All Forum Posts by: Nate Fleming

If it is a general contractor they only may be licensed in the cities/counties/municipalities they work in.  For that look up building regulations in the city/county you are in.  They generally have a list of contractors they have licensed.  If not,  give them a call.  They should be able to verify.  Some states require licensing for general as well,  and a quick Google search should find it.

Specialty contractors (like electrical) are generally licensed by the state, like here in Ohio.  Here I also have to license my electrical contracting in the specific municipalities I work in.  Those licenses are shown both on state and local governments websites.

I’ve done a full renovation on a rental (was abandoned house) that was a hit for about 55/sq ft and did another abandoned historic home that we tried to pinch pennies on but keep nice for around 83/ sq ft.  I’ve done ones for much more,  but those are the ones that may compute better with yours.  I’m in central Ohio so I’m not sure how much labor is out in Philly.

Hi Zachary,

Not sure if you’ve found a place yet but I’ve been investing in the SW area of Springfield.  The city has been investing a good deal of time and resources into the area,  and it has made a difference.  They’ve torn down a great deal of derelict and abandoned homes,  and crime has been on the decrease there as well.  Also there is already a plethora of MFHs there.

@Mark Zippo

I do quite bit of work on historic houses with their old windows. Majority of these houses are in a historic district with a Landmarks commission. I have found that restoring the original sash with brass weatherstripping with storm windows where caulking and everything is tight should satisfy the commissioners and create a pretty good air/wind barrier. It’s is also a whole lot more cost effective than replacing with the fancy windows.

@Jesse Hunter

I’d say have a general contractor come out and take a look. We work with metal sometimes, and unless you’re wanting to have someone weld the rust holes they will probably need to be replaced.

Have you tried incentives to get the job done on time?  If Pennsylvania is anything like Ohio everyone needs a contractor and is willing to pay.

@Ryan Freet

I’m an investor/contractor in Springfield. It’s definitely an interesting market. If you want to meet up sometime to talk more I’m happy to share what I know.

@Josh C.

I get that heat pumps may have efficiency with cooling,  but I disagree on the heating.  It has been my experience that heat pumps lose efficiency below 40 degrees and below 25-30 they are about useless without additional heating coils.  If you are in a very moderate climate like the west coast you see them all day,  but here in Ohio, I see very few and the ones that I do see people complain that they don't work and have to use portable space heaters.  Now I would guess that the OPs rental in question is in KY,  but looking at the forecast I see only 2 days in the next 2 weeks that it even touches 40.

But I don't believe I made my self clear in the previous comment. Yes, I do think that a theoretical heat pump can have more efficiency under ideal situations, but I definitely feel this house isn't an ideal situation. What I was trying to say was that considering ROI the cost would be exorbitant to install 5 units into this place, with continued maintenance it would be a money pit of an idea. Fan forced wall heaters when going bad should only take an electrical contractor 1 hour to swap out.

I do like fan forced wall heaters over baseboard heaters for efficiency of heating a room.  Baseboard heat is more of a convective heater so it doesn't heat as fast but uses the same amount of electricity.  Also if the thermostat is on the baseboard they do a pretty miserable job of actually telling how hot/cold a room is.  So I'd suggest the OP uses fan forced heaters if he isn't doing that already and also the use of a remote thermostat.

I suggest to the OP to work on energy efficiency before dropping big $$ on some heating system.  Separate thermostats can be added onto these electric heaters with even the option to not go above a certain threshold ( so they can't turn them up too high).  The other option in my mind would be to work on turning the zoning of the house into a multifam and getting it figured out with the utility for separate meters and then the electric bill is their problem.

The energy usage technically will be the same whether it would be an electric wall heater or mini-split since both would be electrical heat.  I think winterizing would be a good bet.  Rehabbing the old wood windows with brass weatherstripping ( like the used to do back in the day),  reglaze them and make sure they fit tight,  or caulk in the ones that you don't care to have open.  Doing some work in the attic to shore up air leaks would help. One of the things I did to my old victorian house was to use a radiant infrared barrier in my attic.  It was cheap ( about $150 on amazon for 1000 Sqft) easy to install and reduced my summer attic temps by about 20 degrees.

Another thought would be they do make clamp on AmpHour meters that monitor energy usage.  I've used them before and they work well and can be added onto each feeder going to each of the sub panels.  Use a single phase pass through kWh that can do 100 amps would be my suggestion.  Then you could actually monitor what each unit is using.