I got an e-mail this morning from a customer that I did a Home Inspection for a few months back. He said the Cable TV guy was in the attic and told him he had a truss with a cracked post, and it should get repaired. He said that he had a Home Inspection and was not told about it… so he sent me an unhappy e-mail with these 4 pictures.
I told him I spent a fair amount of time in his attic, and if he goes back to the Inspection, he can see several photos I took in the attic of electrical issues. However, I do agree that I missed it, and that it does need to be repaired. I explained that it’s a fairly easy repair, and can be performed in about an hour, and I would like to come take care if it for him, at no charge of course. I thought about telling him to just have it repaired and send me the bill, but I might get a bill for a few hundred dollars, as where I can fix it for about $15.00, in an hour, and it’s local. I ran a Home Repair and Remodeling business for many years before this, and have repaired quite a few of these cracked truss posts.
Has anyone ever went back and fixed an item they missed?
I went back to a young lady firefighter’s place a few years back after she had a bit of rain leakage when it rained and the wind blew from a cerain direction.
Since it was a very small leak and infrequent, she hadn’t complained about it and had a carpenter friend try to find/repair it.
When it rained with the wind after the friend’s repair, it wasn’t fixed, so she called me. Since firefighters are a pretty tight group, I went and fixed the leak with a bit of tar under shingles at the rake of a gable end…and have had a couple of referrals of other firefighters buying houses from her.
…but… you will want the “CYA” factor, incase something down the road takes a dump, you don’t want the blame for an improper repair (even if it isn’t).
I have made many repairs such as this, as well as repairs to new trusses on homes I’ve built. On ‘new’, a call to the truss manufacturer and an engineers letter and repair certificate was in the mail the next day. On ‘old work’ repairs, I stopped in to a local manufacturer, with pics of the defect, and they provided a letter with repair instructions (follow them exactly) and a repair cert. for between $25 and $50 within a few days. No need to spend $300 to have an engineer visit the site.
Thanks everyone. I finally spoke with the owner, and he’s good with me doing the repair (7:30AM tomorrow morning). I also have a call in to a local truss manufacturer for his insight. Hopefully, this will all be put to bed fairly easy.
Are you saying the manufacturer or an engineer’s evaluation and a design document is unnecessary? If that’s what you’re saying, then the current homeowner may be in for a nasty surprise when they sell and another home inspector calls out a modified truss.
Typically, the truss manufacturer can provide you with a design document based on a photo, without having to visit the home.
When you get a design document, give the homeowner a copy and put a copy in a zip-lock bag, stapled to the truss for future reference by a subsequent home inspector down the road.
Having worked in two truss shops I can tell you that without an engineers letter that fix is null and void…end of story. I’d hate to be in someone’s shoe’s later down the road when another inspector calls this out. Don’t half ***** it do it right or not at all. Your bank account may thank you later!!
how do you, the owner, or the cable guy know that this was broken at the time of the inspection and did not break in the several month following the inspetion? Just saying
That’s true. I don’t know when the break occured. I didn’t see it when I was up there before, or I would have called it out. It’s been almost exactly 3 months since the inspection. I’m wiating to hear back from a local truss company here on how they can hel pme document the repair, but I’m supposed to do the repair first thing in the morning. One way or another, I will be taking a LOT of photos, before and after.
Not saying a letter technically wouldn’t be required however if its in the webbing then they will tell you the fix is simply to install 2x4 (yellow pine) on both sides from bottom chord to top chord nailing same with 2 rows of fasteners 4 - 6 inches apart (both sides)… if I was in his shoes I would do the repair and be done…not going to pay $250.00 + for something I already know… especially in light of the fact that I didnt break it. I would advise the client that if she is to sell the house an inspector may request a letter depending on his level of knowledge about such repairs.
