Jim Baird Posted January 20, 2018 Report Share Posted January 20, 2018 Posting here because it does not fit elsewhere. Someone I know posted this pic of their new custom home floor just installed. The install revealed a big error supposedly not noticed. A carpenter I know stopped by and confirmed my suspicion that the building is way out of square. Eleven inches diff from one end of a 24 ft wide building to the other. I have not seen it myself and have trouble believing there are not other signs of a big error. Comments? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kogel Posted January 20, 2018 Report Share Posted January 20, 2018 Shoulda laid carpet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted January 20, 2018 Report Share Posted January 20, 2018 (edited) I've seen it only once that bad in 15 yrs. Flooring contractor coulda aligned the planks parallel to a wall, and cut the ends of the planks to fit. Less noticeable that way. I guess he didn't anticipate the issue. Can't blame him. Edited January 20, 2018 by Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Katen Posted January 20, 2018 Report Share Posted January 20, 2018 Someone's walking along the jobsite, trips over a funny little string and puts it back where he "thought" it's supposed to go. . . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kogel Posted January 20, 2018 Report Share Posted January 20, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Marc said: I guess he didn't anticipate the issue. It is pretty standard practice to measure first to prevent having an ugly sliver for the last plank. I'd make them rip it out. They could lay them on a diagonal, maybe? Custom floor, too. If the house is really out of whack by that much, the roof must sit funny as well. Maybe just the interior wall got shifted? Edited January 20, 2018 by John Kogel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Katen Posted January 20, 2018 Report Share Posted January 20, 2018 31 minutes ago, John Kogel said: It is pretty standard practice to measure first to prevent having an ugly sliver for the last plank. I'd make them rip it out. They could lay them on a diagonal, maybe? Custom floor, too. If the house is really out of whack by that much, the roof must sit funny as well. Maybe just the interior wall got shifted? The morons who framed my office got the foundation off by 6". Installing the roof framing was a real bitch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Baird Posted January 20, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2018 I will likely hear more about this house, already over a year in construction for an owner who is a bona fide eccentric. I have done inspections for the owner before, and actually cringe at the thought I might be asked to have a look myself. Maybe it was just an inner partition. Floor installers should measure the space to plan their job, this guy must have not planned well. There is a GC involved and he seems vulnerable to culpability too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted January 20, 2018 Report Share Posted January 20, 2018 (edited) Getting the roof framed correctly begins when you first layout the sill plates on the slab. Get it off to any significant degree in any of the three dimensions and you'll find yourself custom measuring and cutting every rafter and still ending up with a mess (roof decking, cornice, etc). Edited January 20, 2018 by Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dirks Jr Posted January 31, 2018 Report Share Posted January 31, 2018 I remember Chad describing a foundation inspection he did where he actually observed the worker measure the foundations walls for square. Only problem is, the worker measured from the outside corner on one direction and from the inside corner from the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Fabry Posted January 31, 2018 Report Share Posted January 31, 2018 1 hour ago, John Dirks Jr said: I remember Chad describing a foundation inspection he did where he actually observed the worker measure the foundations walls for square. Only problem is, the worker measured from the outside corner on one direction and from the inside corner from the other. 18" out of square. The footing was already placed when I arrived. I noticed the out-of-square condition and said to the contractor, "so, you decided on a parallelogram for the footprint?" When the worker *proved* it square, he measured from inside the footing on one measurement and from outside on the other. I assume he did the same while building the footing forms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Meiland Posted February 3, 2018 Report Share Posted February 3, 2018 I saw a couple of guys frame a partition wall down the middle of a house. One guy had his end of the plate on one side of the chalk line, the other guy was on the other side. They had it nailed down and were nailing studs when I walked by. Maybe that's what happened here. It's really hard to frame something that badly out of square. You're making all these square cuts and none of them fit and you're going WTF? It takes something special to persist once you notice a few bad cuts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RK52 Posted February 7, 2018 Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 On 1/20/2018 at 12:38 PM, John Kogel said: It is pretty standard practice to measure first to prevent having an ugly sliver for the last plank. I'd make them rip it out. They could lay them on a diagonal, maybe? Custom floor, too. If the house is really out of whack by that much, the roof must sit funny as well. Maybe just the interior wall got shifted? That was my first thought. The roofer had to have conniptions if he was installing premade trusses. I wonder if he has a lil extra free overhang somewhere. I'm pretty sure it's a feature..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RK52 Posted February 7, 2018 Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 Well, it looks to me to be a perimeter wall, being as there is a sliding door and an exterior deck there. Deck is parallel to the exterior, so I'm wondering if that discrepancy is noticeable from the outside? Guessing the deck is square, but appearing canted. Grew up with my dad, going through plans and buildings. Had a ridge beam on a vaulted ceiling installed with the top edge where the bottom should have been. Even WITH the blueprints, the GC told him he was wrong. Had to actually get him to climb a ladder, sight along the beam to the existing roof (room addition...), and explain that "minor" slope issue.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BADAIR Posted February 8, 2018 Report Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) i use a Leica Disto to check construction dimension to plans although not intentionally designed for form placement a laser doesn't bend or skew at odd angles occasionally i've found some pretty extreme out of square forms or just plain botched dimensional form installations either at plumbing w/rough forms in place or pre-pour phase inspections the worst was a client received a 3'x56' "gift" extension on the house slab at the master bdr & great room that i reported but they never let the builder know wink wink nod nod & another the forms were over 12" out of square along a 69ft section of the forthcoming slab the flooring looked similar to the Jim's in the end Edited February 8, 2018 by BADAIR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillJ Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 Are you certain it is not an interior wall out of square instead? It appears the flooring was laid starting with an interior wall for alignment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Baird Posted February 26, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2018 Talked to carpenter who went by. It is an exterior wall layout mistake. He says it shows, of course, in several more places. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.