Locked in place - Come to the Gulf and help for you will then know of the post-Katrina syndrome.
The volunteer related her story, "We showed up and looked at the house. The house had lost its roof and there was a lot of water damage. Mr. Hargrove had the roof fixed so at least things were dry. It was chocked full of stuff. It was hard to see how the family moved around. It looked like nothing had moved since all this was placed here after Katrina. Furniture, boxes stacked around and unmoved for the last three and one-half years. We had opened the door to a small room of the kitchen and looked in. It was the laundry room. It hadn’t been opened since the roof was put back on the house. It was terrible. All sorts of critters had been using the space. There was dirt and filth all around inside it."
We asked if we could start moving things in order to work on his ceilings and Mr. Hargrove said "ok.”
Mr. Hargrove watched the crew moving his belongings for a while and then spoke up, “Let me help.”
He started in with an activity he probably hadn’t shown since 2005. Surprisingly he opened the laundry room and started dragging out stuff and throwing it out in a pile in the yard. Before we left for the day he had it emptied of all the wasted things and had cleaned off and wiped down the first shelf I n the cabinet over the washer.
Louise is a dedicated single mother. She had just adopted her two pre-school grandchildren. She had her significant other live in a house where only a living room (garage conversion), bath and one bedroom for her and her significant other live. The other parts of the house still are damaged from Katrina. The dining room and living room are full of what belongings they saved from Katrina and so full as to b unusable. Her “significant other” is handicapped; he had a stroke a while back.
We left them with a fully restored home. I dropped off a lot of Christmas gifts given to me for that purpose by from Northside Presbyterian Church.
Mrs. P, working part time in D’Iberville with three children. The house is virtually empty of furniture. The house needed repainting, roof fixed, eliminate water inflow into the rear of the house from that roof problem. We did it all, and she was our first home blessing.
Mr. and Mrs. Pearson are in a bind, their house wasn’t even 25% restored when I met them. They has lost large sums of money on disreputable contractors and had some construction problems I only had a bare idea of how to fix. We managed to get a Salvation Army grant and with the help of CARE, a Pennsylvania Mennonite relief group we rebuild that construction problem. Last week my good friends from Fountain City Presbyterian Church, on their 13th trip down and 56th house, dry walled 95% of the house. A good crew from Youngstown is finishing what remains this week. It is looking like we will get them into their house soon.
Mr. & Mrs. Seale were living in a molding, 100 yr old home in Gulfport. We successfully got funding and with some of our own resources stripped the home to studs and refinished it. It has taken six months but we should have gotten a certificate of occupancy yesterday or today. We’ve become good friends and I’ve learned lot about the dedication of a son to his parents.
Preaching at Trinity PC in Fairhope was my first foray into ministry. I still remember the lady who walked up with a check for our mission effort that I thought was for $500 but was for $5,000.
I can’t get the woman with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease out of my mind. She lives in a mobile home without central heat, spent $30,000 of her FEMA money of a new home, her children and this worthless mobile home. The man never delivered the new home - she paid cash. Her caseworker doesn’t like her so she gets no access to even the little public resource that might be available.
I remember the majestic home on thirteen foot piers that is slowly crushing the supporting girders holding the house on the piers, yet the owner, caught between insurance company fraudulent contractor and MEMA insisting on taking his cottage back insists on moving in rather than letting us fix the problem before the next major storm that may destroy the house.
There were the days on the bayou out at Jimmy’s home, eating shrimp or crawfish and talking about what we had done in Pearlington and where the future may lead.
There are the special people I’ve met as village staff, Heather, Jeremy, Leslie, Mark, Michelle, Jessi, Michael and others. There are the volunteers from Philadelphia, New York, Ohio, Minnesota, Arkansas, Davison, Virginia and North Carolina.
There is the group from Utah led by a pastor’s wife who announced, “I won’t work on that house, it is nicer than my own,” and whose youth volunteers apologized for the behavior of the adults.
There is the fellow in Pascagoula whose kitchen floor and bedroom walls we repaired who brought us po-boy shrimp and crawfish sandwiches for lunch and who wrote us checks every week for offering from his meager social security, a giving of proportion probably greater than almost any of us give. He would apologize if the check were late.
