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Minneapolis, MN

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Bad Chimneys Don't Always Need Repair

11-24-09
Minneapolis Home Inspections - Reuben Saltzman
Minneapolis Home Inspections - Reuben Saltzman: Inspector in Minneapolis, MN
  • view my blog
  • Office: (952) 915-6466
  • Mobile: (612) 205-5600

Most homes in Minneapolis and Saint Paul are old houses with masonry chimneys. When these masonry chimneys go bad (and they all go bad) the repair can be very expensive. If you call up a chimney contractor to see what can be done about it, they'll tell you the chimney needs repair, just like an orthodontist will tell you your kid needs braces. Repair is just one option. The other option is removal.

Bad Chimney

When chimneys are badly deteriorated, sometimes it just makes more sense to tear the chimney down below the roof line instead of repairing the section that sticks up above the roof. The benefits of doing this are lower repair costs, less exterior maintenance, and less chance for leakage at the roof. Chimneys are notorious for leaks, both through the top and at the roof flashing.

Removing Chimneys

If you're thinking about tearing a chimney down below the roof line, the chimney must be located in the middle of the house. If the chimney is located on an outside wall, the fix wouldn't simply involve removing the chimney below the roof line - it would require complete removal of the chimney, which might be cost prohibitive. I counted houses around my neighborhood in Minneapolis (Bryn Mawr), and about three out of four houses has a chimney in the middle of the house.

To remove the chimney below the roof line, the chimney must also be abandoned, or only be used to vent gas appliances that are connected to a metal flue liner. If the chimney is completely abandoned, it's a no-brainer; it's not doing anything, just get rid of it.

If the chimney is being used to vent gas appliances such as a furnace / water heater / boiler, that vent will still need to penetrate the roof to carry the exhaust gases to the exterior. Just make sure that all of the gas appliances are properly connected to the vent!

It used to be common practice to connect the furnace to a metal vent that ran inside the chimney, while the water heater would be connected only to the chimney, where it would use the annular space around the furnace vent to carry exhaust gases to the exterior. If you see the water heater vent connector entering the chimney separately from the furnace or boiler, this is probably what is happening. That's what you're seeing in the photo below - the smaller vent connector that I outlined in red comes from the water heater.

Water Heater Vent Connector2

The diagram below shows the same thing - click for a bigger version.

Improper Water Heater Venting

If you have an installation that looks like this, you should have it fixed, whether you plan on tearing down your chimney below the roof line or not. Allowing the water heater to vent in to the annular space in the chimney will allow the corrosive exhaust gases to damage the chimney walls, and water heaters usually don't draft properly when they're installed this way... but I digress. More on this topic another day. Back to the chimney.

If the chimney is removed down below the roof line, be sure to seal up what's left of the chimney inside the attic space, to prevent the chimney from doing what it does best - bringing warm air up! If the chimney ends below the roof line, it will act like a huge attic bypass, allowing heat to escape in to the attic. If the chimney is abandoned, seal off the top completely. If the chimney is still used as the chaseway for a gas vent, seal off the area between the chimney and the vent with sheet metal, and use high-temperature caulking to make it airtight.

No more chimney maintenance!

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections – Email – Bryn Mawr Home Inspections

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Luxury Real Estate Short Sales

11-22-09
Jennifer Kirby, the Luxury Agent
Jennifer Kirby, the Luxury Agent: Real Estate Agent in Minneapolis, MN
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  • Mobile: (651) 785-3400

Luxury Home Short Sales

Working with Luxury Short Sales in the Twin Cities

While high end homes don't go into distress too often, the current market is causing some home owners to pursue the short sale route when selling their home. With home prices dropping in expensive neighborhoods, and seeing as many were artificially inflated due to the real estate market a few years ago, luxury homes are now seeing a much needed market correction.

Unfortunately, there are not as many buyers out there who can afford an expensive home (not to mention the high property taxes that come with million dollar homes). Currently the most concentrated area in the Twin Cities Metro area for short sales is in and around Lake Minnetonka, including areas like Chanhassen and Medina. But you can find a luxury short sale here and there throughout the Metro area.

Having worked with high-end short sales, I can say that they are quite different than the normal sale. The ones I have worked have almost always involved a higher up...not the average remedial negotiator who could give a rats butt, but someone who understands the potential huge financial loss that a million dollar home would create on their books. A $1.5 million dollar foreclosure is so much worse than writing off a few hundred grand in a short sale.

Case in point, a luxury short sale listing I successfully sold this spring became a success because I got the ear of the Vice President of the bank. He agreed that a $400,000 loss was much better than a $1.4 Million loss. Granted I am sure they would have gotten some money back if sold as a foreclosure, but it would have been much less than that of a short sale, not to mention the court and lawyer fees that would have been tacked on to the net. Working like a team to reach a common goal, the bank and I were able to negotiate very well together, creating a deal that helped the home owner out of a jam, and got the buyer a super deal in an expensive neighborhood.

If I had to give one piece of advice for a home owner looking to sell their expensive real estate as a short sale, than I would recommend finding an agent that not only specializes in luxury homes, but also has experience in short sales. (There are very few of us that do.) For the short sale million dollar homes currently for sale, most of them have an agent that has little to no experience in either. Sadly, this really only hurts the home owner as they don't get what they really need - the successful sale of their home and avoiding foreclosure.

If you have any questions regarding the short sale of your home, please feel free to contact me anytime!

