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hunanmom

Home inspector vs. contractor opinions

hunanmom
10 years ago

Who would you believe?

The buyers for our house had it inspected a little less than two weeks ago; the inspection came back fairly clean - except for the siding. The inspector said there was moisture damage in two places, one on either side of the house (siding is T1-11). Our agent (who was representing both us and the buyer) met us after the inspection and told us that ALL the siding needed to be removed and replaced, and the whole house repainted.

My husband and I were in shock. We had showed the agent the siding before we listed and knew it needed repairs to fix nail pops and some caulking that had discolored or fallen off, and the house had been priced accordingly. But the paint was otherwise in good shape, there was no mold or fungus, no blistering, bulging or warping, no moisture inside the house, etc.- nothing to indicate moisture intrusion. We of course did not see the inspection report to know where the damage was or what it looked like, but because of the insistence of our agent assumed it must be there.

Our agent brought out her siding contractor to give us a bid. He only looked at one side of the house, never said a word to us, or showed us where the damage was. He spoke with the agent, and sent her a bid for $13K. The painting bid was an additional $1900.

The buyers asked us to have all the siding redone and repainted before they would close. We said that we would only offer a credit at closing or reduce the sale price, but our agent said they would walk. We said fine; we would pay, but would not be responsible for overseeing that level of repair. It's also the wrong time of year to reside, and painting could be delayed until the spring, leaving us with a house off the market, and buyers that could still walk at any time.

Our agent decided to get another couple of bids. She called one siding and painting contractor; we called another. Both are highly rated, recommended by Angie's List, etc. The contractor she called came first, walked the perimeter of the house and said there was absolutely no moisture damage. We had no idea what the inspector was basing his claim on so couldn't show him anything, but this contractor walked around the house three times and looked carefully at everything and said no, no moisture damage at all. He was completely baffled by what the inspector had seen to indicate a full-reside. All that was needed was a re-nail, re-caulk and re-paint. He would guarantee his work.

The second contractor, the one we called, came later in the day, and our agent also was there this time. This contractor went over the whole house and got the same result - no moisture damage at all. He asked to see the inspector's report to see what the inspector was talking about because he couldn't find anything. We were shocked to see for the first time that the damage the inspector was referring to were just two 5" sections of edge along the bottom of two panels mid-way up the side of the house - one on each side. The contractor told the agent that what the inspector was seeing was not moisture damage but two areas where siding had either been lightly dropped while being hung or while in the warehouse, or possibly been hit with a hammer. He also showed the agent the two absolute first places moisture damage should have occurred but hadn't: in the garage vent that had been cut through the siding, leaving compromised edges, and where the siding met the deck in back of the house. Neither place showed any moisture damage or intrusion.

Based on what we heard from these two independent contractors, we offered to have the siding renailed, recaulked and repainted. The buyers still wanted us to have a siding panel pulled off to check underneath, but we said no - we were not opening up the siding to allow any moisture in (it's currently very damp and rainy here). We were not going to break something that wasn't broken to make sure it wasn't broken. So, they backed out, believing the inspector and the first contractor; they never spoke with the other two contractors.

We have read everything we can find about what moisture intrusion/damage looks like in T1-11, what signs to look for, what symptoms we should be having, etc. and can find nothing that indicates that we have a moisture problem or even a potential problem. We are going to have the siding renailed, recaulked and the whole house repainted, and will re-list after the first of the year.

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