There is Larry who helped me learn more about Pearlington so I could figure out when I was helping good folks and who to watch out.
I helped as we struggled to set up our efforts for Ike relief in the Galveston area.
There has been the outpouring of support from my church, Northside, and the rock and roll effort to apply and gain admittance into seminary.
There has been for me the most profound humiliation by my pride as I watch and help people who by all rights should have given up; a humiliation of us as a people as we fail to really work to help those in need as I drive down US49 or I-10 and read the billboards advertising the next big entertainer or music group or the loosest slots in town.
There has been for me an assurance, a reaffirmation of the goodness of humankind as I see the suffering show more bravery and hope than I have mustered, as I see volunteers return as changed lives.
And finally, I heard someone in Louisville say ruefully last week as staff reductions were discussed, “You aren’t in the Presbyterian Church you were born into.” I see a glimmer of hope that this church is being changed by these volunteers and the needy they help into something more than the “church we were born into” as they live the Good News Jesus preached.
Showing posts with label Pearlington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pearlington. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Day 349 – The Chief End of Humankind – Pearlington Update
This is an update on the status of our church-wide stewardship to Pearlington, Mississippi and surrounding area. Volunteers at Pearlington serve by working on homes from lower Pearl River County, and in the County of Hancock from Kiln, Bay St. Louis/Waveland to Pearlington itself. At times we also work on homes across the Pearl River towards Slidell, LA.
In the area of Pearlington itself we work on homes that are served by a number of aid and construction partners in addition to PDA. These groups are Pearlington Recovery Center, located at the old Charles B. Martin Elementary School, the Mennonites working under a group called CARE, Baptist affiliated groups and individual church groups who have made Pearlington a primary focus for their mission, an example being Fountain City Presbyterian Church in the Knoxville, TN area.
Some of these groups have been funded by grants. The Pearlington Recovery Center, the longest standing organization, loses its funding May 31 and will no longer be operating after that date. The Baptist recovery organization disbanded this winter. The Mennonites are still here but working out of Bay St. Louis. The Fountain City group, bless them have been coming 3-4 times per year since Katrina hit. I owe them thanks because they led me here.
A few independent volunteer groups such as Fountain City are still coming down. The Philadelphia Presbytery still has a commitment to work with us until we meet the needs in Pearlington. The Arknasas Presbytery is assembling groups of churches in a commitment to follow through on one home until it is completed by year's end. PDA is committed to working at Pearlington at our Village until October, 2009.
A number of factors will influence PDA’s decision to remain or close our village at that time. Our rent has increased therefore it costs more to support volunteers, and our volunteer numbers are dropping which significantly increases that effect. We operate our village under a temporary use permit that must be renewed annually by the County of Hancock. We have encountered some resistance to renewing that permit from local contractors, some of whom are on the board that approves the use.
This worry is really misplaced since the majority of these home owners can’t afford contracted services. In fact, fraudulent contracted services are the cause of much of the heartache in the whole Mississippi area. The bottom line at this point in my unofficial opinion is that PDA will seek to keep running our mission in Pearlington at some location as long as there is a robust flow of volunteers, funds and work to do.
For the most part the future of recovery of Pearlington, and the Gulf, is in your hands.
Is there a need for volunteer effort? The short answer is yes.
PRC has twelve homes under construction. It looks like six of them are in pretty good shape after PRC closes on June 1. The other six however need help or they may not get completed.
There is one home in Pearl River County that is caught up in an alleged fraud by one of the local aid groups and left only as a framed-in shell. The owners are a young man and wife with several very young children, including one who has had operations for a heart problem. They lost everything through Katrina and he is trying to complete the house through loans and what money he can glean from what is left from his pay after taking care of his family expenses, a family. They need help.
As I get into the actual casework, I am finding many unmet needs in Waveland. Historically we haven’t paid a lot of attention to Waveland and Bay St. Louis but these two incorporated cities were hit as badly as Pearlington. There is a lot of socio-economic stratification in these two towns and the poor are being crushed under the hard boot heel of some of the well-to-do in those towns who seem to desire that part of the population go away.
