BIG BUDGET BUSTER got to have whole house replumbed (long)

[dyna]

Bit of background... Last September DH decided to retire an move to FL he bought a doublewide moble home over the internet for 10,000 sight unseen.
We came down in late Oct to see the home other than being smaller than listed as it was everything we wanted. (Once we got moved in house was big enough) We came down between Thanksgiving an Christmas to clean the place up an brought some of our stuff. Still no surprises. Went home for Christmas an to get the rest of our stuff an was back in our new home in time to ring in the new year.

Mid Sept our AP's for disney ran out we upgraded to Premium Florida Resident AP's...this was our anniversary gift to each other for our 35th anniversary in Jan....a rather large gift for those on a fixed income.

2 weeks ago I found a damp spot in floor of our guest bedroom an the floor is bubbling up. We go hunting for water leak can not find it. few days later i fell the thru the floor. GOOD thing the carpet was good an it held or I could have been hurt.

On monday DH called plumber who happened to be in the area headed to another job an said he'd be here in 30 mins. Found my leak in 5 mins it was hot water pipe.....(NO wonder electric bill was so high this month hot water heater was running all the time....disadvantage I lost my instant hot water)
30 min fix 125.00 not bad for a plumber who came within mins of being called.

Now to call the floor man an have floor fixed. He came gave estimate an said to stand bed upagainst the wall to give him room to work. We took bed out of room. When the floor man man came to do the floor an pulled carpet back he found another leak an hole in floor that with the bed there we would have never found. 250.00 2 spots in floor patched an it was a full days work.

Called the plumber back he fixed the leak this time comin from bathtub drain an put in new drain. 300.00

Carpet man was called to reattch the carpet an stretch carpet. He also fixed a spot that was coming loose between kichen an entry way. Put down new pad in the half of room that had been wet. 95.00

All the work was done 2 days ago. DH had the plumber leave the underpinning off an was going to do a bit of clean up work under the house oh an had an electrical outlet that needed a bit of work (DH is retired certified electrican).

DH went out yesterday mornin to do his thing under house had his extra powerful flashlight....WAIT WHAT WAS THAT? OHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! WATER SHOULD NOT BE COMMING FROM THERE!!!!
YEP YET ANOTHER LEAK!!!!!!!

Called plumber back again. We got to have all new pipes put in, new shut off valves etc 1,500.00

Not to mention that I went to dentist this past week need a new crown, then I had to go to DR with my back. So much for being Debt free...

 

[sharonmickey]

So sorry!

 

[C.Ann]

I'm sorry..

But try to look at it this way - you only paid $10,000 for a home in Florida - the place you want to be.. Even if you have to dish out another $5,000, that's quite a bargain..

Frustrating for sure, but I think you're extremely lucky that you got something decent - sight unseen - for that amount..

Could you hold off on the crown for a little longer?

Go spend the day in Disney.. Maybe that will cheer you up..

 

[figment3258]

I am so sorry

I know what you are going through. This summer my husband tore down part of our kitchen celing because there was a logic water spots from the upstairs tub leaking, hd the Plummer come out fixed the leak 175$ plus my dh spent 50$ just to patch the hole not to mention now the whole ceiling needs to be replaced fast forward a month leaking again call him back 300$ later fixed. Now we were just about to fix the ceiling and what should happen it's leaking again! ugh hang in there!

 

[dyna]

CAnn NO we did not go wrong on house ...house was even furnished we did go buy us a new bed beds left was only full sized an we wanted queen. Then I traded a bed for another dresser.

I need to use the rest of my insurance money by the end of the year or I loose it plus I got more work that is already on the list for next year. The saving grace is dental insurance is FREE so just got to come up with the 20% that insurance does not cover.

I'm goin over to the MK for awhile today wanna a tshirt from the actual 40th anniversary. Would have liked to been there very early but DH is not a morning person an wants to see fireworks tonight. I hear it is already very very crowded maybe some of the early birds will get tired an go home.

 

[scrapquitler]

I'm sorry..

But try to look at it this way - you only paid $10,000 for a home in Florida - the place you want to be.. Even if you have to dish out another $5,000, that's quite a bargain..

Frustrating for sure, but I think you're extremely lucky that you got something decent - sight unseen - for that amount..

