The Worst Repairs Ever (And We’ve Seen Some Stuff)
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You can imagine we’ve seen some horrible repair jobs in the home inspection world. There are bad contractors, shady flippers, and wacky DIY fails. All can result in subpar repair work that we inspectors call out in our reports. But sometimes we see something that jumps past “bad repair” into “truly terrible” and even “never seen that before” territory. And those are the kind of repairs we’ll be looking at today.
Disconnected Duct
I mean… I feel like anyone might respond to finding a disconnected duct in the attic by stuffing a bunch of trash in it, right? Seems like a well-thought-out plan, right? Given that it’s actively blowing air, it seems like the more rational solution might have been to try to figure out what the duct is supposed to connect to, or — I don’t know — call an HVAC tech to come fix it. But no, apparently trash seemed like a good fix.
Damaged Plumbing Vent
Everyone should keep a traffic cone handy for just this purpose — genius! Talk about calling attention to a problem. I wonder what the neighbors think. A bright orange traffic cone on the roof? Assuming the cone is somehow actually keeping the damaged vent stack from leaking around the edges, they still should’ve just repaired it correctly, because they basically put a bright orange highlighter on it for the home inspector to find.
Rotted Wood on the Roof
Here, there’s rotted wood on the chimney and under the eaves where it can’t be seen. On the chimney, there’s a nice new paint job to cover the problem. Under the eaves, well, they either missed it or hoped the buyers would. Either way, rain is getting in that roof, and the buyer will be looking at roof repairs that the flipper hoped to cover up with a paint job.
Don’t find yourself making questionable decisions about home repairs like these. Call a professional. And if you have more questions about home maintenance and repair, you can have a home inspector come out to advise you.