Whether that attitude comes from a pecuniary interest or just the "not in my backyard" mindset, it deserves our resistance through our aid. I apologize for my strong language but this is what I read in the newspapers and hear said by community advocates who are longstanding residents.
There are many more homes that are being repaired. We call these “rehabs.” Between PRC and PDA I estimate there are about eighty known homeowners (perhaps about 150-300 people) who either can’t live in their homes, are living in them but shouldn’t, are in marginally livable situations, or are in homes that have had minimal repairs and can be lived in but repairs are not completed.
In the face of limited volunteers we are in a mode where we have to set job priority on a “triage” basis that takes into account dire need, number of volunteers and skill level of volunteers. Although I will protect the confidentiality of these clients, I can give you some idea of these needs.
There is single mother who has four children living separately from her and who is living in a MEMA (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency) cottage that must be repossessed by the end of March. She has to work and is also trying to keep one of her teenaged girls out of trouble.
There is a couple in Pearlington who have been bilked out of tens of thousands of dollars by dishonest contractors. The husband has a serious chronic illness and the wife is struggling to carry on the repair work through us. They face an undetermined eviction from their MEMA cottage in the next month or two. We have had to dismantle a large part of the faulty construction of this home by one of those contractors. By the Grace of God we have found aid from the Mennonites on this construction and re-roofing, and hopefully the Fountain City crew will help make a dent in the drywall job so we can get them in a real home.
There is another couple in the same boat. They live in a MEMA cottage and their house has been almost completed when we found gross construction defects by contractor with fraudulent credentials that must be repaired to prevent structural failure.
There is a single mother who has had very extreme, difficult and threatening spousal problems. Living under that dark cloud she has several pre-school and elementary aged children whose small modular home needs repair just to have a small piece of safe, peaceful existence to rebuild her family’s life.
There are many other homes in the Pearlington area among those eighty that need partial repair. If we leave with this work undone, we do not know how, when or if the work will be completed.
If we had commitments from churches to provide 75 volunteers from now through October, only for fifty percent of the open days we would probably have enough support to fight to carry on until this mission work is done hopefully in 2010 and be able to reflect positively on the answer to first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (inclusive language in italics is mine) :
Q. What is the chief end of humankind? A. Humankind’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
In the area of Pearlington itself we work on homes that are served by a number of aid and construction partners in addition to PDA. These groups are Pearlington Recovery Center, located at the old Charles B. Martin Elementary School, the Mennonites working under a group called CARE, Baptist affiliated groups and individual church groups who have made Pearlington a primary focus for their mission, an example being Fountain City Presbyterian Church in the Knoxville, TN area.
Some of these groups have been funded by grants. The Pearlington Recovery Center, the longest standing organization, loses its funding May 31 and will no longer be operating after that date. The Baptist recovery organization disbanded this winter. The Mennonites are still here but working out of Bay St. Louis. The Fountain City group, bless them have been coming 3-4 times per year since Katrina hit. I owe them thanks because they led me here.
A few independent volunteer groups such as Fountain City are still coming down. The Philadelphia Presbytery still has a commitment to work with us until we meet the needs in Pearlington. The Arknasas Presbytery is assembling groups of churches in a commitment to follow through on one home until it is completed by year's end. PDA is committed to working at Pearlington at our Village until October, 2009.
A number of factors will influence PDA’s decision to remain or close our village at that time. Our rent has increased therefore it costs more to support volunteers, and our volunteer numbers are dropping which significantly increases that effect. We operate our village under a temporary use permit that must be renewed annually by the County of Hancock. We have encountered some resistance to renewing that permit from local contractors, some of whom are on the board that approves the use.
This worry is really misplaced since the majority of these home owners can’t afford contracted services. In fact, fraudulent contracted services are the cause of much of the heartache in the whole Mississippi area. The bottom line at this point in my unofficial opinion is that PDA will seek to keep running our mission in Pearlington at some location as long as there is a robust flow of volunteers, funds and work to do.
For the most part the future of recovery of Pearlington, and the Gulf, is in your hands.
Is there a need for volunteer effort? The short answer is yes.
