Cellar depth

Hi everyone,
During our home buying search, we came across a renovated home with a finished cellar that had a height of 9 feet. Out home inspector called that out as unusual and found no permits for the underpinning work on the DOB portal. The seller stated they have no knowledge of same as they bought it recently to flip.

What should be our next step ? Will a structural inspection reveal anything?

Thanks
Sam

shuser

in Home Buying 9 months ago

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Brownstone Home Inspection | 9 months ago

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Bob & Neil:

now that the op has posted a review of me under a separate heading, I can say that I am the person who did this inspection. I knew the house was a flip (and i hate flippers) so with the help of the buyer, i turned place over.

i found very compelling evidence that the basement had been dug out which i cannot state here as it would betray my client.

if you know anyone buying a “flip”, send them my way and i will take care of them.

steve

shuser | 9 months ago

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Thanks for the replies and insight.

BobMarvin | 9 months ago

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Original cellar ceiling hights like this aren’t unknown. My 1899 house has a celler ceiling higher than 9 feet, as do others in the row.

neilw | 9 months ago

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A ceiling height like that is unusual, your inspector is right, but not all dig-outs require underpinning. It may have been an off the books dig-out, or perhaps done a long time ago, and it may or may not have been done correctly. The original cellar walls and footings may have been built deeper and the floor filled in at some point. To my understanding the only certain way to determine if it was done correctly would be to more closely inspect and even open up walls and floors to see where the footings are. You might also want to confirm any additional support work was done correctly – if it was dug out, any columns and structural walls would have been replaced. Full disclosure: I’m just a homeowner that researched this a lot.

Brownstone Home Inspection | 9 months ago

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that inspector must be really good if they went and looked at the DOB portals for permits.