Window Well, Wishing Well
Fixing up your house before you sell it is vital. You don't absolutely need to upgrade the home but certainly make necessary repairs that would cause people to offer much lower prices or reject your house all together. Below is an article that should be read and heeded by every home seller who wants the best possible price for their house.
I saw it from outside - a window well being pushed dramatically inward toward the house.
The house is over 40 years of age. This movement appears to have been happening for some time and has been repaired many times over the years.
There is cracking even since the most recent attempt at filling the opening gaps. Filling those gaps is NO FIX of course.
Looking from inside the house, at both corners of the well, you have to imagine this as a flat wall. Pressure from outside is pushing it toward the basement window.
Together they give an idea as to just how much movement.
The fix? Probably removing about 2/3s of the wall and rebuilding it. From this angle it is hard to see just how much movement there has been.
When asked by the clients how long before there is a total collapse, of course I could not. I said that they could wish it would stop moving, but that won't help. This is probably pretty regular movement and should be repaired before there is a collapse into the basement window.
My recommendation: sometimes houses are sold when the seller knows fully well of certain deficiencies. Either the seller hasn't the energy to deal with it, or hasn't the money. And, hopefully, someone will buy it with the idea that they can fix it instead. In this case the buyer was frightened off, and not just by this problem!
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC
Based in Bristow, serving all of Northern Virginia
Comments(2)