PRC has twelve homes under construction. It looks like six of them are in pretty good shape after PRC closes on June 1. The other six however need help or they may not get completed.
There is one home in Pearl River County that is caught up in an alleged fraud by one of the local aid groups and left only as a framed-in shell. The owners are a young man and wife with several very young children, including one who has had operations for a heart problem. They lost everything through Katrina and he is trying to complete the house through loans and what money he can glean from what is left from his pay after taking care of his family expenses, a family. They need help.
As I get into the actual casework, I am finding many unmet needs in Waveland. Historically we haven’t paid a lot of attention to Waveland and Bay St. Louis but these two incorporated cities were hit as badly as Pearlington. There is a lot of socio-economic stratification in these two towns and the poor are being crushed under the hard boot heel of some of the well-to-do in those towns who seem to desire that part of the population go away.
Whether that attitude comes from a pecuniary interest or just the "not in my backyard" mindset, it deserves our resistance through our aid. I apologize for my strong language but this is what I read in the newspapers and hear said by community advocates who are longstanding residents.
There are many more homes that are being repaired. We call these “rehabs.” Between PRC and PDA I estimate there are about eighty known homeowners (perhaps about 150-300 people) who either can’t live in their homes, are living in them but shouldn’t, are in marginally livable situations, or are in homes that have had minimal repairs and can be lived in but repairs are not completed.
In the face of limited volunteers we are in a mode where we have to set job priority on a “triage” basis that takes into account dire need, number of volunteers and skill level of volunteers. Although I will protect the confidentiality of these clients, I can give you some idea of these needs.
There is single mother who has four children living separately from her and who is living in a MEMA (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency) cottage that must be repossessed by the end of March. She has to work and is also trying to keep one of her teenaged girls out of trouble.
There is a couple in Pearlington who have been bilked out of tens of thousands of dollars by dishonest contractors. The husband has a serious chronic illness and the wife is struggling to carry on the repair work through us. They face an undetermined eviction from their MEMA cottage in the next month or two. We have had to dismantle a large part of the faulty construction of this home by one of those contractors. By the Grace of God we have found aid from the Mennonites on this construction and re-roofing, and hopefully the Fountain City crew will help make a dent in the drywall job so we can get them in a real home.
There is another couple in the same boat. They live in a MEMA cottage and their house has been almost completed when we found gross construction defects by contractor with fraudulent credentials that must be repaired to prevent structural failure.
There is a single mother who has had very extreme, difficult and threatening spousal problems. Living under that dark cloud she has several pre-school and elementary aged children whose small modular home needs repair just to have a small piece of safe, peaceful existence to rebuild her family’s life.
There are many other homes in the Pearlington area among those eighty that need partial repair. If we leave with this work undone, we do not know how, when or if the work will be completed.
If we had commitments from churches to provide 75 volunteers from now through October, only for fifty percent of the open days we would probably have enough support to fight to carry on until this mission work is done hopefully in 2010 and be able to reflect positively on the answer to first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (inclusive language in italics is mine) :
Q. What is the chief end of humankind? A. Humankind’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Day 318 - You've Gotta Walk that Lonesome Valley...
I've been driving back and forth between Orange Grove and Pearlington a lot lately, and also driving all over Gulfport working very hard trying to plan completion of our open cases in Gulfport/Pascagoula or arrange a smooth transition for them when we close the operations the end of April.
I know the background stress has been apparent in my recent writings to some of you readers, but candor is a good thing. (I'm working out at the gym pretty hard, and prayerfully thinking, so rest easy.) My friend Heather has an interesting, relevant reflection today.
I'm taking a long trip tomorrow, traveling to Austin to visit Austin Theological Seminary through the weekend, then next Thursday to Atlanta to visit Columbia Theological Seminary. After that it is going to be a continuous march in Orange Grove as we entertain and direct up to 110 volunteers per week. Amongst all that I have to deal with taxes and financial aid applications.
"Financial aid applications? What do you mean?"
The news came in the mail saturday before Super Bowl from Union Theological Seminary and School of Christian Education in Richmond just as I was leaving for Trinity PC in Fairhope, Alabama. I've been accepted for admission! If With my luck, I'll be accepted at Austin and Columbia and have the difficult quandary to decide.
