housing inspector and a pest inspector in there at the same time, consult a builder/contractor, and then have an appraisal of the house done, perhaps determining how much the land is worth.

Sorry, I realize I'm not providing any tangible value.

In reply to pheller:

That's kind of where I'm at. I have calls out to contractors i still know, but no one can come by until after the holidays.

The land itself it's worth more than the house is, house wouldn't pass an inspection to be sold as it is.

That said, for where the location is, I would rebuild in a heartbeat with modern plumbing, proper electrical, and actual real insulation in the walls.

That's why I'm leaning worst case a rebuild.

Shortly after the house was bought, my parents were informed the neighbors had termites treated, and it was blown off and ignored. Considering my dad was in the building trades, that was a dumb decision, and within a year we started getting hatches of the little berkeleyers every year.

Signs from my inspection camera going into cracks that have appeared look like the main cross beam has been feasted on, which is what is prompting this fear.

I got an offer the other day for a $75k home equity loan at a reasonable monthly rate for God knows how many years, so thatz where I'm pulling my budget estimate from.

I'm just at a point, we need new flooring, I need to give my daughter a real bedroom, and before I start dumping money into the house, I gotta make sure it's not just going to collapse when I'm done.

Building construction costs vary by huge amounts by region and materials. You may be able to get a very rough cost per square foot number from some of your local builders but the only way to get a real price is to get multiple bids based on an actual scope of work.

Yea and what sucks about it is you're essentially looking at two projects:

1) Repair/rebuild current house

2) Build a new house on the same property (while you're living in the current structure).

This is a too-large question to be answered over the internet, but I will chime in that there will be almost nothing worth salvaging, at least not with the intent to save cost. By the time you carefully uninstall a 10-year-old window, relocate and store it, then hope it doesn't get broken before or during reinstallation, you might as well just buy new windows. This pretty much holds true for anything you wouldn't move out of the house if you were just relocating.

I'm really sorry that you're in this situation. If I can help I will advise as best I can in 2 dimensions.

Is This something that insurance would cover?

Good luck

I've seen an awful lot of bad things- I've never seen termites do a 100% demolition job- especially in PA. I've seen them do some terrible things. I would think you wouldn't need an inspection camera to see a 100% destroyed house- primary structural elements should have sagged or collapsed.

Depending on your municipality, you will likely want to try to call this a "remodel", not a "new construction". New projects often don't meet the rules the old house did (zoning setbacks, % of building, foundation design, hazmat disposal, etc.). I have torn down an entire building except for the front wall and rebuilt the whole thing attached to that one wall- This would still be called a "remodel". (demo had to be done by hand, not with an excavator)

I know that sounds weird, but it's true.

I'm sorry you are going through this.

In reply to SVreX:

We've done that with commercial buildings, leave a wall standing and rebuild. That is my thought process here, as 2 of the outside walls are hollow block. Leave one and insulate the hell out of it before hanging board.

The interior of the house is plaster, not drywall. I could see support beams to replace a missing for joist, but I could also see that cause more problems. The way plumbing and electrical repairs go here, structural repairs will most likely drag out the rebuild cost and time. Earliest deed I have is from the 50s and honestly it looks older than that.

Obviously I need to weigh costs of repair versus replace.

In regards to insurance, not a chance. At least not with my current company. Maybe if they chewed through an electrical line, but by then it would be too late.

I've got my exploration pictures on my old phone, I'll get them uploaded one the little tyke goes to bed and I can actually sit down in my computer.

As my chippy said when we were remediating termite damage In my house "those little bastards are like structural engineers" they seem to take out as much as possible without collapsing things on themselves.

Unless the nest has been found and eradicated, id be very hesitant to commence any work. Disturbing them can cause them to disappear for a while, but if the colony isn't destroyed, they'll be back.

As far as salvaging the house, it's probably doable, but a word to the wise, find a way to live off site for such a major Reno. I've been living in mine whilst carrying out work and its Been a nightmare, it slows down progress something fierce and you always tend to be more conservative when it comes to totally gutting things.

If the land is worth more clear than with the current house, is demolishing and selling the block worth considering?

So, forewarning, my inspection camera looks a lot closer to in focus on the phone than on the computer. I also haven't drilled any holes to stick it in, just basically holding it up to the cracks.

^^ this is the crack I got the inspection camera to. It appeared about 18 months ago, and has stretched to its current size since then. The beam in question goes from the stairwell to the outside wall of the house, crossing the majority of the second floor. It's also, uncomfortably above where I sit.

^^ this is the other side. It's an archway of sorts between the living room and dining room. Yes, the bubbling more resembles water damage. There are no other signs of water damage, no discoloration, no mold, and no leaking water ever.

^^ and this is what inside of the plaster looks like. It looks far more clear on the phone the inspection camera connects to. For $10, I can't complain too much.

A bit closer with the 45 degree mirror attached, even worse focus when blown up to full size.

This is all in the middle of the house. In the spring when the damn things hatch, they start on the outside wall, but have been dropping down from here in the middle in larger numbers every year.

I fog and bomb the house 2 to 3 times a year. Once when it's still cold, once when we start to see them, then again toward the end of the summer. And that's not "oh one can in the living room will do it" it's a 12 pack of the deadliest bug bombs I can get my hands on, put in every room, the attic, the crawl spaces, everywhere I can get a can. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't.

Moving and taking on a mortgage are pretty much out of the question. The credit score is good enough, the income requirements not so much. The only reason I'm considering the $75k line of credit is because they offered at like $260 a month, which is less than I was quoted on a damn car payment last summer. As I said, I'm hoping to actually get some people I trust in here to take a better look at things. I'm just trying to prepare for the worse, as when things get FUBAR with me, they really get FUBAR.

I was going to suggest a full boat $2,400 termite tent/poison job, since the house IS still standing today... but continuously growing cracks in your load bearing wall looks scary.

Throwing the house in a dumpster seems like an extreme solution no matter what the problem is.

It may be a horrible idea but I wonder if an IR camera would paint a picture of major voids in the wood on a very cold day with the heat on inside. Maybe target some areas for replacement studs or sills. Replacing part of a wall or two is a lot less expensive that a whole new house... But the only way to find out is to remove plaster and investigate.

Wood framed houses have a remarkable ability to remain upright despite damaged structural elements.

Hire a bunch of amishes. Them dudes can build a whole house in a day.

If it comes to a complete demo and do over, consider a travel trailer to live in during construction. You can live on site and sell it when you're done.

Takes a lot to "total" a house, but you'll be gutting it most likely to repair structural damage.

In reply to SVreX:

In our area a new house gets assessed for property taxes at a full price. Leaving a wall as a remodel keeps the property taxes low for 5 years then they zoom upward.

I've had a Sentricon system for many years. Not a major termite problem but had a few when the house was purchased ~15 years ago. Haven't see one in many years. Costs ~$300 year. Prolly worth the investment. My $.02.