Expert: Bruce E. Johnson - 11/19/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi. We are looking to buy a house that had a 2-car garage that was destroyed by a tree that fell on it. The original owners took the insurance money and ran and left the house in foreclosure. I wanted to know if this is something that is cost prohibitive enough that we should just forget about it or with this having an existing slab will it make it affordable to re-build the 2-car garage. Any clue what we might be looking at ball park to rebuild the entire garage? There are electrical wires that are capped hanging from the house and there are two water spigots out there too. Oh, and there is one wall still standing that needs to be torn down. Not sure if that will cost a ton or not. By the way, we are in Maryland. Thanks so much. I just don't want to jump into a money pit and don't want to pay for contractors to look at it if it is a hugely expensive deal. Thanks!

ANSWER: Hi Denise, figure around 40-50 dollars a square foot for a job like this.  It may vary a few bucks one way or the other. Call around and talk to some contractors and get some ball park pricing to go by and then add a few bucks on top of that for miscellaneous. Also it might behoove you to have a home inspector or engineer look at the rest of the house for other damage.  A trauma like this can affect the entire structure.  Look for windows and doors that don't open or close, strange drywall cracking, things like that.  I hope this information helps feel free to write again regarding this or other matters, sincerely bruce e johnson..bejohnsonconsulting.com

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Holy cow--now that you mention it I saw a gap from floor to ceiling in the dining room that looked like someone grabbed a wire and just ripped it out of the wall. I figured there was some sort of electrical thing they wanted to take with and didn't care how they got it. The people were none too kind to the rest of the house so it didn't surprise me, but now that you say that--ugh. I guess my follow up question would be--what kind of repair could we be looking at if it did indeed have structural damage to other parts of the house--is that like ripping off room kind of repair or spackle and paint kind of repair. Thanks for the follow up!

Answer
Hi again Denise, it depends.  If the impact on the house caused the framing to shift out of plumb (vertical level) then there may be no way to fix it short of ripping off all the plywood sheathing and shifting it all back into level again.  That would be obvious by the windows and doors not working properly or wall tile in the bathrooms being cracked..That type of thing.  It wouldn't hurt to walk around the house with a level and see what the walls look like.   I would caution that unless you are getting a reeeeeeaaaaaaaallllllyyyy good deal on this place it may not be worth the efffort.  I hope this information helps feel free to write again regarding this or other matters, sincerely bruce e johnson..bejohnsonconsulting.com