So, it looks as if a new path opens on this journey.
I know the background stress has been apparent in my recent writings to some of you readers, but candor is a good thing. (I'm working out at the gym pretty hard, and prayerfully thinking, so rest easy.) My friend Heather has an interesting, relevant reflection today.
I'm taking a long trip tomorrow, traveling to Austin to visit Austin Theological Seminary through the weekend, then next Thursday to Atlanta to visit Columbia Theological Seminary. After that it is going to be a continuous march in Orange Grove as we entertain and direct up to 110 volunteers per week. Amongst all that I have to deal with taxes and financial aid applications.
"Financial aid applications? What do you mean?"
The news came in the mail saturday before Super Bowl from Union Theological Seminary and School of Christian Education in Richmond just as I was leaving for Trinity PC in Fairhope, Alabama. I've been accepted for admission! If With my luck, I'll be accepted at Austin and Columbia and have the difficult quandary to decide.
So, it looks as if a new path opens on this journey.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Day 315 - Good Day Sunshine
Well today was a mix of good and difficult as usual. One nice thing about this work is you usually get a bit of good to brighten the bit of darkness in the day, sort of a sweet and sour situation.
It was a rushed day though, I had to help get some things straightened out in Texas, help an associate pull together some statistics on cases we've closed for headquarters, had to go by a client's house in Gulfport to pick up some left over materials and get them back to the village, and drive to Pearlington for the above and to pick up paint swatches for a client in Gulfport that got carried to Pearlington by mistake - and then I stopped by the gym to ride the stationary bike for 40 minutes.
I went over to oversee the removal of a roof on the poor woman's home who has ben so seriously taken advantage of in Pearlington. It is a hard problem. It looks like she may file a complaint with the attorney general - maybe that will do something.
I got a call late in the day from a member of the Hancock County Resource Committee. He was asking about a case in Bay Saint Louis that his records indicate we are the work partner. It was late in the day and I didn't recognize the name, it may date back over a year.
It was a compliment for my organization to be called, it takes a while to build confidence in this local community.
Also, keep our friend Jeremy in your prayers as he struggles with an illness.
Grace and Peace.
It was a rushed day though, I had to help get some things straightened out in Texas, help an associate pull together some statistics on cases we've closed for headquarters, had to go by a client's house in Gulfport to pick up some left over materials and get them back to the village, and drive to Pearlington for the above and to pick up paint swatches for a client in Gulfport that got carried to Pearlington by mistake - and then I stopped by the gym to ride the stationary bike for 40 minutes.
I went over to oversee the removal of a roof on the poor woman's home who has ben so seriously taken advantage of in Pearlington. It is a hard problem. It looks like she may file a complaint with the attorney general - maybe that will do something.
I got a call late in the day from a member of the Hancock County Resource Committee. He was asking about a case in Bay Saint Louis that his records indicate we are the work partner. It was late in the day and I didn't recognize the name, it may date back over a year.
It was a compliment for my organization to be called, it takes a while to build confidence in this local community.
Also, keep our friend Jeremy in your prayers as he struggles with an illness.
Grace and Peace.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Day 251 - Chewing Nails
Well, the saga of two homes in Pearlington continues. The owners of both homes are suffering from what in my opinion is purely thievery by contractors. Perhaps I should not be so harsh with one of them, he may just be uninformed and lacking good sense. How he responds to the recommended repair I obtain will tell the tale.
These two stories show you an ugly side of humanity. They show how easy it is for the trusting soul to be duped and mis-spend a lot, emphasis, a lot of money.
Case 1 is a new home built up on piers, about twelve-thirteen feet. It is a beautiful house partly funded by some of our volunteers. After we returned from Gustav and began inspecting the house with the help of our great New York City team we realized the supporting girders under the exterior load bearing exterior walls are crushing! Why?
A close look shows that the builder, using very strong, engineered truss-girders for the floor, extended them out to where the exterior load bearing beams should be. Rather that using the called out doubled 2x12 LVL's (laminated veneer lumber) for the exterior load girder he just used a single floor truss. On top of that, on both ends of the house, he improperly cut one of the girders which weakens them seriously.
