CC Flip This House Ocean Beach Box

I hope these people aren’t as obnoxious going forward as they currently seem. That dumpster dumping company sounds VERY unprofessional.

for some reason I need to comment in some threads for them to show as read for me. Sorry for the content free post

I am having the same problem as jackief. My apologies as well.

UPDATE on Construction Material Cost Increases

When I went to make my first large order of lumber and steel brackets to build the foundation, I had a rude awakening to some huge increases in prices. I notified the owner immediately for the OB construction build and they started panicking. At first glance, 2x4 lumber had gone up 30%. That’s a big hit on a $250k build (excluding owner purchased appliances and fixtures). So the owner asked me to do a full analysis and tell them how much budget overrun is going to occur. Reasonable question because it is not chump change, but an impossible task to get an accurate answer right now.

I thought I would share what I wrote up after a lot of research. Luckily, the owner of my El Cajon project is an extremely respected and well known trade lawyer and she was able to share some insight with me. It’s quite a combination of tariffs.


Lumber and steel materials represent about 20% of the new construction budget. (of the OB project). The reason that lumber has shot up in price is because the US lumber mills stopped working during the early parts of COVID. Construction did not stop, and in fact has increased in the last months. This left US lumber out of stock and stores are having to bring in lumber from Canada with a 25% tariff. That has increased lumber prices about 30% between supply shortage and tariffs.

However, I have researched costs at Home Depot and noticed that it is the 2x4 8ft long that have skyrocketed. If I am careful and buy the longer pieces everywhere we need, they are less cost per linear foot and seem to have higher supply right now. The other thing that might happen is the construction industry is lobbying hard in Washington to get the Canada tariff suspended temporarily until supplies can catch up to demand. Otherwise, the construction industry may grind to a halt and that is really bad for the economy.

There are a lot of steel hardware/connectors/post bases/brackets in your build. These are difficult to figure out if they went up any percentage overall. So, I chose one hurricane tie bracket and compared costs to March. They have gone up 5%. The bigger issue with all of the steel hardware is that there are going to be big supply chain issues. Shelves are going bare in Home Depot and we could hit some odd piece that is out of stock, is called out on the plan, and could stop construction at a halt. Right now I have all the pieces needed to pour the foundation and set base plates for the new home. I am going to quickly create a large list of everything needed for all the framing above the foundation in order to assure that we have a long lead time for delivery.

The other large expenses are drywall and roof. The highest expense is labor which will not change during this project. Drywall seems to have gone down 10%, have no idea why. And roofing materials appear to be up only about 2%. So we will consider those a wash.

What I cannot predict is rising costs for flooring (supply chain issues from China) or other big ticket items. Flooring costs went way up 2 years ago with new tariffs on China. They could change at any moment as stock in the US gets depleted. Also, the shelves are bare right now of a lot of electrical stuff and not sure when the stock will get replenished.

Bottom line - I think you can expect about $10,000 increase in materials across the board for the overall project at this moment. This is related to the lumber and steel costs, and my anticipation that electrical materials will raise in price.

Same thing happened years ago during a housing boom. The lumber prices skyrocketed. I’ll be interested to see what happens to flooring. We had new flooring started in January before covid really started affecting things. Glad our project is finished!

The majority of engineered hardwood and laminate flooring is made in China. Not sure about solid wood floors, but guessing a lot of it is milled and coated in China. Tariffs for flooring from China went way up several years ago. So it’s going to be more about supply chain and shipping issues.

Demo Day!!

Well, we won the $1 !! They promised they would be out on October 10th. Last week they finally found a place to live and owner told me they would be moving out on Monday Oct 12. I stopped by yesterday to pick up a key to the house and Holy Moly… a lot of stuff still lying around everywhere:) I understand, it’s overwhelming. But she told me they had already ‘downsized’ when they moved back into the small 2 bd/1 ba house a couple of years ago.

At least they were able to compress all the stuff in their garage down to about 1/2 the garage so there is some room for us to store tools and other items that need a secure place.

So, we show up this morning and the front door is wide open ??? We sit there awhile thinking they are still inside, but they moved to their 1 bd rental yesterday. There is still so much stuff inside!!! Stuff that I would personally not keep like really old pots/pans, loose crap everywhere. Turns out they still have loads and loads in their car to take out of there. So we just politely picked up everything in the back bedroom and moved it all into the living room and started going to town.

Meanwhile, I get a call that the Husband’s truck had been towed away from their new apartment. I feel really sorry for them. He had to Uber over to where the truck was and get it out of the tow yard.

So, we still have a house full of stuff. And we still have a small boat in the yard and we still have a trailer that they are going to have to keep in the driveway until later this week. Not ideal

Demolition

For weeks the wife owner kept telling me that she wanted to ‘save’ the ugly brown linen cabinet and bath cabinet to put into the garage for storage. I just nodded. Then she wanted to ‘donate’ her horrid pressboard kitchen cabinets to Habitat for Humanity. A nice thought, but I called them and they are not taking any donations at this time. I cannot figure out who else would want these cabinets, but she was adamant. She wanted us to meticulously tear off the tile and store them for 1 1/2 months until Habitat for Humanity would take them. Where the @#%$#^$#%& am I supposed to put them??? They would have to sit outside. Did I mention she wants to ‘save’ the toilet also because it is only a year old???

We were able to get the bathroom sink cabinet out onto the front lawn in one piece. But, oh lordy!! The tall linen cabinets were obviously built inside the bathroom. They were not brought in as boxes. We pulled them apart into two tall cabinets. They still would not get out the door! Then the guys had to rip out the door casing and frame, and tear off two studs to open the doorway.

