Author Topic: What would you do?  (Read 800 times)

mamaof4

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What would you do?
« on: May 07, 2021, 12:33:28 PM »
I'm looking for advice. I have $31,000 in a savings account at a local bank. $6500 at a credit union affiliated with my husband's employer. We recently refinanced our home to a 15 year mortgage and owe $231,000 on a home with 15 acres that is currently valued at $400,000. A good chunk of our siding blew off. It's isn't enough damage to meet our $5000 deductible. We discovered when the siding was ripped off that the house doesn't have proper exterior insulation or wrapping. We are looking at replacing all the thin vinyl siding with steel, along with proper insulation and wrapping. The estimate we got puts the work at $37,500. I am looking at advice on financing the work and the best way to do that vs wiping out our savings to pay cash. We have some solid diy skills but our house is very large and very tall and I'm not getting on any kind of scaffolding that high or I'll have some kind of mental breakdown. We have saved this amount of money to have in case of emergency and are just about to start investing so it's super shitty timing but of course it is.

YttriumNitrate

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Re: What would you do?
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2021, 12:44:10 PM »
My house's siding is also in need of replacing, but not in the emergency sense like you have. Construction costs seem to be outrageous right now so my plan is to wait until 2022 in hopes that things will return to normal. Since you have to do something now, I'd suggest you ask for two quotes from the next contractor you interview: one quote for the whole steel, along with proper insulation and wrapping package, and one quote to slap the cheapest crummiest siding on the damaged areas to get you another year or two down the road.

Papa bear

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Re: What would you do?
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2021, 03:40:59 PM »
If it was me? DIY. Otherwise, I’d probably take a heloc on the property and pay for the new exterior work with that.

Make sure you have a good wrb layer on your sheathing, consider r-10 of exterior insulation, then a rain screen, and then your siding.  I would have no issues going back with vinyl, though. If property installed, it should have no problems lasting.  We’ve got maybe 10 houses vinyl sided and very rarely have issues.  You can also avoid a rain screen with vinyl, the siding “hangs” and allows for plenty of air flow.


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Morning Glory

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Re: What would you do?
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2021, 05:17:39 PM »
See if you have a "replacement" clause in your insurance. Then you would only have to pay the $5K and the company would pay the rest of the $37K. We had to go back and forth but eventually got our barn roof covered this way. 

The other thing you can do is see if there was a defect in the siding that was damaged. That happened with our furnace: there was a class action lawsuit so we got the parts and most of the labor for the repair covered by the company.  The repairman knew about this and took care of it all and only charged us the difference in labor.