A single girder constructed of 2x4’s is holding the entire load bearing exterior walls, essentially at least half the entire load of the house. Both front and rear girders are crushing slowly. The New York team, bless them, installed a temporary 2x12 support beam under the crushing girders that provides some arresting relief.
I decided not to hazard a self-generated solution but to bring in a PE (professional engineer) for formal assessment and recommendation for repair. While he was there we discovered not only verification of our assessment of the seriousness of the damage, but that the builder had installed some girders upside down with the surface clearly labeled TOP in large black letters facing down!
Afterwards, I received a concerned call from the PE firm asking that we immediately also install some temporary 4x4 piers under the 2x12 along with a second 2x12 until they can provide a formal solution. We will do that Monday or Tuesday, as soon as I get back to the coast.
Talking with the owner I find the builder was not even a licensed contractor, he was using another contractor's number. I think he is in jail now. Great, we will get no relief from him.
I've written a little about Case 2 earlier. Perhaps this situation is even worse. The husband has been quite ill most of the last six months and has not been able even to provide comments.
The wife of the owner has been living on site and engaging various "contractors" to do plumbing, build exterior porch roofs and re-roof the house. I find it hard to describe these “contractors” as any thing more than “good old boys” but even the term “good” tries one’s patience.
A couple of months ago I had visited and assessed the cost to rebuild this home and asked, if not begged the lady not to engage contractors without checking with me until we got the funding situation clarified. Then Gustav came and went. A month ago I drive up and see that she has paid a man to put on a new roof and a local "handy man" to build an extensive porch roof around three of the four sides of the house.
As I looked from the road I saw the newly shingled roof still had a saddleback look, plus the porch roof has such a low pitch the building code (and instructions on roofing) say no way to a shingled roof. On top of that, from the road it is clear that the porch roof on the north side has a negative slope, running water towards the house.
No roofer in his right mind would put a roof on this house in this condition except to bleed money from the home owner. The whole roof is going to have to be removed to repair the damage.
But the problem is deeper. This "handyman" built the roof by attaching the roof rafters to the fascia boards on the existing roof! Furthermore he employed very large spans using undersized 2x6 rafters and joists. The rafters are bowed and eventually the fascia boards will pull loose and the roof will separate from the house.
The problem grows even deeper. As I inspected the gabled porch roof on the south side of the house I realize he has built a gabled roof without employing any truss structure, just pairs of 2x6 rafters span the space, their ends tied into one of the 2x6 rafters that is itself tied to the fasica boards on one end and sitting on an exterior vertical post on the other end. The unsupported gable rafters are opening up laterally by pushing that 2x6 off the post, it has less than another inch to go.
I could ramble on more technical detail about remaining problems associated with this porch roof, the roofing job on the house and the crummy way these two local boy have abused this woman. But I will not. I imagine she has spent more on the house than would be required to build from scratch.
I'm expecting the PE to validate my thinking, the only solution is to tear off the porch roof and the roofing and redo the whole darn thing. I'm guessing it is going to be expensive.
I remember the PE’s question. “What do you guys do down here, go around and fix these kind of bad construction jobs?” I didn’t say yes, but for a lot of our clients that is the appropriate answer. Disaster brings out the best and the worst in people.
It was all I could do to talk to her and her husband about this with the PE after we finished our inspection. I finally repeated what I'd begged earlier, "Please don't let Mr. H do any more work on this house."
Once I have the PE assessment and solution in hand I intend to talk to Mr. H. Then we will see what manner of integrity he has.
I remember an infrequently used, and therefore effectively imprinted usage of my mother. I always thought it a remarkable expression for the context she used it. It is certainly apropos here.
These guys make me so mad I could chew nails.
These two stories show you an ugly side of humanity. They show how easy it is for the trusting soul to be duped and mis-spend a lot, emphasis, a lot of money.
Case 1 is a new home built up on piers, about twelve-thirteen feet. It is a beautiful house partly funded by some of our volunteers. After we returned from Gustav and began inspecting the house with the help of our great New York City team we realized the supporting girders under the exterior load bearing exterior walls are crushing! Why?