Just as we were struggling (well, I was watching ) to pull the cabinet out of the bathroom and/or open up more of the wall, the Husband Owner walks in. First he looks at the bathroom cabinet out on the front lawn and it is full of mold and mildew under the sink. Then he sees the ordeal we are going through to try and pull the cabinets out of the bathroom.

Then I take him into the kitchen and show him the condition of the cabinets, especially the gross sink cabinet. I explain that these cabinets were built in place and cannot be taken out as intact boxes. In order to take them out, we would have to save each and every mounting piece, dismantle all the doors and hinges. I explained there was going to be a lot of labor involved to save the cabinets and that I had no place to put them.

He walks out of the house and calls the wife. Comes back in and says ‘Major Victory’, we have permission to get rid of these things however we can. But, we have to save the toilet:)

I am researching right now if any place takes wood cabinets for recycling to save them from the dump.

Photos loaded into the Ocean Beach Box group, but they seem rather blurry

My dollar is back out of wallet and back on the table but I still have my hand on it ready to repocket it. Doesn’t sound really “out” to me. Close maybe…

You are SOOO much nicer than I am. I would’ve had an “unfortunate accident” getting the cabinets out knowing it’s a total lost cause at the start and not worth the effort. I’ve no idea of the rules where you are but those cabinets would be roadside with a big FREE sign and ready for dumpster if no takers. (And I say that as someone who did adopt a neighbors kitchen cabinets for garage use–it was great–old, not pretty but very serviceable and good condition).

I have been following all the flips/remodels over the the years and very much enjoying and learning from them. But I have to ask - is it really not possible to salvage or repurpose a one-year-old toilet? Or did I miss something about it?

One of the first things I always do is walk the team through the house and point out everything that is being pulled out and up for grabs. Usually some lights, all of the appliances and a couple of things are gladly taken by the guys and given/sold to people that need them down in a Mexico.

Believe it or not I cannot give away electric stoves/ranges. Nobody wants them.

The owner does not want her new toilet because she wants the smooth side easier to clean toilets. You cannot sell a used toilet. You cannot donate a used toilet. At first I was going to put toilet out on street with a Free sign. But turns out one of the guys has a friend that needs a new toilet. So problem solved?

That bathroom tall cabinet is hideous.

Yes, the cabinets are hideous. And the boxes and shelves are pressboard, which just soaks up moisture, swell up, and smells for the rest of its life. But the doors are solid wood which makes owners think, “these are real wood, we cannot throw them away”.

It sounds like these owners don’t throw anything away…period. Thus the mess.

Glad you got them to ditch those cabinets, and found a home for the toilet since the owner didn’t want that.

I think you will be working around their mess the entire time you do the project in some way.

Today we had to rip out the 14 yr old water heater, crappy old dishwasher and old 80s furnace. She insists that someone wants these things and we need to donate them. I am not going to waste my time calling or driving everywhere to donate. For now, they are out in the alley for free. We have a lot of alley pickers. If they are still there after the weekend, then they are going to the City recycle center or metal scrap yard.

My bigger issue is that the City of San Diego has stringent recycling requirements against the permit. Owners or contractors have to post a $1000 bond and then collect receipts, fill out a complex form, and then you might get the money back 3 months after final inspection. We have to recycle everything torn out. They give you a list of places that accept different materials. First, I’ve discovered that half the places are no longer operating or no longer accepting stuff. When I called the City, they don’t care.

Then, even worse, I cannot get the dumpster companies to take the sorted stuff in dumpster to the designated facilities, some of which are large dump sites. They refuse. So, how in the world am I supposed to get rid of tons of drywall if no one will take it to the place?? One pickup load at a time? There is a failure somewhere here.

At least I was able to recycle a 8 ton load of concrete and another load of clean fill dirt. But that cost twice as much as normal. So far I’ve spent $1,700 extra dollars to get those 2 loads sent to a specific place with a very expensive dumpster company. I’m not seeing any advantage to trying to get the $1,000 bond back. But I want to try hard to recycle.

Does the dumpster company do their own recycling? Seems like many dumpster companies are part of a recycling center. Is it up to you to have to send things to a specific place?

I don’t have the answer about dumpster companies because I cannot get a straight answer from Republic - who I am using for the dumpsters. Their staff are a mess and do not have an answer about anything. I tried to ask ‘how much is the dumpster and how much for tons?’ Noone ever got back to me after a week of asking

We are moving along with the demolition. A couple of interesting finds

This house was originally built maybe in the 40s. But, there was a full remodel and build of the rental house in back in the 80s. You can tell that the remodel was done on the cheap.

The good news is that the house is fully insulated. We might possibly be able to save the insulation as long as there is not rat poop and crap on the top of the insulation in the attic. Haven’t had time to go up there and check.

In the 80s, noone appreciated original oak floors. We found original oak floors under the cheap Pergo 80s flooring in the house. But, someone cut it all up and then patched it in with cheap pressboard. There is no saving the oak floors. I cannot recycle either because they have stain and urethane on them. So, it is not ‘clean wood’.

I ordered a dumpster for arrival Wednesday Oct 14 about the first of the month. I received an email confirmation last week and I replied back to confirm. Of course, no dumpster Wednesday and I start calling. They have no idea what I am talking about and it is not on the schedule!!! Turns out the person who emailed me is in the wrong division (Industrial) and I needed to order a dumpster through another division (construction and demolition). What the hey!! Just get the dang dumpster here. I don’t care about your internal Divisions!

Photos loaded

Those floors are a mess.

Wow. I looked up Republic (it’s in my DNA) and reviews were the pits. But it appears that if you put a horrible review on Yelp that they may respond. I’d suggest you do that. Good luck. I feel for ya. Looks like that at some point you got a discount for leaving a good review.