All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Leland Smith sheesh, these guys are like bats outa Hell! They need someone to taim them! I love the energy I see there and the MXN spirit, and the hussle. Haha, get a 6x6 under that double cantilevered corner on the deck. Yikes, I thought you were at least calling to communicate to this guy “do not cut the beam”. Whew, I still see potential for these guys, but they are all laborers without a foreman/ journeyman Carpenter. Don’t let the inspector see the house. Just try to sweet talk him, walk him AWAY from the job! Don’t know what to say but you should have communicated with this guy before he got started cutting the beam that everyone said not to. The doorways are still incorrect and you should have known this by looking up how to frame a doorway. Very simple stuff. I’ve fixed stuff for people that have learned the hard way and told me “there’s no such thing as cheap labor”. If you didn’t have inspections, you could probably structurally be fine on his door framing. The problem is, you pulled permits that require inspection, then hired someone that looks like 7/8 of their framing was done in Mexico, only problem is, they only build houses with block in Mexico.

@Leland Smith. Just plow the house. Fire the contractor. Hire an engineer (experienced guys with tons of framing experience). Never buy an old house because it might not be to code and you’ll have to pay so much for licensed engineers to make it code. I don’t think engineers make a living on drawing plans for residential wall replacments. I bet there’s a lot of investors here that don’t voluntarily pull permits on old houses where they replace a wall with a beam. Sucks to be you right now! Oh and don’t you dare cover up those old joists, you need to expose every little thing to the building inspector to make sure he catches it all!

@Mike Reynolds yeah, I wrote my question while you were writing and I think you habe a good idea. I think we’re all in the real estate business for financial freedom etc. so I like to provide cost effective ideas for construction and help find a solution to a dead end. Real Estate pre-dates codes, and many houses we all know are built uncompliant with code due to the old methods of construction and material making. Thankfully we don’t have to change what’s already there often, when doing permit work, unless it ties in with new work. To make this whole situation up to modern code may be a total blow out financially and may not be required. (I know you know these things). As for the C Perlin, this may be another solution that is more costly on time and money. The steel perlins are typically a true 6” vs the 2x6 he has should be 5 1/2”. So they’d have to notch out the top plates for every one installed. Sounds like a lot of work and expense. Adding a 2x6 beside the existing ones probably isn’t the code compliant perfect solution, but he may not be required to change what’s already there if he has put beams where walls were underneath. It might just be to sturdy up the floor.

@Mike Reynolds that’s why I said it’s hard to recommend because nothing is conventional or proper. He has to come up with a solution and I was just interested in how difficult this situation is to actually solve. I gave my best solution, but it’s all speculative because I can’t measure the spans, and I don’t know exactly how long 2- 2x6 glued and fastened together can span, but it’s the only quick less costly solution. Do you have any ideas, or are you just saying he needs to tear the house down and redo the foundation? The safest thing to do here, would be to double up on 2x6 glued and then put another beam under the room spans to get rid of any flex, but none of it’s pretty. The recessed beam would be the prettiest, but posts are a problem and it would need to be 3- 2x10 glued and fastened to span 12’ across rooms to a post in the framing or somewhere in the room.

@Leland Smith ok final answer, I don’t think you should deal with 2x8’s given the situation. Best case, double up on 2x6’s with glue and screw. You can’t cut your outside wall double top plate, so I wouldn’t mess with 2x8. If it doesn’t pass inspection, you’ll have to put a midspan beam in middle of room. It’s hard to recommend here, because nothing is conventional.

@Erik Baumer It actually is the customer’s responsibility to check for licensing in most states and the states make it easy to look up licenses. If it’s AZ he has no recourse against an unlicensed contractor. This goes for CA, AZ, FL and according to what I looked up, most states. The state websites plainly read this way. I don’t know why you would hire someone unlicensed knowing that, and then sue them for work they screw up. Leland’s just trying to save $ and it sounds like he’s created a good working relationship with his worker. The worker can sue him if he gets injured on his property though, so Leland needs to watch out for that.

@Leland Smith. You’re both operating illegally working together without licensing. You don’t have a legal advantage on this guy, and may have a Wild West disadvantage if you don’t pay him for stuff. Fix the beam over doorways by replacing w load bearing wall framing. You can find good photos to show him on this. Then put 2x8’s beside all 2x6 glued. Pm me and call and I can text you photos if it helps or talk to your guy. This has been a very interesting problem to solve and many possible solutions presented! I’m just trying to save you time and money that could put you deep in debt.

@Leland Smith. You might need to double up on those with 2x8. They can cut that double top plate out and then put a 1x or something under your 2x8 accross the top of the beam. The other obvious option is to put a beam in the middle of the room, but 2x6 are still a little unconventional for floor joists and you may run the risk of not complying with your building inspectors liking. To play it safe you probably have to double up on the 2x6 with 2x8 glued with PL glue from Hlme Depot. It’s polyurethane and is stronger than liquid nails and will help make your floor more stable. Doubling up will be a lot of work, and they should have done this before installing beams for sure. You could put a recessed 2 x 12 beam in the middle of your rooms that hangs down 6” attaching floor joists with hangers like Jared showed to get rid of the spongyness, but 2x6 still don’t look real good up there. Probably double up with the 2x8 glued. Then if you can’t pass inspection on the spans, put a recessed beam through the middle of your rooms worst case. You’ll probably pass w 2x8 doubled on to the 2x6 glued. Big thing is to get them to correct the beam over doorways and frame a standard load bearing wall there so it doesn’t make the whole job look inexperienced.

@Jared W Smith I agree your concerns are valid. However, Leeland did state this is not a licensed contractor. He will not be able to hold this guy accountable for anything, knowing he hired an unlicensed guy. I wouldn’t get any inspectors in there until it was fixed by the guy who did it or someone else. The inspector isn’t there to help him through a series of mistakes. They will charge extra for extra trips to inspect if work is like this, and possibly start looking at other stuff. Since he’s using an unlicensed guy, it’s kind of the Wild West there. Basically cheating, hoping to save money. Not all states are as picky on GC licensing but Arizona doesn’t consider anyone without a license a GC. It’s going to look real bad if he complains to the building inspector that his unlicensed guy did all the work. This isn’t the end of the world, and he’s going to have to learn how to do a cost effective solution. This is a great chance at a framing education so congrats to Leeland for diving in!

@Leland Smith If its to your advantage, just make your guy frame a standard wall with headers, jack (trimmer) studs, king studs up to the double top plate he left there. Google the proper way to frame doorways and show him what you want. Just put in some decent headers, 4x6 over the doorways with cripples above and you’ll be fine there. Sounds like that’s the main problem area on photos 4 and 5 specifically the doorways. You have to have those wide beams on the big openings, otherwise you can make the opening smaller and place a smaller beam. I like the recessed beam idea, but money will be flying out your window if you get too crazy here at this point.