A close look shows that the builder, using very strong, engineered truss-girders for the floor, extended them out to where the exterior load bearing beams should be. Rather that using the called out doubled 2x12 LVL's (laminated veneer lumber) for the exterior load girder he just used a single floor truss. On top of that, on both ends of the house, he improperly cut one of the girders which weakens them seriously.
A single girder constructed of 2x4’s is holding the entire load bearing exterior walls, essentially at least half the entire load of the house. Both front and rear girders are crushing slowly. The New York team, bless them, installed a temporary 2x12 support beam under the crushing girders that provides some arresting relief.
I decided not to hazard a self-generated solution but to bring in a PE (professional engineer) for formal assessment and recommendation for repair. While he was there we discovered not only verification of our assessment of the seriousness of the damage, but that the builder had installed some girders upside down with the surface clearly labeled TOP in large black letters facing down!
Afterwards, I received a concerned call from the PE firm asking that we immediately also install some temporary 4x4 piers under the 2x12 along with a second 2x12 until they can provide a formal solution. We will do that Monday or Tuesday, as soon as I get back to the coast.
Talking with the owner I find the builder was not even a licensed contractor, he was using another contractor's number. I think he is in jail now. Great, we will get no relief from him.
I've written a little about Case 2 earlier. Perhaps this situation is even worse. The husband has been quite ill most of the last six months and has not been able even to provide comments.
The wife of the owner has been living on site and engaging various "contractors" to do plumbing, build exterior porch roofs and re-roof the house. I find it hard to describe these “contractors” as any thing more than “good old boys” but even the term “good” tries one’s patience.
A couple of months ago I had visited and assessed the cost to rebuild this home and asked, if not begged the lady not to engage contractors without checking with me until we got the funding situation clarified. Then Gustav came and went. A month ago I drive up and see that she has paid a man to put on a new roof and a local "handy man" to build an extensive porch roof around three of the four sides of the house.
As I looked from the road I saw the newly shingled roof still had a saddleback look, plus the porch roof has such a low pitch the building code (and instructions on roofing) say no way to a shingled roof. On top of that, from the road it is clear that the porch roof on the north side has a negative slope, running water towards the house.
No roofer in his right mind would put a roof on this house in this condition except to bleed money from the home owner. The whole roof is going to have to be removed to repair the damage.
But the problem is deeper. This "handyman" built the roof by attaching the roof rafters to the fascia boards on the existing roof! Furthermore he employed very large spans using undersized 2x6 rafters and joists. The rafters are bowed and eventually the fascia boards will pull loose and the roof will separate from the house.
The problem grows even deeper. As I inspected the gabled porch roof on the south side of the house I realize he has built a gabled roof without employing any truss structure, just pairs of 2x6 rafters span the space, their ends tied into one of the 2x6 rafters that is itself tied to the fasica boards on one end and sitting on an exterior vertical post on the other end. The unsupported gable rafters are opening up laterally by pushing that 2x6 off the post, it has less than another inch to go.
I could ramble on more technical detail about remaining problems associated with this porch roof, the roofing job on the house and the crummy way these two local boy have abused this woman. But I will not. I imagine she has spent more on the house than would be required to build from scratch.
I'm expecting the PE to validate my thinking, the only solution is to tear off the porch roof and the roofing and redo the whole darn thing. I'm guessing it is going to be expensive.
I remember the PE’s question. “What do you guys do down here, go around and fix these kind of bad construction jobs?” I didn’t say yes, but for a lot of our clients that is the appropriate answer. Disaster brings out the best and the worst in people.
It was all I could do to talk to her and her husband about this with the PE after we finished our inspection. I finally repeated what I'd begged earlier, "Please don't let Mr. H do any more work on this house."
Once I have the PE assessment and solution in hand I intend to talk to Mr. H. Then we will see what manner of integrity he has.
I remember an infrequently used, and therefore effectively imprinted usage of my mother. I always thought it a remarkable expression for the context she used it. It is certainly apropos here.
These guys make me so mad I could chew nails.
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