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seller financing cd terms land contracts low down bad credit ok condos-townhomes-mn home contract for deed

11-17-09
steve vennemann
steve vennemann: Real Estate - Other in White Bear Lake, MN
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  • Office: (651) 334-8312
  • Mobile: (651) 334-8312

<!--StartFragment-->

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Minnesota & Wisconsin

Lake homes-cabins-land

Buy on a Contract for Deed

Unless you are one few people with stellar credit, buying a home today is much more difficult than it has been in years. The SUB-PRIME mortgage market, which used to enable those with poor credit to purchase a home, has virtually disappeared and is no longer available to borrowers.

Many lenders refuse to provide financing for up to 2 years after a bankruptcy and up to 7 years after a foreclosure. In the rare cases where they may, the huge down payments, steep interest rates and additional closing costs make it nearly impossible for such a buyer to purchase a home.

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651-334-8312 STEVE VENNEM<!--EndFragment-->

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Bald Eagles at Lake Calhoun, Minneapolis

11-17-09
Sharlene Hensrud
Sharlene Hensrud: Real Estate Agent in Saint Louis Park, MN
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  • Office: (763) 541-6066
  • Mobile: (612) 419-0560
  • Secondary: (763) 591-6000

NOTE: see the bottom of post for homes for sale in the area

Last weekend as I stopped at Lake Calhoun in southwest Minneapolis I noticed people looking up into the treetops...

Calhoun-people1
...to see two bald eagles perched in a tree along the south shore of the lake!

Calhoun-eagles2
I assure you the photographer in the photo with the long lens got a better picture than I did, but I was pretty amazed to be able to take any photo of bald eagles in southwest Minneapolis!

It was a great reminder of what a wonderful public resource the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes is to the Twin Cities, with shoreline accessible to everyone. It is the most visited destination in the Minneapolis Park System, with 13.3 miles of trails that are part of the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway of 50.1 miles of metro area trails.

Lake Calhoun is the largest of the five lakes in the Chain of Lakes, with a shoreline of about 3 miles, surrounded by walking and bike trails. It is also the most exposed, with Lake Street bordering the north side of the lake. Lake Calhoun has three beaches, boasts great Minneapolis skyline views, and is great for both people watching and looking at beautiful homes.

Calhoun-skyline

It's hard to find a time when the paths around the lake aren't busy with runners, bikes, roller blading, dog walking...with swimmers, wind surfers and people playing sand volleyball or fishing on one of the piers nearby in warm weather...enjoyed by locals and visitors alike. The Minneapolis Chain of Lakes is second in popularity only to the Mall of America as a Twin Cities visitor destination.

Calhoun-house Click here to see homes currently for sale in the area around Lake Calhoun and the Chain of Lakes in southwest Minneapolis. Please be patient while the link searches for the most current listings...click on the map to zoom in until you see icons on the dots, then pass your cursor over them for property information, click for property details.

Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results - Email - HomesMSP.com

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Forget Code, Bathrooms Need Fans.

11-17-09
Minneapolis Home Inspections - Reuben Saltzman
Minneapolis Home Inspections - Reuben Saltzman: Inspector in Minneapolis, MN
  • view my blog
  • Office: (952) 915-6466
  • Mobile: (612) 205-5600

For the last 800 years, building codes have allowed bathrooms to be built without exhaust fans.

Exhaust fans aren't even a requirement here in Minnesota! This is a great example of how building codes are only minimum standards. I thought about this while doing a home inspection at a rental home in Minneapolis. The outdoor temperature was about 45 degrees, and every single window in the home was covered with condensation, which was also dripping down the walls.

Condensation on a window in Minneapolis

Oh, and there were no fans installed.

Bathrooms need exhaust fans to help eliminate moisture problems, plain and simple. When people take showers and baths, moisture gets pumped in to the air. During the winter, this moisture condenses on windows and walls, and often makes it's way in to the attic space through attic bypasses, where it will create frost.

Minnesota requires windows in bathrooms that provide a total glazed area of at least three square feet, and half of that must be openable. The exception to this rule comes when a bath fan is installed that will exhaust at least 50 cubic feet per minute, or a continuous exhaust system such as a Heat Recovery Ventilator exhausts at least 20 cubic feet per minute.

The idea of someone actually opening a window on a cold winter day in Minnesota to help reduce moisture in the bathroom is ridiculous. If you live in a house without an exhaust fan in a bathroom that gets used for showers or baths, install one. Your house will thank you for it.

If you're going to install a fan, here are a few tips to make sure your house is happy with the fan.

  • Choose a good fan. You'll want to balance noise level, performance, and price. If you buy a cheap noisy fan, you probably won't even want to turn it on.
  • Make the exhaust duct short. A proper exhaust duct will be as short as possible and take as few turns as possible. The longer the duct and the more twists and turns it takes, the less air flow. A fan rated for 80 cubic feet per minute (CFM) assumes the fan has no duct. As soon as a duct gets added, the actual CFM goes down. I've inspected hundreds of houses where there is barely any air flow at bath fan exhausts. If the bath fan is located in the basement and the duct runs up to the roof at the second story, air flow will be pretty pathetic.
  • Waterlogged Duct Insulate the duct where it passes through unconditioned spaces, such as the attic. If you don't, moisture will condense it the duct, and might drip down and stain the ceiling. I once inspected a house in Richfield where the exhaust duct was uninsulated in the attic, and so much moisture had accumulated in the duct that it was completely filled with water! The photo at right shows me holding my flashlight up against the duct - this is one of my favorite photos ever. Click the thumbnail to see the full version.
  • No Switch Don't use a standard switch to control the fan. When a single switch controls the fan, people turn the fan on while in the shower or maybe after the shower, and turn the fan off when leaving the room. The problem is that the fan doesn't run long enough to remove enough moisture. A better solution would be to install a timer that runs for at least a half hour, or install a humidity sensing fan.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections – Email – Minneapolis Home Inspections

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