Rental home w/in 1 hr of McLean

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:23:00 GMT

Family of 4 being relocated within next 2 mths, looking for home to rent within one hour of McLean, VA. Willing to sign 6 mth or 1 yr. lease - likely to become a purchase situation during this time frame, but can not guarantee this yet. Have very clean, well trained pets.

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Are cracks, settlement issues common in 40 yr old homes? Advice about structual engineers in NoVa?

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:25:00 GMT

We just made an offer on a 40-yr old home and had the home inspection. The inspector found problems in the garage - cracked slab with almost 2 inch indentation in the middle of the floor (we ran a line to check), bricks on the outside of the garage that are cracked, and a broken truss above the garage. It looks like the sellers just installed an underground drainage pipe to divert gutter drainage away from the front of the garage area. In addition, the basement, shows that one cinder block has pushed out of the mortar (this is immediately below and ajacent to the garage area. While we thought we made a good offer based on the needs for cosmetic updates and windows, we hadn't yet factored structural probs. Should we hire a structural engineer for $500 - $1000 or walk away now? The garage is attached to the home and there are no bedrooms above it. My husband asks "Aren't cracks common in 40 year old homes"? We have 3 days left to get an engineer and then a general contractor to give us a cost estimate for fixing the problems.

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Rental home w/in 1 hr of McLean

Are cracks, settlement issues common in 40 yr old homes? Advice about structual engineers in NoVa?