Dr. Toby Potter describes a 1915 house in Anna, Texas that nearly collapsed when its structural walls were removed during renovation. The frame started leaning dangerously with workers on the subfloor. A tractor with 2x8s pushed it back upright just in time, and Potter stresses the need for constant monitoring and clear contractor communication to prevent disaster.
How many times have you been in the middle of a construction job on a rehab and you walked into the property and went, oh my gosh, what in the world is going on here? Hey everybody, I'm Dr. Toby Potter, The Unshakeable Investor, and I want to talk to you about one of my scariest rehab moments that just was unbelievable. So we had taken down a property over in Anna, Texas. And it was complete. It was a house that was built in 1915. So it was complete gut out, take it all the way down to the bones. And we were going to move some walls around, open up the kitchen, make a master bath, open up some bedrooms. And so we were doing a lot and we had to work on the subflooring. And so we had— this is probably our 12th or 13th house we had done in the last 6 months. So the crew was just churning and burning. We were doing really good. Hey everybody, want to jump in here real quick. Don't mean to interrupt you. I know you're learning a lot. If you like what you're seeing, you like what you're hearing, click the link below, download this book, can be delivered to you. And let's get back to the study. And I would drive to the property every morning, see where they start, and then every night I would show up and see where they finished up and just spot checking. And we showed up that morning, everything looked great. They told me they were moving this wall around and they were opening this up. They're going to work on leveling up the floor and and then we start putting in electrical and plumbing. So I thought, well, great, when I come in this afternoon, that's where I'll be. I drove back that afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and the house was leaning like this. The house was leaning like this, and they had 2x4s bracing it up. I'm like, oh my word, what the F is going on? And what they didn't realize, if you take a box and you have nothing in the middle, you can shift it and it gets cattywonker, right? They'd taken all the interior walls out and that house had nothing holding it together. We were seconds away from that house collapsing. Scariest thing I've ever seen in my life. Now, luckily, we were able to get a tractor out there with a bucket and some big 2x8s. And push it back up, strengthen it back up, brace it back up, and start putting some walls up. But ladies and gentlemen, if it had been a windy day, if there had been anything other than 2 more minutes, that house would have collapsed. Make sure your guys are paying attention. Make sure— my guys are good. They just got careless. They got complacent. They got to working too hard and too fast. It could have been a disaster. We avoided it. It was one of the scariest moments I've ever had because the other thing was is that there's guys underneath working on the flooring in the base, in the, in the subflooring. They could have been killed. It could have been bad. I need you to make sure that you always take the time to evaluate and understand and communicate with your contractor on what's going on and that they are aware of When they do this, what happens to that? It's one of those things that you just need to understand. Hey, I'm Dr. Toby Potter, The Unshakeable Investor. If you like what you're hearing, subscribe, click the link below, make a comment, and I'll see you on the next video.
