The Basin's Dirtiest Jobs - Home Remodeling - May 2011

By: Jennifer Rook

    Sometimes the dirtiest jobs aren't the types of jobs one would get paid for. Sometimes they're the jobs folks pay to GET to do. Home remodeling is one such job. Not every person can afford to build a new home from scratch and sometimes a great deal on a "fixer-upper" type home is just too good an offer to pass up, but cleaning up after a former home owner is never a clean or easy job.

A home listed as "a cute and charming fixer-upper" may seem like a bad nightmare to some, but to others, it's a challenge worthy of taking on. The truth is, however, most homes that are in need of remodeling work aren't so "cute and charming" to begin with. In fact, there are some pretty dirty details to get through before some places can even begin to resemble something cute and charming.

    "When we bought this place we knew what we were in for." says our daring homeowner. She and her husband and four children have been working on a home remodel for the past ten months. "We got a great deal on this house, but it was in terrible shape." she admits. "We knew we were in for a lot of DIRTY work. There had been water damage so there was a lot of nasty drywall behind all the lovely 1970's paneling. Every inch of wall in this house was covered with wood paneling. We even had to take out all the insulation and clean and treat the frame before we could put up new drywall."

    Hauling out water logged carpets was another challenge for these hardworking homeowners. "The carpet had to come out in pieces because it was just so heavy. And you would not believe the dirt that was beneath it. So disgusting! I will never have carpet again."

    Water damaged drywall and dirt aren't the dirtiest elements home remodelers will have to deal with, however. Dealing with animal urine and feces leads the "gross out" list. Another home remodeler relates a story. "Thank God there was a concrete floor under the carpet or else I think we would have just torched the place. That carpet was just saturated. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever dealt with. The cats had taken over this house. We had to replace cabinets and drywall as well."

Local plumbers tell horrific tales of nastiness as well. "I got a call from a woman once who said she needed me to fix a leak underneath her remodel house. " one plumber recalls. "When I got there I look under it and sure enough, there's a leak. It's not JUST a leak though. It's a four inch sewer pipe that hasn't ever been hooked up. They'd had raw sewage running under the house for who knows how long?"

Even without dealing with fecal matter of all sorts, mold, dirt and dust, sometimes just dealing with junk former owners leave behind is enough of a mess. "This house was a foreclosure so the people just left tons of junk in the house." admits our daring homeowner. "The man who was contracted to clean the place up threw all that trash out into the yard. Dishes, old computer discs, computer parts, toys, paper items, clothing…just junk…was all just tossed into a pile in the yard and then he buried it with a bobcat. We had a lovely mound of JUNK to remove, but he got pictures of the home all cleaned up and got his money from the bank."

    As nightmarish as it sounds, most of these dirty situations can be cleaned up and with the right amount of detail and care, can be turned into nice homes free of dust, mold and any former nastiness. It's a very, very dirty job, but well worth it.