About Vaudreuil Soulanges, QC

It's Atomic! It Might Nuke The Sale, But The House Is OK.

I just got back from a consult. I was called in for a second opinion for an issue to do with a garage floor. In this case I was working for the sellers. The buyers were asking for a price reduction because their inspector had identified the garage floor as being defective and in a substandard state.

I did not get to see that inspectors report, but the garage floor is cracked and heaved upward in much of its area. These are large cracks that radiate out from raised areas of the floor and only the central core area near the drain is unaffected.

It is still a functional garage in that you can drive cars in there and park them as well as store the usual collection of tools, bicycles and materials.

However as a garage floor that was sloped to a central drain, it is defective in that this function can no longer be used. This does devalue the property as that capability of the original construction has been lost.

The most likely possible causes of this upward cracking are differential settlement, frost displacement and pyrite uplifting.

The 'atomic' part of the title refers to the fact the force that causes the displacement occurs at a molecular and atom level. For this reason the forces are virtually unstoppable.

The sale may be nuked ( i.e. not be completed) due to unresolved disagreements about the cost of corrections. However, the home has no 'nuclear' issues or radio activity, etc.

Homeowners (sellers) who wish to minimize such problems will appreciate the value of a pre-listing inspection which should identify all major issues and allow them to be dealt with prior to putting the home up for sale.

Just A Handful Of Nails? On A Million Dollar House?

Yup! A handful of nail is the answer to "what's holding the deck on?"

That's pretty shocking on a building valued at a million plus. The nails are Ramset type, a heavy duty concrete nail that is shot into place with a 22 cartridge. They are thick and hardened to do this but they are not for permanent use out doors. The will and are rusting.

They are not made to transfer weight, and certainly not live loads like people walking on decks. They are made to attach wood framing to concrete but the framing (vertical) parts are supposed to carry the weight.

In the photo above the ledger is 'shot' on to the brick. This is not a brick wall. It's a wood framed wall with a single facing layer of brick (called veneer) on the outside. So if lateral (sideways) forces move this building (earthquake) there is a real risk the ledger will be pulled from the wall, collapsing the deck. (The bricks will just come with it.)

The 2x4 support blocking show above that has been placed to stiffen and support the deck ledger. It has only 2 nails in the concrete. The difference between that an a pair of cinch anchors or through blots is huge and they can be had galvanized or in non-rusting alloys.

The other thing to take note of here is that it's only the edge/end of 2x4 pieces (several along the length) that reinforce the the ledger. Lateral movement of only 1.5 inches means the deck will fall.

The photo below is the doubled beam the supports the outer half of this deck. Structurally for weight transfer everything is good but there are some issues.

In this part of the continent we are averaging earthquake shock roughly every five years. This can't be predicted of course and they aren't major, usually less than 5.0 on the Richter scale.

That's nothing like what the west coast experiences and most people don't even notice. But your house does.

So the issues are;

A The bracket on the concrete support is small and hasn't much grip on the beam. There are 4 small screws holding it and they are less than an inch from the edges of the wood beam. Gravity is doing the rest. There is some surface rust to be taken care of (rust paint).

B There is no blocking or bracing to prevent this beam from rolling over. This can easily be done with wood or metal parts. A few years ago here in Quebec a roof collapsed on a commercial building and employees were killed. Investigators found that the trusses did not fail or break, they just rolled over and collapsed. Bracing was mostly absent.

C The deck joists have no blocking or x-bracing (at the mid span) so they will be a bit bouncy under live load (people) and also risk rolling over.

Just picture a bunch of partying friends line dancing to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and all 'jumping to the left' in unison. Not the 'smashing' party you want to envision.

Now this is not an emergency. Things will hold together for a while but it needs to be corrected and it wont cost a lot, but on a million dollar house, it should be there.

So when you need a full inspection......................

Invasion of the house snatchers! They’re not teenagers but they’ll eat you out of house and home!

It happened here. At a million dollar estate, a beautiful house in semi rural 'horse' country. With big beautiful evergreens towering behind the home. Picturesque.

The Tree -Up close; -It’s away from the balcony deck, 10' from the house wall, so not perfect but OK.

-Shallow root system - low plumbing or footing interference risk, OK

-Within range to hit the house if toppled but healthy free standing tree, seems low risk, but:

I see dust, like saw dust, at the base, now I see holes, ant holes and..........WOW a HUGH carpenter ant infestation. I could see holes in the trunk as far up as I could see. (Last photo is eye level.)

Clearly a not so healthy tree and actually a severe risk to the home!

The ants had to be exterminated first. Taking the tree down with out destroying the insects first risks inducing a mass migration into the house.

Second the near walls opened and examined by a specialist for ant colonies and extermination done as required. Third the compromised tree has to be taken down. I recommended the wood be removed from the property (Ants can live in and re-infest fire wood just fine, thank you).

So this picturesque beautiful tree that looked so healthy was actually a big threat to this home.

Barbara Todaro is a class act, and on top of that, she knows what she's doing.

My broker, JJ Jacobs, was contacted by a vendor who had about 65 acres of land that he wanted to sell. JJ explained that she didn't normally sell land, but that she had a Montreal West Island real estate agent Tanya Nouwens who might be interested in taking this on. (My broker is very generous that way.) Would I be interested? Um, yeah!

We met with the vendors, toured the gorgeous waterfront lots, -- which are located in Les Cèdres, on the outskirts of Montreal -- and decided we all felt good with each other and about the project. The vendors asked me to prepare a proposal so that they could weigh their options.

And so, as part of my homework, I contacted Barbara Todaro, the queen of selling land and working with developers. Barbara spent the better part of a Friday afternoon kindly and generously answering my questions, providing feedback, sharing strategy and overall just being an amazing advisor (as was my broker).

Well, I prepared the proposal, and got the deal! And I couldn't be happier. Not just because I got the deal, but, more importantly, because I have a strategy for SELLING the property!

Now I'm off to prepare the listings. I'll be blogging about this project in the weeks to come. It's a unique opportunity for an off-island development on the water, close to Montreal, on unspoiled land. The potential here is amazing.

Thank you Barbara. You're the best.