If they gut the house next to you


600 Q disaster
Originally uploaded by In Shaw.

…and they dig a hole, call a lawyer.
There is a good chance that your house is in danger.
I got an email about a building collapse in Shaw at 632 Q St, NW. The picture is of all the permits the builders had as well as a posted drawing of what they were trying to do. Anyway, the house next to the construction got damaged and the basement and 1st floor rear of the adjoining house is exposed.
There is a better picture over at DCFD.COM of the damage to the adjoing house.
Similar thing on 5th Street where a bad gut job ate the house next to it.
Same thing for Q & 9th St where bad construction ate one or two adjoining structures.

9 thoughts on “If they gut the house next to you”

  1. glad you’re covering this.

    I’d be terrified if somebody started digging out on a lot next to our row house. I understand that because of soil conditions in DC, there’s a danger of collapse even if the contractor is competent and does everything right. I get the feeling that a lot of the crews I see around the neighborhood don’t rise to that level.

  3. I just closed on my little house on that block of 9th street yesterday, so I’ve been reading the listing lately. I’m not sure if that hole represents one or two townhouses, because two lots on that corner are for sale. They’re asking an absolutely ridiculous amount of money which they will never get. Which concerns me, because I prefer not to have big hole in the ground and exposed house on the block.

  4. MM…

    Seriously spitting distance from me and just saw this today…holy cr*P! This is seriously not good…met the owner of the house damaged and he is having a bad fall/winter…he had been trying to rent or sell the place and then a bunch of crap got dumped in his front yard (from a neighbor) and now this…really awful.

    Happy holidays, Merry Christmas and all that jazz…

    /UP

  7. David,
    I tend to link to the blog of people I have eaten with. Exception being Frozen Tropics, but then again she has an exceptional blog.
    Also you seem more Baltimore focused.

  8. I’m late to this party, but I seem to remember the City Paper doing a story on this topic a while back. It gave some focus to a woman on N St. somewhere between 1st & 3rd NW who got a stop-work order on her neighbor’s basement dig-out because of the damage it was causing to her house.

    Okay, below is a link to their story from the Aug. 26th issue of this year. Too bad you have to pay for their archives, but it’s available for $2.95 if anyone thinks they could use it.

    BL

    https://secure.washingtoncitypaper.com/cgi-bin/Archive/abridged2.bat?path=q:DocRoot/2005/050826/district_line&search=renovation&SearchString=renovation&AuthorLastName=&IssueDate=mm%2Fdd%2Fyyyy&SelectYear=All&next.x=0&next.y=0

  9. (so much for that bright idea…)

    (BL again) Here’s the summary of the article, and with the author’s name and title one should be able to search for it in their archives and buy it if interested:

    Rise and Fall
    When new money hits Shaw’s old buildings, things start to collapse.
    By Arthur Delaney

    …this is gonna fall down,” she says, dismissively waving her hand. The problems arise as developers try to squeeze profits out of properties occupied by very old buildings, some of which have façades that historic-preservation authorities say must not be changed. Goring says that sometimes developers will simply do a partial renovation, receive a stop-work order, and then neglect the building until it collapses. The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), she holds, has been allowing developers to get away with such “condemnation by neglect,” as well as shoddy contracting in general. “The city can stop this,” she says. Lennox Douglas, acting…

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