Could you hold off on the crown for a little longer?

Go spend the day in Disney.. Maybe that will cheer you up..

I agree with C.Ann...Its a bummer that you have to fix these things, but in the scheme of it, you've got a bargain (as long as you don't keep finding more problems). And the best part is that you can go to DIsney to relax anytime you want!

It might be worth spending a couple hundred bucks and getting a building inspector to come look at the place to make sure there aren't any other hidden surprises in store for you. It would be better to know now so that you can prioritize and plan rather than being surprised later.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Bit of background... Last September DH decided to retire an move to FL he bought a doublewide moble home over the internet for 10,000 sight unseen.

That says it all.

 

[DreadpiratK]

We had a similiar experience when we moved into our house. It was all galvinized pipe, and everything leaked. Furtuneately I discoved PEX. I re-plumbed my entire house in less than a day for about $200. PEX is flexible piping so you can route it without fittings, and the push on fittings are so easy to use anyone can do it. The crimp on's are cheaper but you need the tool which can be pricey. No sweating, no torches or solder, and it cuts easily with garden shears.

DO NOT let a plumber talk you into copper. It's very pricy and frankly outdated. Plus it takes 5x as long to put in so labor is expensive. Some plumbers may not like it for those reasons- a $5000 job in copper would only be a few hundred in PEX. Since you're just replacing what's there, you don't even need to understand what does what, just put in new, same as the old. It is up to code in almost all areas too. Since DH is an electrician and good with working with his hands, he should be able to do this himself easily.

 

[englishteacha]

We did PEX plumbing in our house for a similar reason. EVERYTHING was leaking. A local handyman did it for us quite reasonably, and we haven't had a plumbing leak since. I also suggest having a building inspector come look at the property and see if anything else should be put on a to-do list.

 

[Angielynne]

I'm so sorry that you had all this pop up. I think it's the month for this stuff or something.

My balance on my upcoming Disney trip is due October 13th and I was just getting ready to pay it when...(duh duh duh <--- insesrt dooming music) my oven broke. Which wasn't so bad...my friend sold me her used one for $100...but THEN, the front brakes went out on my minivan....Car place wanted $600 to fix them, Thankful that dh has connections at the dealership where he workds...$240.00 got them done. Finally, to pay of the trip...oops...the septic leach field failed and now the whole thing has to be replaced...try about $4000.00 (No way to get out of that one cheaper).

The bright side...we made it to September this year with no debt! LOL!

It seems everyone I've talked to this past week has had something major go wrong.

And just like the previous poster said...at least your in Florida where you want to be...and enjoying the beautiful sunshine

 

[dyna]

No I don't think we went wrong buying the house even with getting the new plumbing I still think we got a decent house at a decent price. Even if we'd seen the house before buying it DH would not have checked the water lines nor would he have had the home inspected.

Sure was not what we'd planned to spend our savings on but emergencies is 1 reason we have savings..

 

[rock_doctor]

We had a similiar experience when we moved into our house. It was all galvinized pipe, and everything leaked. Furtuneately I discoved PEX. I re-plumbed my entire house in less than a day for about $200. PEX is flexible piping so you can route it without fittings, and the push on fittings are so easy to use anyone can do it. The crimp on's are cheaper but you need the tool which can be pricey. No sweating, no torches or solder, and it cuts easily with garden shears.
.

exactly what i was going to say. Leave the old pipes there and just run the plastic next to the copper. I would even consider just zip tieing the PEX to the old copper for support. Run everything though the floor. Since you are in Fla you don't have to worry about it freezing. All the materials can be had at the local home improvement store and they will even show you how to do it. They have PEX classes each month. The crimping tool is $79 at Lowes... If you are even a little handy you can do it. Just do one line at a time, do a home run system. Where you have a central manifold that you connect each line to. So you run a line from the manifold though a valve to the bath sink, another to the tub, another to the toilet and so on. Very simple. Repiping is a very common thing in florida. They use super thin copper when they built the majority of the houses and the local water is slightly acidic. I did our house my self with CPVC for the hot and PVC for the cold but now a days the PEX is the accepted way to go. This is something you can do yourself but if you don't want to the $1500 is actually not that bad and your insurance may actually cover part of the cost.